Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2964 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

years of experience in the field. The lack of debrief, feedback or closure process for those that need it and the lack of interest from ESB on the impact of the fires on rural ACT.

(Further extension of time granted.) This city has a problem and this government has a problem because it thinks that, if you move the caravan on, it makes things better. It does not. The government's attack on us is, "It's political". We are in the Assembly; everything that is said here is political. But this is about what the community is saying. It is saying that the healing is not occurring because of the urgency to move on and not debate things and talk about the bushfire. If the government wants confidence in the future and it does not want angst in the brigades, the government will have to do something.

There seems to be some dilemma today about our putting a motion on the notice paper in the way that we have. We did it because we wanted to give the government warning and time. Members of the government, in opposition, used to roll in here and bring on a motion of no confidence or censure at the drop of a hat. We were being courteous. We put it all in one lump because there are several issues that have to be discussed and, because of the weightings for private members business, the chance of our getting up two or more motions is very slim. We put it all into one so we could have the one debate. We arranged it so that, as Ms Tucker asked, we could do so by splitting the question.

There are claims of confusion and hypocrisy about the fact that we are asking the government to go slow while we are doing something else. We have been out discussing it and we have actually done the consultation with the brigades. Indeed, I was at the voluntary brigades meeting the other night at which, unfortunately, the Chief Fire Control Officer was unable to answer any questions about the new structure that the brigade members put to him because he had not been told by the government.

We did some work on some whiteboards. I got to do the scribing. I put up the existing structure, I put up the structure as proposed by McLeod, I put up the Liberal Party structure and I put up another structure. Eventually, the brigades voted the others down and they modified the structure that I put up. I deliberately said, "Guys, this is political. There's the Liberals' structure."They liked the concept, but modified it to meet their own.

The brigades have an idea on that because they have experience and they want to be listened to. There is no hypocrisy. What we are saying is that there is concern in the community about the model that the government is proposing, particularly when emergency services, the volunteers and, I understand, the UFU would prefer a model similar to the one that the Liberal Party has proposed.

Mr Speaker, this motion really is about healing. It is about stopping the caravan that just says, "Let's get on with it. No debate, let's just push through, let's just go on."We are not saying that the government is rushing headlong into something. The government has done many things well and we have said that to the government. For instance, tonight Mrs Dunne praised the recovery centre. The recovery centre has done very well, but we need to do more.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .