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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 2 Hansard (6 March) . . Page.. 631 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Mr Cornwell, so they can be examined before the coronial inquest, and so they can be cross-examined fully on the basis of the allegations they are making here today.

MR STEFANIAK: On a point of order, Mr Speaker-standing order 42. The Chief Minister is addressing the gallery and not yourself, as Speaker.

MR STANHOPE: The public, hearing about these references, is led to believe, on the basis of this flimsy, unsupported assertion, that our emergency services managers mismanaged their responsibilities. I believe it is critical that all members adopt a responsible attitude and bring any genuine concern they have in relation to any of these issues to the authorities. They can then be investigated and this unnecessary damage and hurt to senior members of the ACT public service can be avoided.

In relation to the specific questions asked yesterday by Mr Cornwell and Mr Smyth, I have sought advice from the Emergency Services Bureau. I asked them whether they could respond to any of the assertions.

I am advised by the Emergency Services Bureau that all resources relevant to the firefighting operations which were offered to the ACT's chief fire control officer, Mr Lucas-Smith, were accepted. I am further advised that tasking decisions made in relation to the New South Wales unit referred to by Mr Smyth-let's go back to them-Harden, Yass, Hall, Bombala and Batemans Bay, which are all in New South Wales-appear not to have been referred to or to have involved the ACT bushfire coordination centre at Curtin. The relevant decisions, if any were taken in relation to any of those brigades, would probably have been taken by the NSW Rural Fire Service. I say "probably"advisedly, because Mr Smyth has provided no details, in the course of his assertions and allegations. So it is impossible to say safely-or make any assumptions about the matters he mentioned.

There is no statement of when, by whom or where. There is nothing to substantiate these allegations. They are made on the basis of innuendo or gossip. Somebody's mother spoke to her next-door neighbour, who mentioned it to the butcher, who told a customer. The customer's son rang his mother and his mother told her son, who happened to mention it to an ABC journalist on the AM show. Was that the basis of this? We need a bit more than that!

I have also arranged for my department to approach Mr Koperberg-the Commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. Mr Koperberg has said that, if Mr Smyth would like to provide him with the details of his allegations, then he is more than happy to investigate them, accepting that all of the units are New South Wales units. Mr Koperberg is waiting beside his fax machine for a fax from Mr Smyth and Mr Cornwell, so he can investigate these matters.

It would be convenient if Mr Smyth and Mr Cornwell would provide a copy of that fax to this Assembly, to the Australian Federal Police, assisting the ACT coroner, and to Mr McLeod. We look forward to copies of that fax this afternoon. It is a classic case of put up or shut up, and stop defaming hard-working, determined, professional ACT public servants.

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