Page 1588 - Week 05 - Thursday, 7 April 2005
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Bushfires—recommendations
(Question No 149)
Mr Pratt asked the Chief Minister, upon notice, on 16 February 2005:
(1) Will the Government adopt as its policy recommendations of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) inquiry into Bushfire Management and Mitigation;
(2) If so, (a) which recommendations will it adopt and (b) how will the implementation of these recommendations be carried out;
(3) By what date will these recommendations be implemented;
(4) Who will the Government appoint to coordinate the implementation of these recommendations;
(5) By what means will the ACT Government liaise and interact with the Federal Government and other State and Territory governments to adopt the various cross jurisdictional recommendations contained in the COAG report.
Mr Stanhope: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) The ACT Government has formally indicated its support for both the COAG Bushfire report and the agreed jurisdictional response, which were released by the Prime Minister on 24 January 2005. These documents can be found at http://www.coagbushfireenquiry.gov.au
(2)(a) See response to (1) above. The ACT Government's position forms part of the agreed jurisdictional response.
(2)(b) Given the inquiry's focus on issues of national significance, many of the recommendations of the report require joint action or cooperation between Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments. As noted in the agreed interjurisdictional response, eight of the 29 recommendations have already been acted upon and were implemented before the 2004 bushfire season. Fourteen recommendations require further work and consideration by the Augmented Australasian Police Minister's Council. The remaining seven recommendations relate broadly to ongoing research needs, indigenous traditional burning practices, community bushfire education, national consistency in bushfire data collection, the updating of the Australian Emergency Manual - Disaster Recovery and the further development in jurisdictions of a structured risk management process.
(3) While progress has been made on many of the recommendations, a number are of a strategic nature and outcomes will need to be pursued over the longer term. As noted above, eight recommendations have already been acted upon and were implemented before the 2004 bushfire season.
(4) ACT implementation of recommendations will be overseen by the Emergency Services Authority, the Chief Minister's Department and the Department of Urban Services.
(5) Liaison with Commonwealth and other State and Territory agencies will take place as appropriate.
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