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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 2 Hansard (5 March) . . Page.. 575 ..

MR PRATT (continuing):

felt that the ACT community has been ill-equipped in terms of its emergency management preventative measures.

We do not have professionally conducted mandatory fire prevention education programs in schools, and we have not had proactive programs in vulnerable suburbs, and it is time we adopted such preventative strategies. For the purpose of this discussion, I would include villages and rural settlements in the definition of fire prone suburbs.

Mr Deputy Speaker, there is already very clear evidence that the most vulnerable streets in Chapman-including the ones which were actually destroyed-did not ever receive visits from emergency services personnel during the fire season. While I am not as clear about this with respect to Duffy and Holder, I would suspect that this may well have been the case there, too. The jury is still out on that, though.

It is a routine practice in the emergency management business that planners and operators conduct reconnaissance in the areas they think may be subject to threat. I have no doubt that the emergency services were very thorough in their reconnaissance of, planning for and preventative measures in bushland, forest areas and rural areas, but perhaps the urban interface may simply have been overlooked.

Reconnaissance and planning bushfire contingencies in suburbs is, in my experience, very important and is best undertaken in consultation with residents, and that does happen to some degree in some fire-prone suburbs in north-western Sydney, for example. This type of activity is confidence-building stuff. It is confidence building for the residents as well as for firemen who may have to return if and when an emergency arises. I would, therefore, propose that the gaps in the system with respect to the Chapman experience immediately highlight the need for urgent measures that can be implemented without waiting for the completion of any inquiries.

I stress, Mr Deputy Speaker, that this is not about having a crack at anybody: this is all about identifying and moving to improve systemic weaknesses. That is more important than playing chase the header. To this end, I call upon the government to immediately introduce a robust program of suburban emergency management briefings into those suburbs identified as being bushfire prone as a proactive means of preparing the community for bushfire contingencies.

In parallel, I call upon the government, again, to ensure that mandatory bushfire education programs for government schools, coordinated jointly by the Education Department and the Emergency Services Bureau, are immediately introduced. I would also like to see the government offer such a program to all non-government schools-it is not mandatory but the offer could, and in fact should, be made.

The ACT is still in bushfire season and, therefore, there is some urgency for the government to have a look at this and perhaps implement something soon. Certainly, the next bushfire season is not that far away so there is not that much time anyway to implement planning for emergency management.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to refer to the concept of a fire-prone suburbs program. The concept would see emergency service units, directed by the Emergency Services Bureau, visiting highly vulnerable streets in vulnerable suburbs, door-knocking residents

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