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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 4780 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

emergency functions - in this case, bushfire functions - in the Territory. They have the capability, I think, if they have co-located with them the emergency service as well, of delivering a diversified range of services to the people of those communities that are served.

The new arrangement gives the capacity to take a great many more volunteers into the service. I have certainly been spoken to in recent days by a number of people who are concerned about what I would describe as the lack of dynamism in the structure of our service at the moment and the need to ensure that there is a capacity to pick up and use additional volunteers who wish to become part of the process. I am advised that at the moment there are approximately 115 active volunteers in the emergency service. The point of the new arrangement that we announced a few months ago is that it will provide for something like 200 active emergency service volunteers.

It might appear to some that 115 active volunteers is quite enough. But we have to bear in mind that there are all sorts of structural and, if you like, cultural barriers to people taking part in the existing structure. In the severe storms we had last month, for example, on 13 and 14 November, we could have used a very large number of emergency service trained volunteers. There were only 68 involved in the two existing operational units, the northside and southside units. There has been, at least in the past, a backlog of people wishing to become involved in those units who have not been capable of being accommodated. I think that, by co-locating emergency service units with the bush fire brigades, we have the opportunity of picking up a great many more people and integrating their skills, through working with other services, with others who have similar but slightly different roles to play in the whole management of bushfire issues.

I am told, for example, that at a recent meeting of the Guises Creek Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade, which occurred since the joint structure announcement, those present agreed unanimously that they would all be cross-trained to be able to assist with emergency service tasks. Not only does this provide a number of people who are capable of being co-located or who will be co-located with those other brigades; there is also the capacity to pick up a whole number of people who, through exposure to other services, get the opportunity of being able to develop their skills. This provides a broader skills base in those areas to strengthen the way in which those bodies work.

Mr Speaker, let me also address the point that Mr Osborne made that we all need to step back, take a breath and think about these issues. The process whereby we have been looking at ways of accommodating what we saw as problems - cultural problems, if you like - with the emergency service began in the middle of last year. For the Assembly's benefit, I want to read an itinerary of the meetings that have been held to discuss ways in which the emergency service might operate better and improve operations within the emergency services generally in the Territory. Meetings of what has been termed the Emergency Service Advisory Group are normally attended by controllers, deputy controllers and a team leader representative from each unit, plus the chief officer of the Bushfire and Emergency Service and the manager of the emergency service. Their monthly meetings are to discuss issues of concern or progress operational or coordination matters for the emergency service. For some time those meetings have been addressing the very issues that Mr Osborne is now concerned about. Meetings have been held over a period of time.

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