Page 1832 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 August 2007
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(f) as a result of the cancellation of the FireLink contract, there is no other mobile data communications and automatic vehicle location systems currently in place for Rural Fire Services and State Emergency Services operations ready for the imminent bushfire season;
(2) condemns the failure of the three ministers to develop a mobile data communications and automatic vehicle location system; and
(3) calls on the government to report to the Assembly by 5 pm on 30 August 2007 what mobile data communications system will be in place for the bushfire season 2007-08, due to commence on 1 November 2007.
My motion is in regard to the emergency services FireLink project and the fact that that project has now been cancelled. I will outline what I believe to be the chronology of events that led us to where we are today, $4.5 million worse off and with no mobile data communication or automatic vehicle location system for front-line bushfire fighting vehicles. The motion demands that we know what the government intends to do now to satisfy the need for the mobile data system—that is, the replacement of FireLink—and whether the government will be ready with a replacement capability for the next bushfire season.
I need to look at the history that pre-dates the decisions taken by the government recently with the project FireLink. I refer to the sad and disastrous events of January 2003, the bushfire disaster, and, on the back of that, the McLeod report, which identified many weaknesses in the system, made many comments and recommendations and drew many conclusions about the state of the emergency services communications systems that we so vividly saw break down in the 2003 bushfire disaster.
On the back of the 2003 bushfires, the Emergency Services Bureau submission to the McLeod report stated:
… radio communications systems did not meet the substantial demands created by an event of this magnitude.
That is from page 110 of the McLeod report. Current projects were also identified in the Emergency Services Bureau submission, one of which was a need for a mobile data subsystem with automatic vehicle location in urban Canberra and beyond. In response to the Emergency Services Bureau submissions, McLeod commented as follows:
Communications are a vital element of safe firefighting, and the highest priority should be given to ensuring that an adequate system is in operation to support all firefighters, both in Canberra and in rural areas. Inadequacies in communication systems have been a recurrent theme in past coronial inquiries.
That was the observation made by McLeod in the report in late 2003 on the back of the disaster. He was reaching back and identifying that subsequent coronial inquiries had pointed out the weaknesses in communications systems. Of course, the Emergency Services Bureau’s list of communication needs had actually been
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