Page 3693 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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I have heard Mr Barling say on a number of occasions, not just on 20 November, that this issue has most likely damaged the recruitment of potential volunteers. That is an incredibly serious matter. It is now 21 November. We are in a dreadful situation. Today we have temperatures over 30 degrees, and it is not going to get any better. We have had about 340 millimetres of rain, which is well below the average for this time of year. We will be lucky to get 400 millimetres, instead of the 640 or so we normally get. We are in for a very, very hot summer.
We have this ongoing issue over what is a relatively minor point, but a point of real concern to these volunteers. I ask the government to swallow its pride, accept what the opposition is trying to do here and do the right thing by the people of Canberra and the volunteers.
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (3.17): Mr Speaker, a suspension of standing orders is justified because we have a running sore that has been allowed to run for more than six weeks now, ever since the minister said that he was going to form a committee to deal with an issue which goes to the heart of volunteerism and that he would be dealing with this issue “at the end of the bushfire season”. That is what has got the volunteers stirred up.
The timing is crucial. This matter needs to be addressed here today. We need to get on and sort this matter out so that the volunteers can get the monkey off their back on this particular issue and get about the job right now, this week, of attending to the bushfire threat that we currently have. It is disingenuous of the minister to say that volunteers are not going to jump on their fire trucks and that Mr Pratt and Mr Smyth are making complaints about—
Mr Corbell: That is what you are saying. That is your argument.
MR PRATT: No, we have not said that. What we have said is that you have imposed an unnecessary impost. Volunteers have a hard enough job as it is. We ask them to put themselves on the line of risk. We do not need to make their lives that much more difficult. That is why it is urgent, Mr Speaker, here, this week in this Assembly to sort this matter out.
The minister had an opportunity last week to accept wholeheartedly the opposition’s tabled legislation that would have put this matter to bed. It would have put it to bed then. I presume he was hoping that the meetings that occurred last weekend between emergency services and JACS were going to solve the manner. As we are painfully aware here today, that was not the case. As is clearly stated here today in the VBA letter dated 20 November, they are far from impressed.
So, despite what the minister is saying here today, that the trust fund accounts will meet all of the requirements of the brigades and the units, the brigades and the units remain mistrustful of this particular initiative. That is a fact. They are stating that here. Mr Barling has gone out to all the brigades and gathered the information that indicates that, in the majority, in the main, they are not satisfied with the proposals put forward by JACS. Yes, they are very happy that JACS made the time to meet with them and that
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