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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Wednesday, 10 March 2004) . . Page.. 1010 ..

health issues, and distributing material support, particularly in difficult times such as winter.

Emerging needs were identified through contact with directly affected residents at the recovery centre, information from the Community and Expert Reference Group and contact with community groups and others. Initiatives implemented in response to emerging needs included: a specialist case manager to assist with insurance complaints and disputes; a program of additional assistance during winter, including facilitating a winter warming project involving major charities, a large retail chain and government to provide vouchers to purchase winter clothing and linen; additional measures to assist with rebuilding, including a bushfire building cost advisory service; and additional assistance to those badly injured in the fires.

Another significant role played by recovery centre staff has been the provision of support for some 400 community development activities aimed at strengthening and unifying community resilience. Teams have focused their activities around social events and information sessions in an attempt to reach those most affected within the community. One of the primary aims has been to maximise the information and communication flow that has been vital to all affected residents. After 14 months of this support the vast majority of households are telling the recovery centre that they are well along their journey to recovery and that should they need help down the track they now know where to go for that help and assistance. In other words, those residents have assumed control over their own lives and they feel good about that.

In July 2003, the Bushfire Recovery Taskforce undertook a review to identify the key issues for the future and to provide advice to government regarding the second phase of the recovery process. The taskforce recommended to my government that direct services through the ACT Recovery Centre be continued until March 2004. At the end of last year I announced that the recovery centre would continue to provide support to bushfire-affected residents until April 2004 when services would be relocated into mainstream community and public service agencies.

On 11 December 2002, I tabled a report in this place—Counselling services following the January 2003 ACT bushfires—on the expected demand for ongoing counselling services and our intention for the transition of service arrangements during 2004. I advised the Assembly of that in December. That report noted that demand for counselling services was being carefully monitored and that planning was under way for the most seamless transition possible of those services that would need to be ongoing. A particularly important aspect of the recovery process has been the involvement of the community in monitoring service needs and emerging issues. Recovery of the suburbs and bushfire-affected communities has been greatly assisted through the guidance of the Community Expert Reference Group.

The Community Expert Reference Group has played a vital role in providing the Bushfire Recovery Taskforce and the ACT government with a channel of two-way communication to ensure that the recovery strategy was informed by community views and needs and by local knowledge and expertise from community groups, fire-affected residents, unions, the business community and the Commonwealth. The government has already thoroughly consulted with the Community and Expert Reference Group and

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