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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2947 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

slow and that we should not have taken these decisions, that we should not be seeking to prepare ourselves as fully as possible, flies in the face of the needs of the people of Canberra and I will not countenance that. That has been the basis of some of the decisions that we have taken.

I will make this point now and I will not dwell on it: the point has been made about the need for us as a community to heal-to heal the trauma, to heal the pain, to heal the harm, to assist those who have been deeply hurt, who are grieving, who are living with sadness, sadness at a loss at a number of levels, sadness at the loss of family, friends and loved ones and sadness at the enormous loss of a lifetime of history, enormous deep grief and sadness which from time to time will express itself in anger, and does. We accept that and understand it. There is a healing process and governments have a place, as leaders of communities, in assisting in the healing process.

What we are going through in here is not part of the healing process; it will not assist in healing the wounds. We have wounds. This sort of debate, these sorts of initiatives-playing politics with this issue, seeking to find someone to blame, seeking to lay some responsibility at my feet, seeking to lay some responsibility for this fire and its impact at the feet of this government-simply open the wounds, simply cause them to suppurate.

You are scratching at the wounds; you are not participating in the moves which we as a community have taken and which we as a government are leading to heal this community. We are seeking to heal the wounds; you are deliberately keeping them open. As much as we seek to heal, you are determined that we not heal.

We do have to note the hypocrisy of the first point of this motion: on the very day that the Liberal Party table detailed legislation to create a new structure for an emergency services organisation, they move a motion directing the government not to do precisely what they have just done. That is just the most appalling hypocrisy. On the very day that you have tabled detailed legislation, complex legislation on a complex subject, you direct through a motion to the Assembly that the government not do what you have just done. I think I need say no more about that.

In my detailed response yesterday-it is in the Hansard-I went through the process in which we will engage in relation to the creation of a new organisation. We will consult with every one of the stakeholders. I will be meeting in 10 minutes with the volunteers brigade to outline that process. We will meet with all of the stakeholders. In my formal response yesterday I indicated that I had been approached by Ms Tucker in relation to working cooperatively with members of this Assembly. I indicated yesterday in my formal response that the government was not averse to Ms Tucker's suggestion of a round table, that we would work with all members of this place. I outlined yesterday all of the things that are in point one, and I did that before laying on the table of this place detailed legislation.

Turning to point two-where appropriate, increase services for those in the community affected by the bushfire disaster, rather than decreasing or removing services-we do that constantly. We have put in place a detailed structure through the Bushfire Recovery Taskforce, through the community and expert reference group, and

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