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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3818 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

it is absolutely important that we continue to bring those services together through this process.

When we established the joint emergency services centre at Gungahlin, there was considerable resistance from the ambulance and the fire service and, to some extent, from the Federal Police to coming together and working from the one operational base. I have to say quite bluntly that I consider that objections being raised at the time were nothing more or less than protecting turf. They were not about enhancing services to the people of the ACT; they were about protecting positions and entitlements which some members of the services saw as accruing to them and which they did not believe they ought to give away merely for the sake of making operational responses more effective and more efficient. We resisted that sentiment, and the result is a very good joint emergency services centre in Gungahlin, a model for other joint emergency service centres elsewhere in the ACT. One is about to be constructed at Woden.

In a similar vein, it was only a few years ago that we had quite serious flare-ups between members of the Fire Brigade and members of the Australian Federal Police when they were attending road accidents in the ACT. Mr Rugendyke probably recalls some of those incidents. Whatever you might think about who was right and wrong in that kind of conflict, it was absolutely and utterly inappropriate that ACT citizens should have any question mark put over the quality of their services because members of agencies disagreed with the entitlements and rights of some other agencies to come in and deal with an emergency in a particular way.

We have to continue the process of bringing those agencies into a position where they understand what the work of the others is and work to make the services seamless and effective in all respects. I see the Emergency Management Bill before the Assembly today as very much part of that process. I have referred before to the need to have this legislation in place to deal with any potential problems that may arise from the year 2000 problem. I do not believe that is going to be a serious issue for this community, but it is better to be safe rather than sorry.

I understand, although I cannot fully agree with it, the view of the Justice and Community Safety Committee that we should make the Territory Controller, at least in a default sense, the Chief Police Officer. I put on record the Government's concern about that. The Chief Police Officer is at the moment and, as far as I can tell, for the foreseeable future an officer of the Commonwealth. I think it would be more appropriate to have an officer of the ACT in charge of our emergency response, but I accept that that is not the view of the committee. The Government accedes to the view of the committee, and the amendments I will put before the Assembly today provide for the Territory Controller to be, in a default sense at least, the Chief Police Officer.

I thank members for their support. I will not comment on the amendments until we reach them. I hope this legislation is as effective as we expect it will be in providing for a seamless service to the people of the ACT.

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