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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 1939 ..

strategies and planning for fires that might approach the built-up areas. The bill expressly provides for the two fire services to assist one another.

The bill contains significant reforms in planning and fire risk reduction. As far as possible, all of the various plans and rules about land management, particularly fire fuel management, have been drawn into a single framework, and there is a clear obligation upon agencies and government land managers to work together to ensure that standards are agreed and maintained. The new authority will be required to conduct audits of the bushfire preparedness and capability of the land management agencies.

The inclusion of an abatement zone around the more fire prone parts of the city will apply new planning and management rules to outer areas so that the possibility of large-scale damage to our physical assets and our people is minimised. The bill also amends the Building Act 2004 to provide for land to be declared bushfire prone and to require any new buildings on that land to meet additional standards in the building code.

The power of the ESA to deal with hazardous materials has been enhanced and clarified. Compliance and enforcement provisions have been significantly simplified and strengthened in this bill. The old provisions of the Bushfire Act have been overhauled and reproduced in simple form in the bill, which will now apply some penalties outside the bushfire season. There are some amusing but antiquated provisions in the Bushfire Act and its regulations that have been overdue for review for some time. For example, I imagine that there are not too many people that might be caught using stick or crude phosphorus without permission these days. (Extension of time granted.)

Those kinds of revisions have been completely changed to apply in a modern context. There is strong recognition in this bill of the valuable role of our volunteers, who are given clear ownership of their role. There are, of course, various transitional matters, such as transfers of assets and liabilities to the new authority and the continuation of members of the Emergency Management Committee and a short-term extension to the existing members of the Bushfire Council.

Finally, there are consequential amendments to a range of acts to account for the identity and role of the new authority. I had intended to include in the bill a provision requiring owners of certain buildings, including offices, schools and clubs, to provide comprehensive information to workers about measures taken to protect people from fire and fire-related emergencies. However, the matter requires further development and consultation, and I will ask the new authority to consult further on that proposal.

In total, the bill is a complete revision of all the existing legislation for emergency management. It modernises, simplifies and clarifies the planning and management functions of each of the four emergency services and draws those services under a much more cohesive and strategically focused structure. The new authority is designed to be the central focus of emergency management in the ACT—a one stop emergency management shop.

I know that members of the Assembly already have been extensively consulted on this legislation. I now encourage further discussion. For that purpose, the government will make members of my office and my departmental officers available as soon and as often

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