Page 4035 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 30 October 2013
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statement, “We’re having the review because you’ve to get in early and get on top of these things.” I would not say that wasting 12 months, not having your terms of reference and not having selected somebody to do this is getting on top of things. It is negligence and it is failure, and it rests at your feet, minister.
We then go to part (2)(b)(ii). We have the debacle of the new cardiac monitor and defibrillators where we have got teething problems. So there is a bit of a theme here from the minister. “We’ve got growing pains,” and that causes bullying, and “We’ve got teething problems with defibrillators.” They are not teething problems. When you put a piece of equipment, lifesaving equipment, into the field, it has to work 100 per cent of the time. There is no trial period. You do not get a trial period when you are having a heart attack. “Come back tomorrow, heart attack; the defib wasn’t working.” It does not work that way.
You can say that it is a software upgrade. If you have trialled one item and it worked but you install a different item, that is not good process. Surely, what you trial is what you install. So you have to have a question over the trial period, Mr Assistant Speaker.
We now know there are problems with their disciplinary processes. As I said there are outstanding claims. We know that there are now complaints to WorkSafe ACT, to the Fair Work Ombudsman and, I understand, to the human rights commissioner. Mr Corbell said there have only been a small number of complaints. It is only a small organisation. So it would be interesting to know what the number of complaints are and perhaps—
Mr Corbell: Six.
MR SMYTH: Well, there you go—six. And how many of those have gone to ACAT, minister?
Mr Corbell: Six in three years, Brendan.
MR SMYTH: A number of those have gone to ACAT. Well, you see, sometimes when there is a culture of bullying, people do not complain, because when you complain you draw the ire of those that are doing the bullying. So if there is no bullying and there is no problem with the culture, why are you doing a culture review of the service? You are doing it because you know you have got a problem.
As to the State Emergency Service, the deputy officer has resigned and I understand that staff were told that, as a cost saving, he would not be replaced. Section 58 of the Emergencies Act says there must be a deputy officer so I expect we will get an announcement that somebody will be assigned as the deputy officer, but the real question is: is some poor soul now doing two jobs because the minister cannot administer the act?
There is an issue, I understand, with new vehicles. There are five or six new vehicles among the SES brigades that the government was told could be driven by those holding a standard car drivers licence. Unfortunately, if you crew up to the limit of seven, it takes it over the weight limit and you need a truck licence. So apparently we
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