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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2382 ..

The Democrats are also extremely supportive of the idea of the addition of a community communication and information plan, as this process was the subject of much criticism in the aftermath of the 2003 bushfires. The ability of the emergency services to communicate with the public is an essential part of their role and a specific plan would be a useful guide in times of emergency, and I think what Mr Pratt has proposed here is quite commendable.

MS TUCKER (9.34): We will also be supporting Mr Pratt’s amendment, if it is amended by the government’s amendments. The first part of Mr Pratt’s amendment, in the original form, would create a new category of disaster plans, which would be another unnecessary and unintentionally damaging level of detail. The government amendment converts those into examples in the bill rather than being a checklist.

The second part of this amendment is about ensuring that the structures are there to communicate with the community about emergency situations. I support this part of Mr Pratt’s amendment, as amended by the government amendment. The government amendment removes the new phrase that Mr Pratt has put in since our discussions last night. As I said in the in-principle stage of the debate, communications is one glaring failure in January last year, so I think it is an improvement to have that expressly included.

MR PRATT (9.35): Mr Speaker, I will support government amendment No 2. That is fine and it cleans up the wording. But I will not support government amendment No 1 because I do not think it allows sufficient flexibility in the intention of my amendment, which is to make sure that other possible scenarios are covered. Plus, I still think it is important to see in this section the responsibilities of officers identified. So, we will not be supporting government amendment No 1 but we will support government amendment No 2.

Amendments (Mr Wood’s) agreed to

Amendment (Mr Pratt’s), as amended, agreed to.

Proposed new clauses 147A and 147B, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 148 to 151, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 152

MR PRATT (9.37): I move amendment No 19 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 2441].

Mr Speaker, in January 2003 there was little in the way of ministerial comment to the public in the hours preceding and in the early hours of the 18 January 2003 disaster. It is fundamentally important that the community receives reassurance and timely information from its leaders in the community’s hour of need.

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