Page 3357 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 September 2005
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the circumstances as known to him, an evacuation is the appropriate response to the incident.
Mr Smyth: But they didn’t check the building at all!
MR STANHOPE: That is the assessment the individual takes.
Mr Smyth: How can they respond appropriately—
MR STANHOPE: The individual plan that will then be determined—
Mr Smyth: On half the information?
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Smyth!
MR STANHOPE: on the basis of pre-existing planning and arrangements, will then flow from that. This was at the heart of the questions and the answers and information I have previously given around the nature and structure of incident management in the event of a terrorist or other hazardous situation.
As Commissioner Dunn has explained time and time again, in relation to any situation—whether it be as a response to a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, whether it is an incident of that order which presents a risk to public safety and to the safety of individuals—the approach that will be utilised by ACT authorities will be an assessment on the spot by an expert led, in the ACT, by ACT Policing, supported at all times by the services of the Emergency Services Authority. An assessment will be made on the ground, on the basis of all the information related to the particular incident. An individual incident management plan will then be developed and will be implemented—
Mr Smyth: They didn’t check the building!
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Smyth!
MR STANHOPE: that may or may not involve a need to evacuate a building. It may or may not involve the need, for instance, for road closures; it may or may not involve the need for associated buildings to be evacuated. Those are decisions that will be made at the time. The other training which is then associated with those particular decisions; for instance, personal or particular building or site evacuation plans—and we have them here—
Mr Smyth: Yes, but you’ve got to tell people!
MR SPEAKER: I warn you, Mr Smyth!
MR STANHOPE: We regularly train, as occupants of this building, in building evacuation procedures. Those of us who occupy this building know what the process is; or, if we do not, we should. We have no right to ever suggest we do not know or understand the evacuation procedures that apply to this particular building. Whether or not this particular building, in any particular circumstance, should be evacuated is a decision which, in accordance with the incident management arrangements that have
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