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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 4778 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

I was first approached by Mr Humphries's office in, I believe, early October about this issue and was asked whether I required a briefing. At that stage I said, "No", because at that time I did not feel that there would be much controversy over this issue. Between that time and now, I was approached by members of the ACT Emergency Services Bureau and had a number of concerns raised with me and with my office about this proposed restructuring. I had a meeting about two weeks ago with members of the Emergency Services Bureau, South Region, who had heard that I was proposing to knock back all the changes that the Government had announced.

I have no intention of doing that at this stage; but what I have proposed is that, rather than that any changes be made to the emergency services organisation in the ACT, we all step back a little, take a breath and allow the Legal Affairs Committee, which is made up of different members of this Assembly - me, representing the crossbenches; Mr Kaine, representing the Government; and Ms Follett, representing the Opposition - to inquire into the matter. I think it is very sensible that we, as the committee which looks at legal affairs, which I would imagine includes emergency services, should have a thorough inquiry into the proposed changes. It is all very well for the Government to come and lay their story and their side of the argument on the table - that is fair enough - but the thing that has really stuck out to me is that it appears that the people on the ground, the people that this will affect, members of the emergency services, have not had, in my opinion, a fair and adequate say in these proposed major changes.

Mr Speaker, we may well report back to the Assembly in the new year that what the Government has proposed is good; but, as chair of that committee, I do believe we should have the opportunity to have some input from all interested parties; we should have a public hearing to allow the people who will be affected, people who do such a tremendous job in disaster and emergency situations, an opportunity to have their say. I have no desire to necessarily black-ban everything that the Government is proposing. However, I do think it prudent that, especially with a minority government, all interested parties should have a say. I have a nine-page paper countering all the alleged pluses that these proposed restructurings will have. I think that alone certainly warrants the Legal Affairs Committee at least inquiring into this proposed restructuring. As I said before, I think it is vital that the people on the ground, the people that this will affect, be given the opportunity to address members of the Assembly, have a say, allay any fears or provide us with any information which will be helpful.

Mr Speaker, I am not going into this inquiry with any set agenda, other than to be very open-minded and, as I said, to give the people who are involved an opportunity to have their say. I hope that the Government will see the sense in this. Certainly, there will be a delay. However, given that we are entering the summer season, which I believe to be the peak season for bushfires - I may be wrong - I would have thought that making major changes to any organisation during the peak time, when you have no idea how it will work, was quite silly. If you are going to make changes to emergency services - although you can never quite tell when the quiet times are - I would have thought that perhaps over the winter would have been a more sensible time. That would then give a number of months for the new changes to set in. The emergency services people are very comfortable with the way things are at the moment. I think that making major restructural changes at this time of the year is not, as I said, sensible.

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