Page 3426 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 September 2005
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supposedly overinsured found insurers were still unwilling to pay out. People lost every family photograph they possessed, which meant for many that they ended up without pictures of deceased relatives or of children when they were young. Here we are over 2½ years after the bushfires and the problems for the bushfire victims are ongoing.
Mr Corbell: This is a stunt.
MR STEFANIAK: It is not a stunt. Only 43 per cent have rebuilt. The bushfire victim advocacy groups say that this is because of a number of factors and that they have not received a huge amount of assistance. The result is that people have found themselves set adrift from old contacts and associations and the effect for many has been very traumatic. Ric Hingee, a bushfire victims’ advocate, says that there is anecdotal evidence of psychological problems resulting from their moving to areas where they had no ties or support amongst people who had not been affected by the fires. Despite the sentiments of many who were not affected by the fires that it is time to move on, my point is that the people who had personal and financial losses are still suffering. Their suffering has been compounded by the fact that the coronial inquest into the fires is still not concluded.
The fact that this coronial process has been so long drawn out has made the victims of the Canberra bushfires angry that they are still waiting for answers. That has added to the suffering they have endured. But it has also had a practical and potentially ill effect. Whilst up to 100 people are expected eventually to take action against the government and other parties, not all have yet made a decision to sue.
Those people who have suffered losses from the fire have been waiting to see the findings of the coronial inquiry. Keith Baker, for example, told WIN news on 9 September this year, “The findings in the coronial report are going to be very important to the decision that we actually make.” Another fire victim, Luciano Quadraccia, also told the WIN journalist, “I was hoping that I’d get information out of the coronial inquest, that I could settle down, read through it carefully and see if there is a case to answer.” Mr Quadraccia said, very reasonably, “I don’t know who’s to blame for any of this. Maybe there is nobody to blame, in which case, let’s see what the coroner says.”
The problem that has arisen is that the coronial process may well not be completed by the time the statute of limitation for personal injury runs out. That, effectively, will occur on 1 July next year. The purpose of this bill today is to protect the rights of bushfire victims by ensuring that bushfire victims who have suffered personal injury are given extra time to consider legal action after that coronial process is finalised.
At present, the statute of limitation for personal injury claims expires, on my reading of the act, on 1 July 2006. That is because of the Civil Law (Wrongs) Act, which was amended, virtually everyone in this house agreeing to it, back in 2003. If you read that and the Limitation Act, effectively it is now three years and effectively claims run from 1 July 2003.
A number of bushfire victims who have lost their homes and who have suffered as a result of the fires have approached the opposition because they have received legal advice that they may be statute barred because of the current law. The Civil Law (Wrongs) Act was amended in the last Assembly and, as I said, the statute of limitation for personal injury claims was dropped from six years to three years. For property
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