Page 517 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007
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restructure the ESA to remove bureaucracy and streamline it, but in fact the restructure is all about financial matters. We think that that is a very inappropriate way to undertake the restructuring of emergency organisations. The emergency organisation must be operationally respected. Any restructure—
Mr Corbell: They blew their budget for three consecutive years.
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Pratt has the floor.
MR PRATT: I’ve got the floor, thanks. Any restructure of the emergency services has got to be about operational imperatives—can our emergency services deliver services; can they protect our community? You do not restructure the emergency organisations simply because your bureaucrats have said, “Look, we want to control the resources. We are jealous of the emergency services.”
Mr Corbell: They just blew the budget.
MR PRATT: The bureaucracy said that they were jealous of Peter Dunn’s independence.
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Members will cease interjecting.
MR PRATT: You listen to them, minister; you listen to them.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Pratt, address your comments through the chair, please.
MR PRATT: Thank you, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Members will cease interjecting.
Mr Corbell: They just blew their budget; that’s all.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Corbell, cease interjecting.
MR PRATT: They were simply bureaucratic reforms. Mr Speaker, their reforms have only been bureaucratic, without due understanding of the implications for the ability of the services to respond quickly.
Mr Corbell: They blew their budget.
MR PRATT: No, I do not think so. I want to refer to a letter from a volunteer. He says:
No other emergency service in Australia has as many layers between the head of the service and the Minister. No other State or Territory makes it so difficult for the head of service to access their Minister—why?—because every other State or Territory knows the importance of those emergency services and does not downgrade their importance.
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