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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (30 January) . . Page.. 19 ..

MR PRATT (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the need for formal education programs in schools is essential. Again, I urge the government to implement them. A significant number of the children I have spoken to say they would have benefited from such education and therefore been better informed about what might be coming and what actions they and their families could have undertaken.

In terms of the rehabilitation and recovery phases, I call upon the government to impose a moratorium on student censuses this year and next year. (Extension of time granted.) A number of other issues need to be looked at, including fuel reduction and fire management planning in forests and bushland. Why has the eight-year-old Howard McBeth report on fuel management been ignored? Expert bush opinion has been ignored in favour of bureaucratic and environmental lobby group positions.

On the fire front itself, fire intelligence and regular and accurate situation reporting are required so that information can be provided more timely to both the emergency services agencies fighting on the ground and the local radio stations, which have done an excellent job, but having that extra piece of ongoing situation reporting that allows our residents to know the location, progress and direction of coming fires would be a good thing. What about the strategic assessments and warnings in the days prior to 18 January? Are there issues there? There may be and they bear looking at.

In conclusion, it is necessary that the government carry out its primary duty of inquiring broadly into the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fires of 18 January 2003. I urge the government to implement as soon as possible a broad independent inquiry with a view to seizing on the lessons to be learnt out of this terrible disaster and to ensure that preliminary reporting will happen so that the most important lessons can be applied as soon as possible.

MR WOOD (Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services, Minister for the Arts and Heritage and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.26): Mr Speaker, on this day of extreme fire danger, I put on the public record on behalf of the ACT community our thanks, our respect and our support to all those involved in the emergency services response to the bushfires these past days. I acknowledge all those who worked under the combined management of the ACT Emergency Services Bureau, ACT Bushfire and Emergency Services, ACT Fire Brigade, ACT Ambulance Service and ACT Policing.

Mr Speaker, it falls to the emergency services jointly to plan for such a crisis. It was obvious from a briefing to cabinet on Thursday, 16 January and briefings I attended all that week that the emergency services had already mobilised a containment strategy for the four large fires burning in nearby rugged country to our west and were preparing for major threats during that week. As the crisis deepened, it fell upon the emergency services to work together to manage the crisis and coordinate the response.

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