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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1815 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

This was a very interesting inquiry and it ignited a number of passions on both sides of the fence, but I feel that as a committee we came back with a fair and balanced outcome. Mr Speaker, the ACT Emergency Service has been in existence in one form or another since 1949. Throughout this time it has always performed a support role in either emergency or disaster situations. As noted in this report, with the exception of a few paid administration staff, the ACT Emergency Service personnel are all volunteers. They are highly trained and prepared for a wide range of emergency situations. To their credit, these volunteers give up large amounts of their personal time to attend weekly training sessions and they are on call 24 hours a day.

Prior to the Government's restructuring of this service, the ACT Emergency Service was divided into three groups - the central headquarters in Curtin and two depots, one located in Phillip and the other in Belconnen. This restructuring has been in the form of amalgamating the ACT Emergency Service with the ACT Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade Association - also volunteers - with the result that there are now seven joint depots in the ACT and joint middle management and command arrangements in place. This restructuring has brought out a lot of strong opinions, and a number of concerns were raised by the volunteers themselves which the committee has investigated. These concerns covered issues such as the lack of adequate consultation by the Government throughout this process of restructuring, the possibility for slower response times by this joint service, and the overall efficiency of the service. Mr Speaker, as a result of this inquiry the committee has six recommendations. The first recommendation reflects the poor quality of the Government's consultation. Quite frankly, Mr Speaker, it was a disgrace. There are two verbal submissions in the report that I would like to quote from. The first is from Ms Kelly, a member of the Bush Fire Brigade Association. I quote:

In relation to consultation, I think there needs to be better structures put in place ... Consultation is not just presenting something and saying, "This is what we want to do". I think it means involving at a very early stage people who are doing the work on the ground so that they can help make the decisions and decide the directions. Their experience, knowledge and skills can be a part of that decision-making process. I do not think that has happened in this case.

What an understatement! The second submission which I will quote from, that from the president of the Bush Fire Brigade Association, is even more pointed. It says:

So far as the decision to integrate the volunteer bushfire brigades and the ACTES goes, we are not terribly happy with the way that the decision was made ... we highlight a point ... that we are volunteers, not paid personnel. We are people who give freely of our time, after hours, during hours, and on weekends; and volunteers should be treated quite differently from paid personnel. The way the decision was made perhaps did not take account of the fact that we give freely of our time, and we do not particularly appreciate being pushed around and being presented with fait accomplis. We figure that we are doing things for the community and it would be nice if the bureaucracy in the ACT recognised that and dealt with us accordingly.

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