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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2961 ..
MR SMYTH (continuing):
the resolution of grief. She says that the five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
The problem for us is that many people are at different levels in this process. Some are still grieving, some are still angry, some are bargaining, some have accepted and some have moved on, but they are not all doing it at the same rate. I think that the largest problem for the government is the one of which the Chief Minister was so dismissive in regard to my motion when he criticised me for having the temerity to suggest that he had not recognised volunteers. I did not say that.
The Chief Minister twists things eternally; he is always twisting things. He said, "We named everybody as Canberran of the Year; there's recognition for you."Yes, it is, but if you look at what was done at the end of the 2001, you will find that there was a lapel pin given, there was a civic function in Garema Place, there was a large patch to be sewn onto overalls if people so chose, and there was an off-season barbecue at which people could come together and celebrate. Some of the MLAs were there and did the cooking. I remember Mr Hargreaves being there cooking; he does a mean sausage.
But for what was really a one or two-day campaign, a one day serious event with a couple of days mopping up afterwards, we had four or five specific initiatives to say, "Volunteers, thank you very much."This year, we had a campaign that ran from the lightning strikes of 8 January through to 31 January, almost 20 days of constant activity, and the volunteers think that they have actually been slighted.
For those who do not believe me on this, I am going to read a series of emails. I foreshadow that I will be going over time and will be seeking an extension of time, but it is important that people understand that there are problems out there. You cannot say, "Things are healing; make it go away."It does not work like that. Sometimes you have to lance a wound before the wound can heal. If you want real healing, Chief Minister, you have to have a debate about it sometimes. I have been contacted by a gentleman who used to live in Eucumbene Drive. He said, "Why is there no debate? Why do we accept these things because somebody said they are right? That does not make them right."
I want to read two emails. The first is from a volunteer who wrote to me first on 6 August. Some of it is personal, so I will leave out bits of it. The email reads:
Dear Mr Smyth
I am writing to you as a volunteer firefighter who is feeling betrayed by the political leadership of the ACT. I believe that we covered some of the same ground at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve on the evening of 17 January 2003.
To his credit, Mr Corbell was at Tidbinbilla on 17 January as well. The volunteer continues:
I am becoming increasingly frustrated and angry with the political point scoring from all levels of government and the total lack of support for the volunteer. We have had no debriefings, no contact with ESB management or incident controllers, and no real chance to have our say in the public arena. We seem to
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