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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 3574 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the fact is that bushfire education is not something we can just dump onto our already busy schools and teachers; it is an issue for the whole community. Mr Pratt is acting without taking the time to look at what is already happening and whether what he is suggesting is feasible or even a good option. The ACT Fire Brigade has been delivering a fire education program in schools for a number of years. The program was adapted from a Melbourne initiative which was developed in conjunction with child education experts. Let me draw that to members' attention: the Fire Brigade already conducts a fire education and safety program in our schools.

In the ACT, the program is a fire safety program delivered to kindergarten and some year 1 children across all primary schools. The program is primarily aimed at fires in the home, but does not delineate between structural fires and bushfires, because at that level of education the emphasis is on the only good fire being a fire under the supervision of a responsible adult. For this age group, emphasis is also given to "stop, drop and roll"and correct use of the 000 emergency phone system. The program is, naturally enough, delivered in conjunction with teachers as part of the early childhood curriculum.

Mr Speaker, this program makes effective use of the availability of career firefighters, with the program being delivered when they are not needed for an emergency response. If, however, firefighters are called away, arrangements are made with the school to revisit and complete the program. So, Mr Pratt, we already have career firefighters in our schools giving a fire education and safety program to our children. If you had checked on that, perhaps you would not have seen the need for this motion. From time to time, ACT bushfire service volunteer brigades participate in community events and, on occasions, visit primary schools to raise awareness of their role in the community, but it is important to stress that the bushfire service volunteer brigade members are volunteers and their time is necessarily limited.

Another program which is important to mention is the juvenile fire awareness intervention program, which is aimed at children between the ages of three and 16 who have engaged in dangerous fire-lighting behaviour. It is an intervention program which has been an initiative of a number of state and territory fire services and has been implemented by the ACT Fire Brigade. Again, if Mr Pratt had checked, he might have discovered that the territory already provides this service for children and young people in the three to 16-year-old group. The focus of the program is to encourage the children involved to gain a greater respect for fire by education and raised awareness and to understand the consequences of the misuse of fire. The ultimate aim of the intervention is for the child to cease lighting fires maliciously or mischievously.

Mr Speaker, I would like to reinforce the message that bushfires are indeed everybody's business and are not something that should be just dumped onto our schools to fix. As members can see, there is already a range of programs operating in our schools to educate children about the dangers of fires. Our schools already have a very full curriculum. This issue is one that the community as a whole needs to be constantly informed about. The issue of children being taught about the dangers of fire is as much a home responsibility as it is a responsibility in the classroom.

Yes, our schools do their bit. Indeed, along with the ACT Fire Brigade and the department of education, we communicate very effectively issues about the dangers of fires, but parents also must reinforce the message at all times and as a community we

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