Page 31 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 February 2007
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powers in those I knew were better equipped than I to fight fires. That investiture took place at the instant I declared a state of emergency.
Let us draw up a short time line of that period into which the coroner was asked to inquire, the period between 8 January and 18 January, the period for which she insists that I was exclusively the responsible minister. For almost half of that period, from 8 January to 12 January, I was on leave. My ministerial responsibilities for those days were borne by others of my colleagues.
For the next five days, until the close of business on 17 January, I resumed my normal portfolio responsibilities. From the close of business on 17 January, my colleague the Minister for Police and Emergency Services went on leave and I became the Acting Minister for Police and Emergency Services. On the afternoon of 18 January, as Chief Minister, I declared a state of emergency and appointed a territory controller. Yet, despite all these facts, the coroner has somehow determined that I was the responsible minister “at all relevant times”. These numbers, these dates, these truths may be inconvenient for Mr Stefaniak and his colleagues, they may stick in the throats of those across the chamber, but they cannot be denied. These are the facts.
I regret that these were not the only mistaken or unsupported conclusions drawn by the coroner. By far the most personally distressing for me is her erroneous belief that on Thursday, 16 January 2003, two days before the fires, I and my entire cabinet, along with some of the most senior officers of the ACT Public Service, knew a potential disaster was on Canberra’s doorstep and that we did nothing to ensure that the Canberra community was warned promptly and effectively. This is a grave accusation. It is unsupported by the facts and I categorically reject it.
The coroner’s comments in relation to what cabinet was told during an emergency services briefing on 16 January fly in the face of evidence presented to the inquest by me and by senior public servants who were also present at the meeting, including the then head of the Chief Minister’s Department, Mr Rob Tonkin, and the then head of the Department of Justice and Community Services, Mr Tim Keady. Nor do they accord with the recollections of the other three ministers present at the cabinet meeting, Mr Simon Corbell, Mr Ted Quinlan and Mr Bill Wood.
If I had had any inkling at the time I gave evidence that the coroner was unconvinced by my testimony, I would certainly have desired these other three cabinet ministers—including most particularly, of course, the minister responsible, Mr Bill Wood—to give sworn evidence. No inkling was given. No warning shot was fired. No suggestion was ever made that I might like to seek legal representation. No evidence was adduced that contradicted my own, so there was no opportunity to cross-examine. No suggestion was made that when her report finally appeared I would be the subject of serious personal criticism in relation to that meeting. There was silence.
That silence was only broken last December, when the coroner handed down a report that stated in black and white that on the morning of 16 January 2003, cabinet members, including me, were told that there was a serious potential that the fires would affect assets in the ACT. Among these assets were pine plantations, Tidbinbilla nature reserve, Tidbinbilla tracking station, rural leases and Canberra suburbs. Dunlop and Weston Creek were the areas identified as being at greatest risk.
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