Page 4040 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 30 October 2013
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In relation to payment of close-call and on-call announces, all ESA staff, including RFS staff, are paid allowance and entitlements, such as overtime, in accordance with the relevant enterprise agreement. It is appropriate that the ESA continually improve its processes, and it is currently assessing a draft duty officer arrangement policy and is consulting on that with staff and union representatives. Once that is complete and all views have been canvassed, new agreed duty officer arrangement policies will be implemented. It sounds to me like a pretty competent management response to an important issue.
In relation to the availability of trained IMT officers, the ESA has a comprehensive register of trained and experienced IMT personnel. These members have been involved in active IMTs—instant management teams—within the ACT over the last three years, and many have participated in training in IMTs in other jurisdictions. Members of our IMTs come from RFS staff, volunteers and the parks brigade. (Extension of time granted.) They are supported by additional IMT personnel from ACT Fire and Rescue and the ACT State Emergency Service.
In relation to funds for training, each of the respective services allocates a budget for training and utilises the resources available through the excellent, up-to-date, contemporary and modern ESA training centre built and funded by this Labor government. I pose the rhetorical question: what sorts of training facilities did the previous Liberal government leave for our emergency services? What sort of investment did they put in to, say, hot fire training for volunteers, trench rescue capabilities or vertical rescue? Did they spend any money on those things when they were in government and Mr Smyth was the minister? Not that I can recall.
Mr Smyth wants to know about a second bulk water carrier. The ESA has contractual arrangements with at least eight private bulk water carrying capabilities in the ACT should they be required. That is in addition to its own bulk water carrying capability. There you have it—significant capability available through appropriate contractual arrangements as needed. As it should be, it sounds like a pretty competent management and operational arrangement to me.
Mr Smyth’s motion is really just an attempt to take away from the very significant investments and hard work of the government and undertaken by ESA personnel to make sure our city is well prepared to respond to an emergency. Take, for example, the recent opening of the new west Belconnen Ambulance Service and Fire and Rescue station in October this year. You were present at that, Madam Speaker. That facility has been overwhelmingly well received by the west Belconnen community—a dedicated ambulance coverage capability for the first time for the west Belconnen district and improved facilities for our Fire And Rescue personnel considered by the chief officers of those services as state of the art and one of the best facilities in the country.
We have seen excellent work by our RFS personnel, most importantly in their deployment to the fires in New South Wales where, once again, the ESA demonstrated that, when it comes to our RFS volunteers as well as our parks brigade personnel, Fire and Rescue personnel and other personnel who were deployed, we
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