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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2897 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Mr Speaker, clearly the government in this case is negligent. They told this Assembly that they had it in hand, that it was adequate, and clearly that was not the case. Mr McLeod, in referring to this in his report, says, "Yes, there were some things done but more needs to be done. It needs to be more comprehensive and it needs to be ongoing."(Extension of time granted.)

So Mr Speaker, it is quite clear that the government, in their dismissive attitude to the suggestion that more education needed to be carried out-yes, primarily in schools and in the broader community, as Mr Pratt said in his speech; read the Hansard-chose to ignore that warning. They said it was in hand, they said it was ample.

Mr Speaker, the constituent who wrote about the lack of counselling said to me that had he been told he would have done more to protect his house. Had he been warned earlier he would not have gone down to the Tuggeranong Hyperdome to go shopping at 1 o'clock on the basis of advice on an ABC interview that said there was no threat to the urban edge, and he would not have had to rush home after 3 o'clock to find his home gone. Mr Speaker, he said that had they been told he would have taken much greater care in preparing his house. But when we warned the government that it was appropriate that they do more in schools and in other places-

Mr Quinlan: You told us they did everything they could. That's what you told us.

MR SMYTH: It is quite clear. I can read the quote again, Mr Speaker. Mr Pratt said:

He goes on to say that the emergency services personnel were telling him that "the key to combating the threat is prevention and educating ACT residents as to their roles and responsibility in protecting our community and territorial forests and grasslands".

So, Mr Speaker, what we have is a government that was warned, what we have is a government that simply scoffed in the arrogant way that it often does at any suggestions that come from anything but the government benches, and what we have is a government that chose not to do anything additional. Mr Quinlan said during that debate:

It is interesting that a campaign or an education program is not included among the things that the government has done. There are individual things but, as Mr McLeod so rightly points out, if you are going to change community attitudes for things like drink driving, wearing seatbelts and the danger of smoking, it is not a matter of just running a one-page advertisement or making a one-night announcement. It is about having a concerted campaign, and that is the point we were making back in November before the fire season commenced.

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