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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2371 ..

leave it up to the brigades and the chief officers to decide how best to achieve that in their areas.

MR PRATT (8.49): I take issue with a couple of points raised. Firstly, the minister insists that this amendment will make the chief officer of the rural fire service totally responsible for the cleaning up of the mess on a land manager’s patch. That is illogical and it is a ridiculous statement to make. Looking at the detail of the amendment, we are talking about “to the extent practicable”. If we are asking the service to the extent practicable to provide advice and assistance, it means exactly that. Providing advice and assistance does not mean doing it for them. So I take issue with the minister and I ask the crossbenchers to see the logicality of my point.

I reject Ms Dundas’s concern that this negates the responsibility of landowners, for the reason I just outlined. If, to the extent you possibly can, you are providing assistance and advice, you are not replacing or negating the land manager’s responsibility; you are giving him or her a “leg up”. That is the point. I would ask members to reconsider that, please.

Amendment negatived.

Clause 52 agreed to.

Clauses 53 to 62, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 63.

MR PRATT (8.51): I move amendment No 12 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 2441].

Regardless of the defeat of the previous amendment relating to casual volunteers, I am going to have a crack at this. I think it is important that we look at recognising the work done by somebody who initially responds to an emergency. While we have the “good Samaritan” clause in the legislation, which very well addresses the needs of the good Samaritan who attends to somebody who is sick, that section and the three subsections under it, as far as I can determine, relate to the personal assistance provided to somebody who is either injured, sick or requires a hand.

I would like to see that section expanded to also incorporate the good Samaritan who responds to a physical threat and mitigates that threat—the person who either secures something or neutralises something. I do not think we have recognised that in this legislation. I commend this amendment to broaden it out a bit and add a fourth element to the good Samaritan clause.

MR WOOD (Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and Minister for Arts and Heritage) (8.53): The government will be supporting this amendment. This amendment clarifies the position of a person who acts in the case of an emergency before the arrival of any emergency service. I am very happy to agree with this amendment.

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