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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 1938 ..

The bill establishes community fire units, whose role will be to protect homes and property in the event of a fire in their local area. They will operate at the request of, and under the direction of, the chief officer of the Fire Brigade.

The Emergency Management Committee is being re-established by this bill, with the commissioner as its chair. The committee is to advise the Chief Minister and the minister about emergency management issues and is to be a point of liaison between agencies, organisations and the community. The committee will prepare the emergency plan and monitor and recommend amendments to it.

To enhance our capacity to scale up in emergencies, the bill makes express provision for the facilitation of cooperation between territory, state and Commonwealth agencies. These provisions will enable the territory controller or the authority to obtain and direct resources from outside the territory, or to direct territory resources to incidents outside the territory.

To enhance the territory’s capacity to inform and make safe our community, the bill provides for a dual alert system. If appropriate, the minister may now declare a state of alert in the event of a likely emergency—for example, an approaching severe storm. The purpose of declaring a state of alert is to put the community on notice of a developing situation that may have the potential for serious impact on the community. A declaration of a state of emergency is to be possible with a minimum of process. There will be no complex layers of bureaucracy. All that is required is that the minister is satisfied that an emergency is “likely to happen”.

It is not anticipated that a state of alert will be declared every time the Bureau of Meteorology issues a weather warning, nor every time there is a bushfire. Rather, a state of alert might be declared for large-scale impending emergencies when there is advance warning. Of course, a warning cannot be given where there is no prior knowledge of an event that may occur, such as the sudden collapse of a major building or a dam, or a sudden earthquake. In other words, the declaration of a state of alert is to be used when an emergency is likely. It does not substitute for the existing warning system employed by the Bureau of Meteorology.

The existing process for the declaration of a state of emergency remains, but there will be no alternate controller. The Chief Minister will appoint a territory controller, who will be the person most appropriate in the circumstances to manage the emergency. Wherever possible, the functions of chief officers have been consolidated. Similarly, there has been a consolidation of provisions relating to inspectors and investigations. This has done a great deal to clarify and shorten the consolidated legislation and also has drawn the management structure of the authority closer together.

The retention of two fire brigades, urban and rural, invokes a need to clarify the planning and operational responsibilities of the two services. Generally speaking, the Fire Brigade, being the urban brigade, will mainly respond to fires in built-up areas, while the Rural Fire Service will respond outside the built-up areas. The bill makes a major change to the existing management system in that it provides that, within the bushfire abatement zone, the Fire Brigade will have responsibility, in consultation with the Rural Fire Service, for planning for fires. The format provides for the urban firefighters to have greater input to

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