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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3693 ..

MR PRATT (continuing):

The setting aside of funds for compensation purposes and for modest, routine new allowances would greatly boost the morale of our volunteers, which is essential because they will come back only if they are being looked after. I refer next to community fire units. The establishment of a CFU system is a good initiative but I do not think the government has gone far enough. The eight CFUs that are currently operating are a trial. Did the last two major bushfire disasters in Canberra not alert the government to fact that those CFUs are necessary?

Funding could be transferred from other programs and allocated to provide for more CFUs. At least 12 or 16 suburbs would be considered to be at risk if there were any threat of a bushfire this coming season. However, it might be a little hard for the government to determine what suburbs were at risk as it was unable to tell Assembly members how it chose eight suburbs for its current trial. It might prove somewhat difficult for the government if it had to choose 16 suburbs for such a trial. A minimum of 12 and a maximum 16 CFUs should be established to operate this coming summer.

This notion of a trial has been somewhat overdone. The time for trials has past and it is now time to act. We know that the need exists. Opposition members have been calling for months for the establishment of additional CFUs. We call on the government to ensure adequate funding in this Appropriation Bill to establish approximately 16 CFUs to accommodate the urgent need this summer. During estimates committee hearings we heard from senior firefighters that there might be a training limitation if a number of new CFUs are established. We recognise and accept that advice from our senior firefighters. What they said at the estimates committee hearings made sense. However, we ask the Minister for Police and Emergency Services why he is not seeking an additional training capacity to meet that shortfall.

I refer next to the Emergency Services Bureau. We are concerned about the money that is being thrown away by this government on the Emergency Services Bureau. Funding has been set aside for a number of positions but there is much debate in the emergency agencies community about the future shape of that bureau. The CEO is yet to be appointed. How is the government able to determine the right person for the job when a staff member from JACS said to me and to other members last week that that organisation is flexible? If the government does not know what the organisation will look like, how can it determine who is the most suitable person to lead it? I believe that is a major error.

I refer to the positions that have been identified as a part of the new Emergency Services Bureau. Existing ESB staff could cover those additional and unnecessary positions. We support the addition of four new positions to augment existing staff and to assist with reorganisation, enhancing communications, and information and training. However, we cannot agree to a total of 10 new identified positions. I would have thought that the significant savings that could be made in that area could be channelled back into the CFU exercise.

The government now seems to be coming around to the idea of running a roundtable meeting with key bushfire fighting stakeholders and members of this Assembly. Ms Dundas, Mrs Cross and I support that measure, which was proposed by Ms Tucker. We encourage the government to conduct a roundtable conference at the earliest possible

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