Page 335 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 7 March 2007
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DR FOSKEY: Perhaps you will be at the lecture yourself, Mrs Dunne.
Emergency services
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (6.09): I stand this afternoon in some disgust about what is happening with the emergency services here in the ACT. This afternoon I have been contacted by members of the ACT Fire Brigade who wanted to tell me that the majority of the members of the ACT Fire Brigade have not supported the government’s restructuring—yet again—of the emergency services. Some people have speculated that that may not have been the case, but they are saying they are not very happy with the restructure and they believe it will cause damage right across the services. It was very interesting to hear that.
But there is something of even greater concern. Members opposite should hang their heads in shame on this particular issue. I have been reliably informed that David Prince has resigned in disgust. David Prince, the chief officer of the fire brigade, has resigned in disgust. David Prince’s resignation underlines the shambles which is the Stanhope government’s emergency management in the ACT. You have lost Peter Dunne; you have lost David Prince; you have lost other senior officers through the services. The volunteers are up in arms about what has happened in the restructure, and the majority of the fire brigade professional officers and personnel do not support the restructure.
You people have got no idea. Minister Corbell and Chief Minister Stanhope have got no idea how to run the emergency services. You are running the emergency services into the ground. You are doing a great disservice to the ACT community.
David Prince was a very fine officer, a real professional—a very nice man, but also a very professional officer. For him to on principle tell the Emergency Services Commissioner that he can stick his services where the sun does not shine is a measure of the disgust in which people hold the government’s decisions in recent times. This is a very, very black day.
Clean Up Australia Day
MR SPEAKER: Ms MacDonald.
Mrs Dunne: I was standing up long before her!
MR SPEAKER: One tries to be even-handed.
MS MacDONALD (Brindabella) (6.11): Stop running down my time! Mr Speaker, as you would know, Sunday, 4 March was Clean up Australia Day. For the fifth consecutive year I organised an event and, with a handful of volunteers, cleaned up the intersection of Athllon and Mawson drives and Beasley Street in Torrens.
I cleaned the same area last year and was pleased to see that the reserve we concentrated on in 2006 was relatively rubbish free. This was great to see, because last year it was heavily littered with various plastic and paper products. This year we
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