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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2904 ..

MR PRATT: Planned and coordinated by the Education Department".

MR SPEAKER: Order! Government members, please. Mr Pratt has the floor.

MR PRATT: Scratched the surface, eh, Mr Corbell?

Ms Tucker: Mr Pratt interjects all the time. He just cannot take what he gives out. He interjects all the time during everyone's speeches.

MR SPEAKER: It is catching, Ms Tucker.

MR PRATT: That is all right, Ms Tucker.

Ms Tucker: I just cannot stand the hypocrisy, sorry.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Pratt has the floor.

Ms Tucker: I withdraw.

MR PRATT: I understand your sympathies.

Mr Speaker, if we, the opposition, believed that everything had been done that could be done, then why would I have moved that the Assembly "urges the Government to immediately introduce universal bushfire prevention and safety education for all schools in the ACT, planned and coordinated by the Education Department and delivered by Emergency Services personnel and other approved trainers"?

Mr Speaker, the release of the 102 recommendations made as a result of the December 2001 bushfires has highlighted the fact that integral recommendations were not carried out by management and government. Because of this we-the community-were not as prepared for the 2002-03 bushfire season as we could have been as a community.

Mr Speaker, recommendation 95 of the 102 resulting from the December 2001 bushfires stated, "Develop [a] program of public education that looks at issues from the debriefs,"and can be addressed by, "How can the public be better educated in [emergency management] matters and their responsibilities?"Recommendation 95 was given low priority by the government and, in addition, no deadline was set by which it was to be achieved, leaving it open to remaining unaddressed.

Just so that everybody is absolutely clear about how Mr Quinlan at the time recognised the issues raised about education, let me quote from Mr Quinlan in Hansard. He stated:

He was speaking about community education here, and doing something about fuel mitigation. He went on:

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