Page 3159 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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(k) concerns over the centralisation of the ESA Commissioner’s powers; and
(2) calls on the Minister to, on the first sitting day in November 2014, detail how he has addressed these issues.
This is a very important motion, because it goes to basic services, and in many cases lifesaving services, that should be a priority of any government. Instead, we have almost a sense of deja vu, because at about this time last year, I moved a similar motion except that there were many different issues.
The saga of mismanagement and lack of ministerial responsibility continues. For those who have forgotten last year’s motion, it looked at things like inside the ACT fire and rescue service first responder medical training and pay, which has not been resolved; the draft terms of reference for a capability review to be carried out by JACS, which disappeared and have never been seen again, still to be resolved; the effectiveness of cross-crewing between urban and rural vehicles; the requirement for a second Bronto, which, in the light of the Sydney Building fire earlier this year, remains unresolved; and post-incident debriefs and counselling for members of the services, which many members tell me are still inadequate, and therefore are still unresolved. And there was replacement of the out-of-date PODs; they were suddenly revamped and became immediately usable, so there is one—one out of the first six.
In the ACT Ambulance Service, we were speaking about the culture within the service. That is still unresolved. The status of cardiac monitor and defibrillator problems appears to be almost resolved; we will see in time as the battery replacement program continues. But you would have to say that, this long after lifesaving equipment was issued, it is very sad that we have now had almost a year of problems with these machines. There were disciplinary processes. I know of at least three ambulance officers, two of whom I understand have moved on, who sat idle for almost a year because this minister could not get the processes right. It resulted in complaints to WorkSafe ACT, complaints to the Fair Work Ombudsman, and complaints before ACAT. Some of those are still not resolved. And since we last had this debate, last year, WorkSafe has had to issue a provisional improvement notice to the ESA because they were not following practices to take care of workers who were being bullied.
Then there is the ACT State Emergency Service. There was the issue of the replacement of the deputy officer. And we had to go out and get truck licences for SES members because they bought trucks that were too heavy when they were equipped and had a full crew, which took them over the legal load limit. Again, this really does throw out questions about procurement and the accuracy of the way things are carried out under this minister.
Then there is the ACT Rural Fire Service. There was the replacement of the deputy officer as per section 53 of the act. While that deputy officer resigned, there was a new deputy officer, and then he was taken off line to go and do the strategic bushfire management plan. Then we had the fiasco of the payment of close-call on-call allowances: it was announced they were gone; then it was re-announced that they were being consulted on; then it was re-announced that it was all going to go away.
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