Page 4033 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 30 October 2013
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Another issue that people in the fire brigade have brought to my attention is that, in the 2012-13 budget, the numbers vary but somewhere between $120,000 and $200,000 was set aside in JACS for a capability review—a review to be carried out by JACS, not by the ESA or its constituent organisations, which I find quite curious. Apparently, the money was there, some draft terms of reference were put together and then the project was shelved. You have to ask: why was that project shelved? And the only answer can be that people got cold feet. They got nervous because what it would do was expose the failings of the government to adequately provide for the protection of the ACT. It would be interesting for the minister to get somebody to dust off those draft terms of reference, make them available to the Assembly and then tell us why that review did not go ahead. I find it strange.
Issues have been raised with me on the effectiveness of cross-crewing—the different scale of crewing in what you would call an urban unit as opposed to an RFS unit and whether they translate or not. It has been put to me that because of the crewing arrangements a number of RFS-style vehicles for fighting bushfires cannot be crewed by Fire and Rescue because they simply do not have enough members aboard. Perhaps the minister could refer to that if this motion gets up.
Part (2)(a)(iv) is the requirement for a second Bronto. The Bronto is the high-lift platform that the Fire and Rescue service uses to fight fires in high-rise buildings. We have one. We have had one for a very long time. But I am sure members would be aware, Mr Assistant Speaker, as you look around the city that there are numerous high rise now. The tactics in fighting a high-rise fire virtually mean you have to have two units, because a Bronto can either be fighting a fire or it can be conducting a rescue. And if there is a high-rise fire then there is a likelihood that people will need to be rescued. So do you fight the fire and stop its spread or do you save those whose lives are under threat? You cannot do both with one Bronto.
People from the brigade constantly talk to me about the need for a second Bronto. When we got the new Bronto, the old one was put into reserve. But my understanding now is that it has not been maintained, parts for it cannot be obtained and to service it each year costs something like half a million dollars. So we have got a Bronto that the brigade will use. They will use it for one of two functions. They will use it to fight the fire or they will use it to rescue people in dangerous situations. You cannot have both.
Again, I would ask the minister to consider this and I would ask the minister, if this motion gets up, to come back and detail why the government have decided against the modern doctrine of firefighting in high rise, and they think it is adequate to have one Bronto. We have just had a debate this morning in which all the Labor members spoke about the city plan and how many thousands more people would be living in the city. They will be living in high rise. You will need a second Bronto. You need it now.
The next issue is post-incident debriefs. This is something I have also asked a lot of questions about. My understanding is that, with the post-incident debrief, one gentleman said to me that it is basically a tick and flick. Somebody will say to you, “Do you feel debriefed and are you stressed?” You say “No” and everybody goes away happy. But I understand there are lots of people—and I understand that even this
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