Page 54 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 11 February 2020
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evacuation centre. Personally, I had some nervous hours communicating with my son who, on advice, remained in his workplace without power as the Beard fire burned very nearby for several hours. People in my neighbourhood, my street, have all had substantial damage and disruption caused by the hailstorm.
Obviously, the impact of this year’s summer has not stayed at a distance. We have experienced smoke, fire, storm and hail over recent weeks. Canberra has at times been isolated by road, by air and by rail. But the reality is that, of course, we have not been alone. Under the inspiring leadership of Commissioner Georgeina Whelan, who, I note, contributes her time as one of our veterans executive champions in her spare time, our team of teams has prepared, has combatted and has communicated.
For those of us who were in Canberra in 2003, and for the many Canberrans who have lived through the experiences of fires in other places, as my family did in Sydney in 1994, this leadership and this action have brought a sense of reassurance in the midst of understandable anxiety. Today I would also like to acknowledge the great work of Access Canberra in supporting the Canberra community during the recent bushfire events. Over the period of heightened activity, the Access Canberra contact centre provided information to over 600 callers specifically relating to matters such as bushfire preparedness, air quality and P2/N95 masks.
The Access Canberra contact centre also worked through the night and handled over 2,700 calls, in support of the ACT State Emergency Service, in response to the 20 January hailstorm. This is the highest number of calls ever handled for a single event by the contact centre team. Throughout this period, Access Canberra’s website has been continually updated to provide timely information to the community, in support of the Emergency Services Agency and the emergency controller, during the state of alert and state of emergency, as well as during the days of the total fire ban.
During the state of emergency, the Access Canberra contact centre operated continuously for 61 hours, from 7 am on Friday, 31 January, until 8 pm on Sunday, 2 February, providing immediate support to both our community and to the work of our emergency services. Many staff from across Access Canberra volunteered to cover additional contact centre shifts outside normal business hours, willingly giving their time to support the Canberra community at this critical time. This meant that calls could be quickly answered and responded to, and that they could provide a strong level of reassurance to the community at an anxious time.
Access Canberra staff have also supported ACT Health and Canberra Health Services, through the provision of information to the community, to reduce the influx of bushfire and smoke-related calls to the hospital switchboard and to support more recent information about novel coronavirus. I am particularly proud of the efforts of Access Canberra for these efforts and I am pleased to take this opportunity to say thank you to them, on behalf of the ACT community, for their outstanding work over what indeed has been a challenging start to 2020.
I also want to place on the record, as Minister for Seniors and Veterans, my deep appreciation for the strong cooperative work by members of the Australian Defence Force, who have worked as part of the team of teams this summer.
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