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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 188 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

The firestorm of 18 January is the single most horrible disaster to affect this territory in living memory. It took four citizens' lives, destroyed millions of dollars worth of private and community property and has caused untold angst. It will affect many people for a long time to come as the trauma and some of the problems set in. It is essential that the most thorough inquiry be held so that, if there are lessons to be learnt, they will be learnt.

It is essential that people who give evidence before an inquiry be able to do so fearlessly, have their say and be properly protected. That will be so for people who give evidence before the Coroners Court. On many occasions I was an assistant to the coroner when I was with the DPP. The Coroner's Court is quite often very thorough. I have no doubt that it will do its job very well. But because of the nature of it, it can cover only a certain number of things. It will not be able to cover every conceivable angle.

I would like to put on record my complete faith in the coroner chosen, Maria Doogan, whom I have an immense amount of time for. I have told her that privately, and I will say it publicly. She is an excellent magistrate. But there will be things looked at elsewhere which the Coroners Court will not be able to look at.

It was interesting to hear the Chief Minister in his response to Mrs Cross's question today. It was quite a good question. I am a bit surprised that she accepted the Chief Minister's explanation and does not want this inquiry at this stage. If you do not have it at this stage, you probably never will. The Chief Minister said a number of things. He talked about sections 18 and 19 of the Coroners Act, which I will read out for the record shortly.

The Chief Minister said that there is the separation of powers issue. He is absolutely right. The second point he made was: "I cannot direct the coroner."He is absolutely right. He cannot. There will be a team of very experienced police helping the coroner. An experienced police officer will be the coroner's assistant and will assist the DPP. The DPP will brief senior counsel. It will be a big inquiry.

I can remember the hospital implosion inquiry. A number of people were not satisfied that everything that they wanted to see happen in fact occurred. It is the nature of coronial inquests. Even the government seems to appreciate that. The Chief Minister said that he wants the McLeod review to complement the work of the coroner.

My colleague Mr Smyth wants an inquiry under the Inquiries Act to complement the work of the coroner. He wants to ensure that it covers every single conceivable base. We owe it to the territory to do that. We owe it to the people who have been tragically affected by this fire. We owe it to the relatives of the four tragically killed. At this stage it is not a question of apportioning blame. Let us have proper full inquiries to see exactly what happened and what we need to do.

Section 18 of the Coroners Act, under division 3.2, "Inquiries into fires", states:

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