Page 3398 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 18 September 2013
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With respect to Mr Smyth’s assertion that he or the select committee on estimates were not provided with certain documents, I say that after the estimates hearing in June this year the government provided copies of a range of bushfire management related reviews conducted by the ESA. These reviews comprehensively address a broad range of issues around bushfire management and response capability, including, in the SBMP version 2, the government’s agreed recommendations from the McLeod and Doogan coronial inquiries and associated implementation reports.
There is plenty of evidence on the public record that demonstrates the work and the significant financial commitment this government has made to increasing bushfire preparedness in the ACT.
As everyone in this place is very much aware, Mr Assistant Speaker, an extensive performance audit was conducted by the Auditor-General. I thank her for this work. The final audit report, released in July this year and tabled in the Assembly, outlines a range of largely administrative recommendations designed to further improve and enhance the governance arrangements in relation to bushfires. The government is finally concluding its overall submission to the public accounts inquiry in response to this latest audit report. I am, though, very pleased that the Auditor-General concluded that the government’s prevention and preparedness activities position the community to meet the challenges of living in the bush capital. The Auditor-General found that the legislation the government has in place, the strategic bushfire management plan and its operational plans provide the framework needed to manage the risk of bushfires in the ACT.
The audit report will certainly contribute to further strengthening bushfire management and preparedness governance in the territory, and it provides us with an assurance that ESA staff and volunteers are working well to ensure they are ready to respond to, and the community is prepared for, major bushfires. The audit report provides the government with the opportunity to respond to change and seek to continually improve the provision and management of bushfire activities in the prevention, preparedness and response spaces.
The government will take the next steps to build on the current planning framework, compliance and operational capability. We will be seeking to strengthen our relationship further with the community to promote resilience, understanding and managing the risks associated with living in the bush capital. The approach of shared responsibility has been a constant theme for the past decade. The Auditor-General’s report and recommendations support the government’s commitment to building further on that shared responsibility through the resilience and capacity of both the community and the government’s agencies.
We can all listen to the words and the reports, but the most telling demonstration of the government’s work and the work of our emergency services to learn the lessons of 2003 can be seen in actions rather than words. The elevated bushfire conditions earlier in January this year, with fires in and around the ACT and New South Wales, resulted in the successful activation and implementation of a number of plans demonstrating their effectiveness across the ESA and whole of government. We saw multiple
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