Page 2840 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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They particularly state that they support my motion. The correspondence goes on to say:
Cancel the dismemberment of the TAMS Fire Management Unit.
And another email states:
Do not permit the proposed redundancies …
The minister has talked about changing the role of the manager. I think we get the code for that. It goes on to say:
Many of the current incumbents are fully aware of the inherent problems created by the TAMS restructure, and are now in unstable jobs due to raising the possible impacts for the ACT of the proposed changes. I know just how much the ACT should be indebted to at least some of the current incumbents, as it was them who did (and are still doing) all the hard yards in the better whole-of-ACT disaster planning after the bushfire disaster. The way these people have been treated by senior TAMS staff is appalling! Having said this, I hope you will:
i) oppose the disbanding of the TAMS fire management unit which is proposed at present and also
ii) not permit any redundancies of the conservation staff by TAMS.
These are serious concerns that are coming from across the board. The minister has not made the case for this restructure. A lot of people have been worried about this for some time. We are not told what the benefits are and we do not see a clear path forward. But what the minister is doing is changing an arrangement that currently works very well.
It is the arrangement that both McLeod and Doogan said that we needed. It is an arrangement which, I believe when you read the Hawke report, says that the current set-up is quite fine—nothing is needed here. Mr Corbell is not renowned for being very terse with his answers, but he was very much so yesterday. It worries me when we get very short answers from the minister.
I wonder whether the minister truly understands how effective the fire management unit is in its current arrangements and how effective it has been, but also how much faith it has built up in the community and the support it has in the community for the current arrangements because it is doing the job and doing it superbly well. It should not be abolished.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (3.32): The government will not be supporting this motion today. First and foremost, I take the view as minister that I should back the judgement of my senior executive staff when it comes to the day-to-day management of my directorate. It is not for me to micromanage the day-to-day
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