Page 3308 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 October 2006
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overall as very useful assets that meet the requirements they have for deployment on the fire ground.
The age of the fleet is of concern to me and I have asked since becoming minister that steps be taken to prepare a comprehensive fleet replacement strategy, not just for the RFS but for all parts of the ESA, so that the government can consider it in the context of the forthcoming budget. In the meantime, I have asked the ESA to ensure that they do proper safety assessments of these vehicles, something they would do as a matter of course regardless of my request, and asked when decisions are made about the availability of particular vehicles that assessments be done on their mechanical worthiness and on their worthiness in terms of other capacities to be on the fire ground, rather than having any arbitrary age limit.
MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Why has the government, over the last five years, not taken appropriate action to rectify this appalling state of affairs whereby 23 out of 54 RFS vehicles listed are beyond their replacement date, with 14 out of the 23 substantially beyond their replacement age?
MR CORBELL: I find it a great irony that a question such as this comes from the former minister for police and emergency services. This is the man who, year after year after year, failed to inject additional resources into the then Emergency Services Bureau.
Mr Stanhope: Absolutely. The one man we inherited this mess from.
Mr Smyth: We’ve gone. You didn’t inherit anything. We replaced half the fleet.
Mr Stanhope: How was your communications system?
MR CORBELL: This is the man who as a minister failed to do anything about the museum piece that was our radio communications system. This is the man who failed year after year after year.
Mr Stanhope: What was your communications system like?
Mr Smyth: Come on! The money is there. We put the money—
MR SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister will come to order. Mr Smyth, come to order.
MR CORBELL: This is the ex-minister who, year after year after year, failed to see any significant increase in resources for bushfire suppression, for fleet replacement, for communications upgrade, even for headquarters provision. That is Brendan Smyth’s legacy. When you hear a question such as this from Mr Smyth, you have to put it into context.
The government has taken steps to improve the fleet right across the ESA. In the most recent budget, funds were allocated for a new super-heavy tanker for the RFS, new vehicle appliances for the ACT fire brigade and new appliances for the ambulance service. On top of that, in previous budgets we have seen allocations of money for new
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