Page 2608 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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That was his conclusion—that, across the board, in every aspect of the organisation, it has been revitalised. Of course, the conclusion by Mr Lennox, a former head of the Tasmanian ambulance service and now an expert reviewer on two separate occasions, is that the ACT Ambulance Service has the best response times in the country for any capital city for the priority one 000 call, at the 90th percentile. That is this government’s record; that is my record as Minister for Police and Emergency Services—the best response times in the country of any capital city for a 000 priority one call, at the 90th percentile.
I am very happy to stand by that record, but of course I do not expect any credit from the shadow minister for emergency services because he is not truly interested in these outcomes. He is only interested in making his base political points.
I turn to a number of other matters that Mr Smyth raises, particularly the recommendations in relation to the allegations of bullying, sexism and misogynistic behaviour in the Emergency Services Agency. In particular, he made reference to the matters arising in the ACT Fire & Rescue service. There is no cloud hanging over the membership of the Fire & Rescue service—none put there by me.
The facts are that the overwhelming majority of personnel in the Fire & Rescue service do an outstanding job. They are professional and capable officers who do their job of providing a critical emergency response capability to the community. The facts are also that there have been a number of incidents where behaviour that could be classified as sexist or misogynistic have occurred within the organisation.
Calling that behaviour out does not mean that every member of ACT Fire & Rescue is culpable or associated with that behaviour, because they simply are not. They are good, dedicated and capable professionals who perform a critical task for our community each and every day, and I thank them for that. But I will not walk away from the need to identify and address the problems associated with sexist behaviour when it occurs. That is my focus and that is my concern. It is wrong to say, as some have said, that there has only been one incident and no others. That is wrong. There have been multiple incidents, and it is a problem. The fact is that it is occurring in an organisation where there are only seven women employed in front-line operations, out of over 300.
Those are the facts. It is not a criticism of all the male firefighters at Fire & Rescue; it is not. It is a simple statement of the facts, and I stand by every one of the Fire & Rescue firefighters in ACT Fire & Rescue who do the right thing each and every day, who behave appropriately, responsibly and professionally in the way they do their work and in the way they engage with their colleagues, because we know that is the case for the overwhelming majority of firefighters. We know that is the case.
But there have been inappropriate incidents and they need to be addressed. My directorate and the management of the ESA are working hard to address those matters. That is why we have made the commitments that we have to recruit and provide for more diversity in the workforce, by seeing more women considered for the role of firefighter, because an organisation that is more representative in its make-up of the community it serves is an even healthier organisation, an even more robust and capable organisation.
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