Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 8 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2960 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

tried to portray the situation as: "We told you so and it's your fault."That is not what we have said. We have not blamed a single individual or named a single individual and said that it was all their fault. If we were going to do that, we would have been moving motions of no confidence. We do not have the facts to do that. Until we get the facts, we will not do that, because we do not want to be like those opposite, who so devalued the notion of censure and no confidence that they raised it willy-nilly at any time they wanted.

Mr Corbell said that the emergency services had done everything that they could, so why move the motion? The motion looks at future needs in the first four points and it does look back at the last point, because we did raise the issue of the need for more education. Yes, the other motion certainly said primarily in schools, but at the heart of the speeches it was certainly said that there was a need for an across-the-board community education program, and that is one of the McLeod recommendations. McLeod validates what we said last year.

Mr Wood said that we are not serious because we have said to the government that they do not need to put in place their model and that we lack seriousness because we have put forward our own model. Our model provides the framework that would allow, that would facilitate, the model which the Volunteer Brigades Association, the emergency services group leaders and, I think, the UFU have all said is the model that they would prefer. That is the difference. We have actually been out talking with these people. I understand that Mr Wood will be meeting today and Mr Stanhope will be meeting tomorrow with the Volunteer Brigades Association. We saw them weeks ago. We have been talking with them constantly since the fires.

Mr Wood's defence seems to be that many of the reforms from 2001 have been implemented. Okay, let's have a chart of the 102 recommendations and see which have been implemented partially or fully. I would be very interested in that. The defence seems to be that most of that work has been done. Okay, which bits have you done and which bits have you not done? If you have that information, Mr Wood, it would be of benefit to members if you tabled it.

The curious thing about Mr Wood's speech was the fact that he said that Canberra Connect had geared up in November, that Canberra Connect was told to get ready to be able to deliver services in case there was an emergency. If you were gearing up in November, doesn't that raise with you the vague notion that maybe you should have told the public that you were gearing up? You were going to crank up Canberra Connect in case something went wrong in the coming bushfire season, but you were not going to tell anyone. That is the cause of the angst that is formulating out in the public. They are uncertain of the facts and they do not know the full story. McLeod was meant to tell us that story. He says that his report is a broad overview. It does not go into detail, which is the problem.

The Chief Minister said that he would like things to heal. I think that we all agree. Perhaps we disagree on the method of the healing, but I think all in this place would like to see the scars that we carry heal. Earlier in the debate, Ms Tucker and Mrs Dunne spoke about denial, anger and bargaining. They are from the works of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who wrote a book on death and dying. It is often transferred to

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .