Page 527 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 February 2013
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ACT. I think the EMA’s gain is our loss, and I am sure everyone will work with the new commissioner. But there are still things to be done.
For instance, I heard Dr Bourke quote from the 10th anniversary report to the minister. I think he said something like 108 out of 122 recommendations from the two reports had been actioned. I am not aware that that report has been published. I know that it is with the minister, and it would be great if that report were published so that we know what has been actioned and what has not been actioned and what are the gaps there. If there are some things that have not been done all this time afterwards then you have to ask the question: why?
I understand the minister got that report in December, and I would be very curious, Minister Corbell, as to when you might be choosing to release that report and make it public. I think the mute nature of the minister, who is not known for being shy in this place, indicates that we might not be able to see that report too soon. But it is a shame if the Bushfire Council has done a report, a report that I know they intended to be public, and it is not made public. You would have to ask the question: why is the minister still sitting on it when he has had it for a couple of months? And that is a shame.
Mr Corbell rattled off a long list of achievements. Yes, some of them are achievements and some of them, quite frankly, are not. The cost blow-outs, the cost overruns, the lack of funding, the constant tripping of ESA to the Treasurer’s advance for top-up because the government does not fund them properly, and then it is hidden under additional operational requirements—these simply show that the government is not committed long term to getting the ESA and particularly the RFS on a sustainable footing. There have been blow-outs in the budget to provide the new headquarters. People are telling me there is a lack of space at the training facility and I understand on occasion they have to put tents up so that they can change in them.
I note Dr Bourke and the minister did not mention FireLink. FireLink, $5 million gone. All systems have a teething period. I am told the providers of FireLink had worked out the problem but the minister said, “No more.” It was such an embarrassment they would not do it. So they threw that money away, and that is a shame.
I have a concern that we do not have enough of an influence on or a commitment to public education. Again, some of the long-term volunteers and a couple of the captains have said to me they are very concerned at the cutbacks, particularly to community education. For instance, my brigade regularly goes down to a number of schools in the valley. Again this year, with the captain’s agreement, we took units down to the Holy Family Primary School at Gowrie and we put as many kids as we could through the fire truck, through the tanker, so that they could have an understanding of what it was. All of the schools run units on awareness for their kids. We need to be backing that up. And when you have people saying that they are not happy with the cutbacks in community education, I think that is a shame.
There are two other matters that I think need to be spoken to. Sorry, I will just go to one other, the claim by Mr Corbell that the shed claims are untrue. The volunteers at
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