Page 632 - Week 03 - Thursday, 15 March 2007
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During this excellent, objective and rigorous discussion, a person who is described in the transcript as “man at the Canberra fires” was filmed saying, “It was a hopeless cause because there was no warning.” Chief Minister, given your high opinion of this objective Four Corners program, why did you fail to warn the ACT community about the approach of the bushfires on 18 January 2003?
Mr Corbell: Point of order, Mr Speaker. This question has already been asked on numerous occasions and I think it is out of order.
Mrs Dunne: No, it has not.
Mr Pratt: It is in the context of this program. This is new information.
Ms Gallagher: The question is not about Four Corners.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Gallagher!
Mr Corbell: The question was, “Why did you fail to warn the Canberra community?” We have heard that question repeatedly in this place, most recently in the last couple of days. The question is therefore out of order. The Chief Minister has already answered the question.
MR SPEAKER: It is right that that particular part of the question has been answered, but Mr Smyth has drawn the connection between a response that the Chief Minister gave here and a recent publication. I think the question is fair enough.
MR STANHOPE: I certainly have answered this question ad nauseam, but it is interesting that during the week there was a very good discussion on ABC television about the McIntyres Hut fire. The point I made was that the McIntyres Hut fire, which is the fire that burned into Canberra, does not feature in the coroner’s report.
I made the point—and I make it again—that we have been delivered a report by the coroner which does not deal with the fire that burned into Canberra, and that is a pity. We saw that in the discussion on Four Corners. It was discussion around the response of the New South Wales authorities and the New South Wales Rural Fire Service to the McIntyres Hut fire. It raises questions about the response of Phil Koperberg and the New South Wales Rural Fire Service to that fire. We have no information on that—none. The coroner chose not to deal with the McIntyres Hut fire. In the coroner’s report, there is absolutely no discussion of the fire that burned Canberra. She delivered her report on the other fires.
It is interesting that we as a community sought answers and were not provided with them in relation to the McIntyres Hut fire. Absolutely nobody disputes that the fire that burned Canberra was the McIntyres Hut fire—and the coroner did not deal with the McIntyres Hut fire. Nor did the New South Wales coroner. He had a two-day coronial inquest and made the findings that he did—essentially that nobody could be held responsible for the damage caused by that particular fire.
The question in relation to the McIntyres Hut fire is a question that should be directed to the New South Wales government and the New South Wales authority. I reiterate
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