Page 1461 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Madam Speaker, if I have misread the Commonwealth Grants Commission figures, then I certainly stand corrected. If I have made a mistake on those figures, then I would certainly be happy to withdraw them when I read the fine print. I must say that the question does remain, and it was not answered, despite my invitation, by the Minister: Is the Fire Brigade the best nucleus for a new emergency services empire?
Mr Berry: It is not.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry says that it is not. I think, with respect, that that is not the direction we have been taking up until now. Clearly the result of the Hannan and Purdon inquiries is that we are going towards a more centralised service. We are moving to a situation where, if this next round of changes takes place, we will have a clear nucleus for a new ACT emergency service.
I am not questioning the principle that we should be looking at that kind of centralisation or consolidation of services. As other speakers have said, there is a strong case for rationalising the number of services we have in the ACT. I, and my party, accept that. The question is: Is the way we are going about it the best way of achieving that? I, for one, am not convinced of that. With respect, we have to ask questions about work practices, about skills basis, about industrial relations between different services and between services and the Government, before we can decide comprehensively what the best solution to that problem is.
Madam Speaker, the Minister, Mr Connolly, did engage in some selective quotation. It is true that the Liberal Party supports streamlining of services and it is true that we called upon him some time ago to act decisively on the continuing feud between police and rescue services in the ACT. We said, "Make a decision". We were at fault; we did not say, "Minister, make a sensible decision". We thought that was implicit. Obviously, we were wrong, and we apologise for that.
Mr Kaine: Give him new instructions, and in writing.
MR HUMPHRIES: We will put the new instructions in writing so that you know this time. Not any old decision is going to sort this matter out; it has to be a well-tempered, sensible decision. If the Minister had said, "We are going to give on road rescue altogether; it becomes a private matter; people can get rescued by anyone that they want; we are not going to bother about providing a public service", that would have been a stupid decision. That would have been a stupid decision and we would not have supported it. We do not believe that this decision has the hallmarks of integrity about it. We think it should be reviewed. I do not think that reviews necessarily solve problems, but I do think that on this occasion a review will provide some light to a matter which is extremely murky, one which really does need to be resolved in the interests of all people in the Territory who have cause, from time to time, to need these services.
Madam Speaker, the Alliance did commission inquiries into emergency services - not, I might point out, police rescue services. They were other services. The Minister did not mention that, but that is the case. There were other services than this. We did commission those inquiries, but I must say that it is a bit weak to say that because we commissioned the inquiry we are bound by every word that appears in it. Surely, when you commission an inquiry, when you commission reports, you do not commit yourself at the outset to accept every word that comes forward in that.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .