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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3828 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

lessees did not need to prepare fuel management plans as rural leases were already subject to the Bushfire Act. This may be true, but I think it is important that the property management agreements that are being introduced across rural leases incorporate bushfire fuel management plans as part of an integrated approach to the ecologically sustainable management of rural land. In conclusion, we look forward with interest to reviewing the bushfire fuel management plans as they are developed.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.12), in reply: Mr Speaker, in closing this debate, let me thank members for their support for these two Bills. They are quite significant Bills because they put in place a train of reform in the area of bushfire management in the Territory which I think is extremely important. Last summer we had a relatively light bushfire season, and that was a great blessing for the Territory. Who knows what this summer will bring? What is clear, though, in the report by Howard McBeth in 1994 is that - in fact, I think his words were - a major conflagration in the Territory is not merely a possibility; it is a probability. For that reason, action of this kind, I think, is extremely timely - indeed, even urgent - and it is appropriate that we put in place mechanisms to protect the Territory, our bush capital, with so much of our Territory interfacing with the bush, against the eventuality that we will find ourselves the victim of major fires in and around the Territory.

It is worth pointing out that this has been an area of considerable controversy over a number years. Changes to management of the bushfire brigades, bushfire fighting capacity generally, and bushfire fuel management, have been the subject of considerable anxiety in some sectors of the community and some strong dissension of view. I am glad that, in a sense, today's debate indicates we are moving to a resolution of those issues, to put ourselves in the best possible position to prepare the community for the task of both preventing these bushfires from occurring and responding when they do occur.

Ms Horodny made a small point I want to respond to about the need to make sure rural lessees are part of this process. I share her concern that rural leases, making up such a large proportion of the Territory, should not be exempted from the process of bearing responsibility for managing that task in a preventive fashion. I do not think they are exempted, because of the nature of the property management agreements that we have the capacity to impose and because of the other provisions of the Bushfire Act. Members will recall debating some elements of that only a couple of years ago. But I think, Mr Speaker, it is important that we work through the mechanisms one by one. If it appears that we cannot manage rural leases or there are a significant number of rural lessees who are not prepared to do their duty under the framework in place when this legislation passes, I certainly will be supportive of moves to strengthen those provisions and make sure everybody is effectively pulling their weight. But, for the time being, I think the mechanisms proposed here deal with the situation appropriately. The vast majority of landowners in the Territory, of course, are the Commonwealth and Territory governments and, therefore, we should be putting in place the right mechanisms for ourselves and for our own land as the first step.

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