Page 3690 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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Assembly of 15 November 2006, which negatived the Emergencies Amendment Bill 2006 at the agreement in principle stage.
Last week the minister gave us assurances that this matter would be resolved. The minister said that he was working towards a solution, but the solution is simply “our way or the highway”. The volunteers have said no to the minister’s proposal. As we face perhaps the most dangerous fire season in many years, the volunteers feel disenfranchised by this minister. They feel that the minister is not listening to them. For the territory, that is a very dangerous state of affairs. I can never remember an occasion when the volunteer brigades refused to turn up to the official start of the fire season. It is an indication of their lack of confidence in this minister and the process that he has set forward. We need resolution. We do not need a minister standing on his digs.
Mr Corbell: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
MR SMYTH: We need the opportunity to look at this bill again because it provides the solution the volunteers want.
MR SPEAKER: There is a point of order. Sit down, Mr Smyth.
Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, the motion before us is that standing orders be suspended. We are not debating the substantive matter. Mr Smyth, as he well knows, should address the motion to suspend the standing orders.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Corbell. Your comments should be relevant, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: I am giving you reasons why the standing orders should be suspended. I am not actually giving you reasons why the bill itself should be recommitted. There is a different set of reasons why the volunteers should be given a solution that lets them get on with their job.
But resolution is required and if this matter goes unresolved it will affect morale. In the letter that he sent to the minister and to all members, Mr Barling said, “We believe it is affecting morale and we believe it is affecting recruitment. For these reasons, it is very important to resolve this issue.” The volunteers have said to us and to the community that the only way to resolve this issue, the outcome that they would like, the outcome that would allow them to get on with fighting fires or rescuing people, is for the legislation to be changed. The volunteers were very happy with the legislation that Mr Pratt put forward. We seek to suspend the standing orders so that the vote can be rescinded and the bill recommitted under standing order 137. That is the substance of what we propose. It is a simple solution.
Mr Corbell has said that the parties will keep negotiating. How do you negotiate when one party to the negotiations says, “I want it this way,” and the other party says, “We will only do it that way”? It means that there will be no resolution and we will go through a fire season in which the minister does not have the confidence of his brigades. It is very important that this matter be recast.
Mr Hargreaves: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Mr Smyth is debating the issue. He is not giving us the reason for the suspension.
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