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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (30 January) . . Page.. 21 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

I would also like to take time to mention the vital services provided by the catering team and commend them for the work they did. There were many volunteers as well who walked in off the street to offer their assistance to that catering team. It is relevant to make mention of the constant stream of people who provided food and snacks. Some of those were from local businesses, but a large proportion were from people who just turned up. This generosity is commended.

I want to recognise the efforts of our primary emergency organisations, interstate counterparts, and some key support agencies which were integral to the firefighting emergency. I am going to list them: ACT Emergency Services Bureau; ACT Bushfire Service; ACT Emergency Service; ACT Fire Brigade; ACT Ambulance Service; Snowy Hydro SouthCare; ACT Policing; New South Wales Police; Australian Federal Police, national members from Canberra and eastern region; Australian Protective Services; ACT Forests; Environment ACT, including Canberra Urban Parks, ACT Parks and Conservation Services and CityScape Services; New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service; New South Wales Rural Fire Service; New South Wales Fire Brigade; New South Wales Ambulance Service; Queensland Fire and Rescue; Queensland Ambulance Service; Australian Army; Royal Australian Navy; Royal Australian Air force; Bureau of Meteorology; Canberra Connect; Heli-Aust; ActewAGL; Telstra; Emergency Management Australia; Rapidmap Global; emergency departments at Canberra Hospital and Calvary Hospital; ATI; and all levels of the ACT public service.

Very much at the core of all this, of course, was ACT Policing, whose members responded in the fully professional and dedicated way that we know to expect from them. The police operations centre at the Winchester Centre in Belconnen was immediately activated in response to the state of emergency declaration to coordinate the immediate fire response and recovery process. The centre operated 24 hours a day during the state of emergency, staffed by an incident controller, police support staff and a representative of each of the central agencies involved in the fire recovery process, including Family Services, Urban Services, Defence, ActewAGL and the ACT Fire Brigade.

An effective public information and media coordination centre was also established to manage the public's demand for information about the recovery process and all the media's information needs. As well, the emergency management committee, sitting as the management executive, formally met on Monday, 20 January and activated the community recovery subplan and the infrastructure subplan under the emergency management plan. Informal meetings had been held over the weekend as the fire situation developed.

At the height of the bushfire crisis, ACT Policing members assumed responsibility for the evacuation of residents and for traffic control and direction, including road blocks. In the days following the crisis, ACT Policing deployed vehicular and foot patrols throughout the affected areas to assist members of the public with information and support, fire spotting, and monitoring for looting, arson and other criminal activity, and was also responsible for the compilation of damage reports and searches for injured persons. (Extension of time granted.)

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