Page 17 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 February 2007
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I wonder whether the Chief Minister, Mr Stanhope, realises just how well-founded his words were.
I will be returning to the debate on 24 November 1999, because there were some very important principles enunciated in it by the Chief Minister and by other members of this place in relation to the notion of ministerial accountability and responsibility, a notion that is more than relevant to this debate today. But first, let me set the scene.
The January 2003 fires were the worst disaster to hit Canberra in living memory. These fires killed four people; they injured 435 people; they destroyed 487 homes; they damaged 215 homes, commercial premises, government premises and outbuildings; they destroyed the Mount Stromlo Observatory, an institution of international renown; they killed or injured an inestimable number of animals, many thousands, and put at risk a number of species; and they burnt almost 70 per cent of the ACT, some 157,170 hectares. The financial losses have been estimated to be at least $610 million. It has been suggested that, when unquantified losses arising from damage done to catchment areas and the flow-on effect in terms of costs to Canberra’s water supply are added, this figure could be closer to $1 billion.
Mr Speaker, the myths and untruths spun by this government have been systematically dispelled by one of the most forensic and detailed coronial inquests in ACT history. On the basis of what the coroner has discovered, the calm before the storm had more to do with ignorance, incompetence and psychological denial of what was really happening. It was that there was a lack of professionalism and a failure to have a plan for the fires reaching Canberra and for warning people and key services such as the fire brigade and the police that the coroner discovered in over 90 days of hearings in a report of nearly 800 pages.
No doubt the Chief Minister will try to sell the message of a once in a lifetime natural event that could not be stopped, that everyone did their level best. Certainly, the volunteer firefighters, the urban fire brigade and the police ran with what little information they had. They performed great feats of courage. The police took it on themselves to warn some people on their own initiative. But most residents never knew what hit them until the flames came over the fence. Mostly, people were left on their own. There were no brochures about fire preparedness delivered days before the fires hit, as in 2001, and there was no organised warning of residents by megaphone street by street ahead of the fires, as in 2001. People in Canberra, inundated with fire, just managed to escape with their lives. Most just managed by sheer good fortune to escape in what they stood up in. Tragically, four people did not.
In response to claims that the severity of the firestorm could not have been foreseen, the coroner, Mrs Doogan, says:
I do not accept this. Australia has a recorded history of extreme fire events dating back to at least 1851 ... CSIRO fire expert Mr Phil Cheney predicted several years ago a conflagration of the type experienced in January 2003.
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