Page 5200 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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work is commencing on a regional strategy for extractive industries which should ensure that important economic and environmental impacts are properly managed in a regional context. Such a coordinated regional approach should reduce pressure on the Murrumbidgee River corridor.
Emergency Service - Disaster Plans
MR DUBY: Mr Speaker, on 29 November Mr Moore asked the Chief Minister a question regarding the legislative basis available to the ACT Emergency Service to invoke a disaster plan in the event of a disaster, for example, the re-election of a Labor government or, perhaps, the failure of the Googong Dam. The Chief Minister referred the question to me as Minister responsible for the ACT Emergency Service.
There is an ACT Disaster Plan, first published in 1984, which, whilst not supported by legislation, has the agreement of all participants, namely, the relevant emergency and welfare agencies, and was authorised by the Commonwealth Minister for Territories and Local Government. There is a supporting welfare plan which is currently being revised. These plans, together with the supporting medical and health plan, provide the ACT with the ability to cope with almost any disaster threat.
Specific arrangements are being made to handle a possible flooding disaster from the Googong Dam within the overall bounds of the ACT Disaster Plan and its supporting plans. My department is currently working on a proposal to provide legislative support to the ACT Disaster Plan.
Asbestos Testing
MR DUBY: Mr Speaker, yesterday Mrs Grassby asked me how long it takes before the first test is made on a sample taken to the air monitoring laboratory in the Asbestos Branch and how often these tests, or the branch results of such tests, get checked by an independent laboratory. I am very pleased to be able to advise Mrs Grassby that, once a sample is taken to the Asbestos Branch laboratory, preparation of the sample for analysis takes around 10 minutes and actual analysis of the sample takes an average of five minutes. The analysis time can vary marginally, depending on the nature of the sample. There is almost no delay in processing samples for analysis, as in 90 per cent of cases the person who took the sample is the person who does the analysis. The normal procedure is that a laboratory officer will return to the laboratory with a batch of samples he or she has collected, prepare them for analysis and then perform the analysis.
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