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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2342 ..

elements are going to be fragmented, we have prepared amendments that regroup some of those principles and reinforce the statements about them.

Let’s have a look at what has happened since 2002, in the time coming up to the tabling of this legislation. Finally, we are at the point where we have this quite useful instrument about to be introduced, which I am confident will better protect the community. For nearly two and a half years now, we have seen the Labor government being inactive and ineffective when dealing with preparations and operations in the ACT’s emergency services. The December 2001 fires were a significant wake-up call for the Labor government and any government on these benches. They were a serious wake-up call, as well, to the Emergency Services Bureau.

The December 2001 fires were so significant that the Emergency Services Bureau came up with 102 recommendations, and the coroner at the time came up with a raft of recommendations, for future safety and emergency management. How many of these recommendations were implemented by the recommended date? How many of these recommendations, which may have expedited the preparation of this legislation, were taken on board or taken seriously? Very few, Mr Deputy Speaker.

The Labor government ignored the recommendations of its own Emergency Services Bureau in the period leading up to the bushfire disaster in January 2003. For example, recommendation 92 of the 102 recommendations stated, “Develop program of public education that looks at issues from the debriefs and can be addressed by: ‘How can the public be better educated in emergency management matters and their responsibilities?’”

Recommendation 92 was given low priority by the Labor government and, in addition, was given no deadline, which therefore left it wide open to never being addressed, and it wasn’t addressed for quite some time. If it had been addressed before January 2003, perhaps some of the circumstances of January 2003 may have been mitigated. That reflects a pattern of behaviour of this government with respect to its responsibility to have inquiring minds and to reform and rectify major weaknesses in the systems of good governance. It passed over numerous opportunities to develop and table this legislation.

The government failed to improve the processes of communication between the Emergency Services Bureau and the public prior to the January 2003 bushfires. Let’s talk about that: warnings and communications to the community. I am very pleased to see here today that the new legislation addresses this vital and I really think the most important of all issues, of all of the lessons arising out of the January 2003 disaster: warnings and communications to the community.

However, it does not address this issue comprehensively and I have therefore brought amendments into this place tonight to strengthen this fundamental issue. I now understand that the government may adopt an amendment related to this. I am very keen to have a look at that and I would welcome it.

Returning to the issue of the litany of inaction, I refer to the May 2003 audit report into the Emergency Services Bureau. The state of the emergency services in the ACT was addressed in the Auditor-General’s report on the Emergency Services Bureau, which gravely questioned the fitness of the bureau. Page 8 of that report stated that the

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