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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 11 Hansard (22 October) . . Page.. 3922 ..
MR WOOD (continuing):
I am sure you can go out there and find other areas where there may be concern amongst residents. If you're not happy with the bush capital you can take the Wilson Tuckey approach and put concrete over it all.
MR CORNWELL: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker; apart from logging as well-like Oakey Hill. Could you perhaps put this matter on the Urban Services website or see that it is listed on the website at least to reassure the people who live in Levold Place, Spence, that they are at least being considered and don't feel they have been added to the same lack of preparedness that led to the January disaster?
MR WOOD: There are a couple of snide comments there. First of all, you are making contrary statements there. You made a snide comment about cutting trees down on Oakey Hill. You were critical of cutting trees down on Oakey Hill, on the one hand, and you are saying, "Get out there and do some more slashing."What do you want? Make up your mind.
Bushfires-hazard reduction
MRS DUNNE: My question is the minister for emergency services, Mr Wood. Minister, in briefing notes prepared for you last year for the launch of the 2002-04 bushfire fuel management plan were included suggested responses to questions about whether you had done enough hazard reduction burning. The notes said:
The ACT Government is well prepared for the current fire season and the hazard reduction undertaken is more extensive and better targeted than ever.
That was in 2002, and we know what happened at the end of that bushfire season. On WIN news of 8 October you said:
We're doing a lot of slashing-
as long as it is not in Spence-
all the activity-just to learn the lesson from January and make sure we're just as ready as we can be.
Why should the public believe your spin that you are well prepared for the current bushfire season, with an extensive, well-targeted hazard reduction program, when you were telling them the same story they heard last year?
MR WOOD: I would want to go back and check those dates.
Mr Stanhope: I'd check everything, mate.
MR WOOD: Check everything. I read that bit in the paper about the briefing notes and, as I understand it, it was end of 2002 when I released the new bushfire management plan. It is a sound document and one that is being worked through-notwithstanding what Mr Cornwell says. I would hold to that.
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