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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 11 Hansard (21 October) . . Page.. 3846 ..

MRS DUNNE (continuing):

the exercise was a washout. On 5 October the Minister for the Environment appeared on the Today show and claimed that it was not possible to conduct hazard reduction burning because of the "cold, wet winter that had been experienced", despite below-average rainfalls and above-average winter temperatures. Should ACT residents have confidence in statements to the effect that hazard-reduction burning this fire season is up to the mark when the Chief Minister and other ministers engage in silly publicity seeking media stunts rather than ensuring proper burn-offs?

MR STANHOPE: I do not know all the details of the hazard-reduction exercise that occurred on Black Mountain. I understand that, prior to the onset of the rain, 14 hectares of identified area were appropriately burned. It was anticipated that the area to be burned would be slightly larger than that, but 14 hectares is better than nothing. A 14-hectare hazard-reduction burn was achieved on that day. Mrs Dunne, who referred in this chamber to grandstanding and to stunts, does not appear to understand the purpose of hazard-reduction burning. In this pre-fire season period it is fair to say that no-one in this chamber has contradicted the fact that ACT authorities and land managers have been engaged in the most active hazard-reduction program that has ever been conducted, at significant additional expense.

I do not have details of all the hazard-reduction burning that has been undertaken by land management authorities in the ACT. Canberra Urban Parks and Places, ACT Forests, Environment ACT and other land management personnel have undertaken a vast and extensive back-burning exercise in this state, which involved significant additional mowing and slashing and the removal of trees and dead vegetation. Last Friday a significant hazard-reduction exercise of windrow pine logs was undertaken on Gossan Hill, in addition to the three or four hazard-reduction exercises that were undertaken on Black Mountain. Between now and Christmas the Department of Urban Services intends to continue its hazard-reduction exercises whenever conditions allow, before the ground dries out significantly and before it is too dangerous to contemplate such an exercise.

Those hazard-reduction exercises, which have not been completed at this stage, will be completed in autumn. That follows the usual pattern of hazard-reduction burning. In spring and in the run-up to summer we seek to reduce as much of that material as we can. Hazard reduction then recommences in autumn after the abatement of the hot summer period. The government takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that Canberra is as safe as it can be this fire season. We acknowledge the nature of Australia and Canberra and we now have an enhanced sensitivity to our fragile and exposed environment, so we will do everything we can to reduce the incidence of bushfires in this region. We cannot promise that there will be no fires, but we must be well prepared to protect ourselves from them.

MRS DUNNE: I ask a supplementary question. Why was the government so lax in the last autumn and winter period that it conducted almost no hazard-reduction burning-an issue admitted by the Chief Minister on the Today show?

MR STANHOPE: Mrs Dunne might like to tell us what her attitude was to hazard reduction burning on Oakey Hill and other Canberra urban parks. What utter hypocrisy!

Mrs Dunne: On a point of order. I asked the Chief Minister a specific question: why was the government so lax in the last autumn and winter period that it conducted almost no

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