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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2375 ..

discussing this issue earlier, all the land managers and landowners will have a responsibility to do their risk analysis. So there will be a series of risk analysis statements put up by those people responsible. The chief officer of the rural fire service would look at all of those various statements and then make his own overall risk analysis of the area for which he or she is responsible.

So, again I would point out that the chief officer would not be negating the responsibility of others to carry out risk analysis but that person has a very important overview role as a senior officer to make a statement about the area for which he or she is responsible. That is the purpose of the amendments. The same argument applies to the chief officer of the fire brigade in respect of risk analysis inside the abatement zone and the city area, and I will not get into a debate about where those areas are.

Going to amendment No 14, I take on board the point the minister has made that people just do not have the time and resources to carry out a 12-monthly audit of every single bushfire hazard site in an area. And yes, many of those will be audited on a weekly or a monthly basis, particularly as the season gets warmer. But it seems to me that it is necessary to enshrine in the legislation the need for that audit to be carried out. Somebody somewhere has got to make a decision about what are the most important hazards that can be audited at least once every 12 months within the scope of resources, time and manpower. Again, that was the reason for that amendment. I can only seek your indulgence and ask you to reconsider before you go west.

Mr Wood: They would do it month by month, if it were necessary.

Amendments negatived.

Clause 72 agreed to.

Clause 73 agreed to.

Clause 74.

MR PRATT (9.08): I move amendment No 15 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 2441].

We spoke earlier about bushfire hazard reduction targets. I would make the point that I think it is important to enshrine somewhere that hazard reduction targets should be incorporated into the strategic bushfire management plan. If it is done and those targets are listed then this surely would impose a collective discipline on those who are responsible for managing, observing and auditing. That is the reason for the amendment.

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) (9.09): Mr Pratt alluded earlier to a similar amendment that he lost, and on the same grounds he will lose this one. I think the bushfire management plan is a very comprehensive document. It is kept finetuned and it covers more than adequately the aspects that Mr Pratt has in mind.

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