Page 3611 - Week 11 - Thursday, 16 November 2006
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Mr Hargreaves: It did not get up, did it?
MR PRATT: We can count, Mr Hargreaves, even if you cannot.
Mr Hargreaves: No you cannot, because you would have done it in the first place.
MR PRATT: The basis of that censure motion was the failure by this government to prepare the rural fire service front-line vehicle capability to get it anywhere near what might be an acceptable 90 per cent serviceability rate. In fact, as we now know, 25 per cent of the front-line vehicle fleet for the RFS and the SES on 13 October—13 days into the fire season—was not able to be deployed to the fire ground should a fire have erupted on that day—a day of high fire risk, I might add.
We also now know that two of the fire tenders which were unserviceable had been unserviceable for the last two months of winter. That is just unacceptable. Those two fire tenders and the others which were deemed to be unserviceable made up a sizeable chunk of the fire tender front-line capability. They were simply unavailable. That reflects a cumbersome, slow, administrative system that did not exercise the checks and balances in the last couple of months of winter approaching the fire season to ensure that the fleet was ready to go.
On top of that, we have other front-line vehicles which are being deemed as not first response vehicles for silly little OH&S bureaucratic reasons. Again we see bureaucracy choking the lifeblood out of our front-line services and choking the enthusiasm out of our volunteers. A little bit of latitude or a little bit of leadership by the minister might be able to get around some of those issues.
Mr Hargreaves: We are the pride.
MR PRATT: I am sure, Mr Hargreaves, that if you were still there everything would have been hunky-dory. Don’t you have to wear a fair amount of responsibility for the failure of this fleet?
Mr Hargreaves: No. We are the pride.
MR PRATT: I think so. Turning to the training of volunteers, we now know that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction about the failure to get new volunteers onto the fire ground as soon as possible. In fact, Captain Jeffery lamented the fact that, of a cohort of 24 volunteers brought into the service some 12 months ago, only one had been trained. Some had drifted away. The point we are making here today, is this: bureaucracy on the part of this government and the emergency services is choking the life out of our emergency services volunteer attitude and the enthusiasm of our volunteers to be trained, ready to go, and for our vehicles to be serviceable. It is not good enough.
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for the Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Housing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (3.56): Thank
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