Page 3645 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014
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incident controllers. That control is the responsibility of an incident controller and occurs across services and agencies. Coordination is the responsibility of the Emergency Services Commissioner, unless an emergency controller is appointed. To further clarify this intent, I will be moving a government amendment which defines the concept of coordination for section 8A and which I will further elaborate on when that amendment is introduced.
Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia have all reviewed or are changing the structure of their emergency services agencies and their legislative frameworks to achieve better coordination of their emergency services when responding to a major emergency. South Australia is considering similar changes. It is important that we make these changes today.
In addition to clarifying the commissioner’s power, it is also proposed that the power provided to chief officers to respond to emergencies be extended in a number of areas. Chief officers of the ambulance service, fire and rescue, rural fire service and state emergency services are provided with general powers in section 34 of the act for the protection or preservation of life, property or the environment. Exercises and planning activities over the past two years have highlighted the need for powers to be clarified in relation to chief officers’ ability to close premises and to obtain information.
Currently, the closure of any premise in an emergency is achieved by de facto using the following powers: the power to give directions to regulate or prohibit the movement of people, animals or vehicles; and the power to evacuate people or animals from an area to another place.
The proposed amendment provides the power for chief officers to close any premise. The definition of “premises” in the act includes “any land, structure or vehicle and any part of an area of land, a structure or vehicle”. An additional power has been provided to chief officers for the purposes of obtaining information from a person which further clarifies and supports the power in section 34 requiring a person to give reasonable assistance to a member of an emergency service. A new power has been included requiring a person to give information, answer questions or produce documents or anything else reasonably needed for the purposes of preserving or protecting life, property or the environment.
Clarifying the ability for all chief officers to close any premise and provide information supports the management of our emergencies. The bill also expands the powers of an emergency controller if one is appointed by the Chief Minister under part 7.3 of the act. An emergency controller appointed by the Chief Minister under part 7.3 is provided with certain powers to manage emergencies that, because of their scale or nature, present a significant risk to the health and safety of people, animals or property in the ACT, or to the environment of the ACT, or the disruption of essential services in the ACT.
Currently, an emergency controller has the power to maintain, restore or prevent disruption of essential services. The amendments in this bill provide the emergency controller with powers to not only maintain, restore or prevent disruption of essential services but also control and coordinate the distribution of essential services in times
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