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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2983 ..

a number of years. Perhaps it could not be achieved in the life of this parliament or the next parliament, but the target should be identified so that we can tell the community that something is going to be done to protect all elements of the community sooner or later.

I am pleased to see that the government’s emergency bill has taken on board the need for disaster plans so that each of the vulnerable suburbs, the settlements and the villages, will get their own emergency plan. I do not know whether anything in the appropriation shows that that is going to be properly achieved. I presume the government will find the funding somewhere to undertake that capability as well.

These disaster plans are very important. It is important to analyse each vulnerable suburb and draw up a plan for it. It is important to find the vulnerable areas and evacuation routes for each of these suburbs and it is then important to educate and inform the residents of those suburbs about what that plan is. I look forward to the government showing us some detail later on how exactly it is going to do that.

I want to talk briefly about fire fuel management. I see $500,000 per year over four years is allocated, and this is welcome. In the estimates hearing when I asked what the plan was and how the government was going to spend that money, the answers were not forthcoming. I do not know that the community can be confident that the government will really lock down this need to define bushfire fuel management targets and strategies, and inform the public—land managers, landowners and everybody else—what they are so that everybody knows what their obligations are and to make sure that these very important things are done.

I was also pleased to see the government pick up the community communications and information plan, but that is going to require funding. I do not know whether funding is in the appropriation to make that work. I remind the government that its education plan will need to cover all of those areas as well.

MS DUNDAS (11.41): I put on the record that we wish the new Emergency Services Authority well. The development of the structure has been subject to significant debate after the McLeod report but the new Emergency Services Authority does have an important job in supporting the ACT community at times of crisis. In that sense I wish it all the best and I hope that it is able to do the job that we all hope that they can. I also make reference to recommendation 19 of the Estimates Committee, which talked about issues in relation to family services staff dealing with emergency situations.

The government has said that a review or analysis is being undertaken about how the Emergency Services Authority can take on a greater role in dealing with crisis situations and that the aim is to share the response and ongoing recovery effort whilst maintaining a responsive service for children and young people in the care of the territory. It would be interesting to know whether that review or analysis is looking at emergency services taking on the whole of the responsibility as the authority has trained people to deal with those emergency crises, and the Office of Children, Youth and Family Support is free to focus on what its title says.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (11.42): Earlier, Mr Quinlan said the former emergency services arrangements were ours, that we put them in place, selected the staff, they were there in December 2001, and it was still our system in January 2003. He is

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