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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2376 ..

MS TUCKER (9.10): The Greens will oppose this amendment, which inappropriately pulls out field hazard reduction from many other parts of the management plan. There is enough scrutiny and the responsibilities are clear enough.

Amendment negatived.

Clause 74 agreed to.

Clause 75 agreed to.

Proposed new clause 75A.

MR PRATT (9.10): I move amendment No 16 circulated in my name, which inserts a new clause 75A [see schedule 2 at page 2441].

Mr Speaker, when the minister is going through the process of completing the final draft in respect of “making the strategic bushfire management plan”, I would like to see some aspects of the determination of hazard reduction targets run past the Assembly.

The lessons from January 2003 and as far back as 1994 show that here have been periods of preventative planning neglect over successive governments caused by confusion over responsibility for the preparation of hazard reduction planning and the implementation of hazard reduction measures. I think this very serious issue needs to be monitored by the Assembly.

What I am proposing is that, if the hazard reduction target recommendations of the authority and the two fire service chiefs are overruled by the minister of his or her own volition, or as a result of lobbying pressures from other parties, the minister will need to clarify this with the Assembly. I think the Assembly needs to run its ruler over this in terms of the check and balance role that it has.

So, if the minister, after having been lobbied, rejects the priority hazard reduction targets determined by the two fire chiefs and the authority, then I think he or she has an obligation to run it past the Assembly, and that is the purpose of this 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) (9.13): Well, I do not know that the minister would reject anything. It is not his business to do so. It is his business to keep the Assembly informed and to keep things moving.

Look, hazard reduction is an important issue in the bushfire management plan but I do not think the amendment helps. It would require me or any minister to report to the Assembly on drafts of an instrument which will ultimately come back to the Assembly as a disallowable instrument. It comes to the Assembly in any case. So you would have me reporting and then, a little time later, the draft will come through as a disallowable instrument.

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