Page 2395 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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The Minister has misled the Assembly in replying to Mr Mulcahy and in doing so has adversely affected the reputation of the ACT RFS volunteers, the VBA and Pat Barling (President of the VBA).
I request that this response on behalf of the RFS volunteers, the ACT VBA and Pat Barling (President of the ACT VBA) be included in the parliamentary record in Hansard.
The letter is signed by Pat Barling, President of the ACT VBA. There were three AGMs of various brigades last night, and I can inform the house that the feeling at those three meetings was very strong on this issue. There are very, very unhappy groups of volunteers out there who still claim they are not being heard. They will not resile from their efforts to ensure that they can protect the people of the ACT in the best way they can, and they will not resile from having in place a structure that allows them to do their job properly, effectively and safely.
They will ensure that they are heard by the minister, the commissioner and the bureaucrats, because they are volunteers and they put in thousands of hours during every fire season to protect us as a community. They are incredibly upset at the approach the minister has taken, and again last night, in line with this letter from the VBA. They are disgusted that so many issues have still not been resolved in terms of the restructure, bank accounts and equipment.
Last night, one example given was that volunteers who have completed training and who were to receive a certificate to validate that training have not received certificates for the last two years, and this is what the minister is presiding over. That is why the citizens’ right of reply is important. That is why people are upset with Simon Corbell’s management. They are doubly upset because he is a volunteer himself, and he walked out there on 15 March, hail fellow well met, in his overalls, to say, “It’s okay, I’ll fix it all.” It has not been fixed. Indeed, when the brigades asked for a right of reply to be included in the Hansard, they did so because their minister chose not to represent them, and that is unfortunate. They are upset. The words at the Geyser’s Creek AGM last night were very strong. The executive of my brigade will continue to stand up for volunteers. They will ensure that we are heard. They will ensure that the restructure actually delivers something for the volunteers and the people of the ACT to enhance safety, and they will continue to hold this minister accountable.
MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (11.12): I wish to speak in support of the recommendation of the committee. The committee deliberated over this matter for quite some considerable time and then sought additional information, as I noticed in the report. Under the resolution of the Assembly agreed on 4 May 1995, the committee can only do one of two things. It can recommend that no further action be taken by the Assembly or the committee in relation to the submission, or it can recommend that the response be published by the Assembly or incorporated in Hansard. After careful deliberation, the committee, as you know, was at a point of not agreeing to go forward. Having reached a point where we were not able to agree, it was negatived. We therefore recommended that no further action be taken.
Mr Speaker, there were members of the committee who were of the opinion that there was not enough evidence to indicate that the person’s reputation or the organisation’s
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