Page 388 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 2 March 1994
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The ACT community was in a position to be able to send 200 personnel because of the proficiency and the excellence of the services we enjoy here. But for that level of competence and efficiency, we may not have been able to make that decision, particularly as we were facing fairly hairy times ourselves in very unpredictable weather. We have only to think of Curtin and a few other instances around the ACT to verify that.
I do not think there would be any hesitation on the part of any Canberran in being pleased to see this motion on our program here today and to see the bipartisanship with which the motion has been handled. In endorsing Mr Lamont's motion and his words and those of other speakers, I have pleasure in commending all of the people who went and all of those who did not go. I commend this motion very sincerely to the house. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes tragedy and horror for us, as Australians, to look at ourselves honestly. It is something we need to do often and very rarely do. In the sort of example we saw in the New South Wales emergency, it does us good as a community and a country to think about what we are capable of doing.
In a very strange comparison, at about the same time another First World country suffered a fairly dramatic incident. I saw on the TV news the sort of response people had to put up with following the fires in America, and I felt very sad. When I think of the camaraderie, the support, the understanding that Australians showed for Australians, and the apparent lack of those things in the American experience, I know where I am pleased to be. I know that the rest of the community would join with us, if they had the opportunity to do so, in passing on our thanks and our congratulations to these people and endorsing completely the role they took in this affair.
MR MOORE (12.11): I rise to congratulate Mr Lamont on presenting this motion to the Assembly. It is an appropriate time for us to make clear to those members of the ACT emergency service organisations that we as a community appreciate the efforts they have made. I think the non-partisan comments that have been made today reflect the positive attitude that all of us have to the work done by those people and the risks taken by them. It is invariably in adversity that we see the very best in our community. That is what we admire. When things are going well we are conscious in the back of our minds that they are there, but it takes a situation like this to remind us of how much we rely on these people, who so often give their time to ensure that other people are looked after in adversity.
MR DE DOMENICO (12.12): I endorse everything that has been said by all the speakers. Mr Moore hit it on the head when he used the word "adversity", as did Ms Ellis when she referred to camaraderie. I can speak with some personal experience on this because our youngest son is a volunteer. Unfortunately, he was unable to go to Sydney because he had a busted toe at the time - although his mum and I were delighted, in a sense, that he did not go, I can tell you. I would like to thank the whole organisation, firstly, for showing me that young Justin has more courage than his dad will ever have and, secondly, for helping his mum and me make him into a man, which he is now, through the camaraderie and some of the things he has experienced by being a volunteer.
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