Page 1458 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 1993
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MADAM SPEAKER: Order! Mr De Domenico has the floor.
MR DE DOMENICO: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The police rescue service has been providing rescue services since 1964. They have a national and international reputation and are an accredited rescue service in New South Wales. The Fire Brigade is not. Indeed, the Fire Brigade has applied for accreditation on a number of occasions, but it has failed each time. In fact, it is an offence for it to attend rescue services across the border. All fire trucks are not equipped to perform road accident rescue. All pumpers have minimal hurst hydraulic equipment, which is insufficient and incapable of carrying out the full function of an RAR. This equipment was purchased as a tool to assist with access to fire scenes and is a poor tool for the purposes of road accident rescue. Madam Speaker, for all those reasons here is Mr Connolly, yes, making decisions, but making the wrong decisions. This motion should be supported because it is forward thinking. (Extension of time granted)
What this motion is all about, Madam Speaker, is this: Once and for all, let us get it right. All the previous inquiries have gone off hotchpotch, each looking into one little cell. Let us get it all together to make sure that the ACT, at a time when we are now negotiating to have our own ACT public service, gets it right the first time. Now is the time to do it. It is forward thinking and I am proud to support the motion.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (4.39): Madam Speaker, the Liberals opposite, in large numbers, have called on the Minister, Mr Connolly, to act decisively. He is to be applauded for acting decisively and the decision will stand because the Labor Party is as one on this issue and the Independents are with us on that score. From an industrial relations point of view, this is plainly a demarcation dispute which has been going on for some time. There comes a time when action has to be taken and, to his credit, Mr Connolly has taken that action. They are not always particularly comfortable disputes to resolve. There have been many criticisms of demarcation disputes throughout industrial relations history. This one, on its form, has been no easier to settle, but I think that the formula that Mr Connolly has seized upon is the right one. Let us not forget that what you are asking for is another inquiry on top of a host of other inquiries and - - -
Mr Humphries: Not on this subject, though.
MR BERRY: On what subject?
Mr Humphries: For example, police rescue.
MR BERRY: To my recollection of things, it has been talked about before. It is not the first time it has been talked about. In any event, Madam Speaker, I think the most efficient arrangement has been arrived at. The ACT Ambulance Service once performed the rescue role in the ACT, and it decided to get out of it. Since then they have been pretty much the meat in the sandwich in the demarcation dispute between the other two services. It makes it more difficult for them to operate - they are professional officers as well - if the people that they normally work with are in dispute with each other.
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