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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 2 Hansard (5 March) . . Page.. 499 ..

MRS DUNNE (continuing):

The emergency in the form of burning fires has passed, but the ongoing emergencies in the lives of many people remain. We are not convinced that the existing arrangements are adequate to address these emergencies. It is not just about rebuilding homes; it is about rebuilding lives. It is about picking up the pieces. It is about being able to reassure and inspire confidence. It is about reaching out and helping those who are vulnerable, those whose confidence has been sapped and those who are or will be desperate.

We are not convinced that, in the normal course of events, we have the collective wherewithal to address these problems, unless we make provision now for a body vested with wide powers to enable quick decisions to be made. We need a bushfire reconstruction authority, financed and staffed sufficiently, that can cut through the red tape and focus on outcomes rather than processes.

This bill allows us to gather, within a dedicated organisation, those who know how the system works and put that expertise to use to get things done and get them done swiftly. With this bill we are signalling quite unequivocally that we are going to give this reconstruction effort our utmost priority.

Mr Speaker, I am aware that the government has made certain provisions along the lines to which I have alluded, but the question the opposition asks is: is it enough? Disasters bring out the best in Australians. We are good with natural disasters because we have so many of them. We have found in Canberra that people and communities have hidden depths. But, at the moment, we are working on the bureaucratic version of an adrenaline rush to help us cope with an emergency. Mr Speaker, we need to find a long-term substitute for sheer adrenaline.

We need only to look at the building approval process to see where things can go wrong. On many occasions, I have raised in this place instances of unwarranted delay in building and development applications, but the process is complicated and it takes time. At this very time, the whole apparatus of PALM is being redesigned and reshaped into an independent planning authority.

With all the best will in the world-and I do not denigrate the considerable expertise in PALM-the organisation is being asked to take on an incredibly demanding new task, a task that requires fast-tracking, while actively contemplating its own future. We have seen already in the report of the Public Accounts Committee tabled in this place yesterday that the planning approvals process has cracks in it and that mixed messages are being sent to the community.

But that is just one aspect of the complete mix. We are all well aware of the expertise in the bushfire task force. I have previously congratulated the government on assembling such skill and such talent in such short time. The skill and talent extend not just to the task force members but to the staff that support them. I can think of no better person than Sandy Hollway to head up this task force.

But this task force is merely an advisory body. What this bill proposes to do is to give it power, real power. It will empower Mr Hollway and his organisation not just to advise, but to act. It will give the organisation real teeth to expedite things, to minimise delay, to get on and get things done, to act rather than advise.

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