Page 384 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 2 March 1994
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Legislative Assembly, place on record its appreciation, and I believe that that appreciation is bipartisan, for the efforts of our volunteers, our full-time employees, and the companies and agencies that employ those people in the ACT, not least of which is the ACT Administration, and for their valued participation and cooperation in providing support for what I think is regarded as the model for emergency service organisations throughout Australia.
It is pleasing to hear the comments that are being made by organisations such as the New South Wales emergency services, amongst others, that the effectiveness of our team was critical in saving a great deal of property and life in that emergency in New South Wales. I believe that it is appropriate that the comments made today be relayed by the Speaker to both the organisations and individuals involved, so that there is recognition by the participants in our emergency services that their parliament does understand, does acknowledge and does appreciate, on behalf of all the people of the Territory, their contribution to the preservation of property and life, not only here but interstate. That appreciation and acknowledgment from this Assembly may very well be in the way of formal letters to each of the participants or in some other appropriate form determined by the Speaker. I thank members for their indulgence this morning.
MR HUMPHRIES (11.52): I think Mr Lamont has put his finger on the great qualities that we as a community should be proud of in the effort that our emergency services workers from those five arms of emergency services response in the ACT delivered when they were called upon to respond to emergencies, not just in the ACT but during that critical period in New South Wales in January. We were served proud by those people, and the Opposition is very happy to support wholeheartedly the motion Mr Lamont has moved today.
When incidents of this kind occur, they bring out a special quality not just in officers whose duty it is to respond directly to these events but in the whole community. The community finds a certain spirit of cooperation and working together which regrettably is not always present in the case of other major challenges we face as a community from time to time. We can in those circumstances be very grateful that we can rely upon the leadership of those emergency services personnel whose duty it is to be in the front line in dealing with dire situations. Certainly, where a householder might be facing the prospect of a major fire coming towards their home, it is comforting indeed to know that there are people available in the ACT, and for other places in Australia from the ACT, to help in emergency circumstances to avert the tragedy of loss of property and sometimes even loss of life.
We have seen a quite extraordinary effort by our emergency services, particularly in the circumstances where the new arrangements for coordination of their efforts had only recently been put in place at the time of this major emergency in Canberra and, following that, in New South Wales. The new emergency services centre in the old North Curtin school had been in place in its full operational sense for only a few weeks at the time this emergency occurred, and it resulted in a great deal of testing of the new arrangements having to occur in a real life situation rather than in a mock exercise. From all accounts I have heard, and I visited the centre at the invitation of the Minister during the emergency, those responsible came through with flying colours.
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