Page 42 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 February 2007
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Written in 1994, the McBeth report has a prescient quality. I have to ask why this report was hidden by the Follett government, which commissioned it, and can only assume that the government could not bear to have the criticisms in it aired publicly. In the wake of the secret Costello report, which has in more indirect ways impacted upon people’s lives, and with the hindsight we now have on the 2003 fires, I question the wisdom of that. Did people pay for the earlier ALP government’s attempt to keep citizens in the dark regarding the ACT’s fire risk potential with their homes and their lives?
Before the McBeth inquiry, there was a series of reports on matters related to emergency services, with a focus on fire prevention. Prior to self-government, there was the Attwood report and the associated Cohen report in 1986 and the Purdue report in 1988. After self-government, there was the Hannan report in 1991, the Purdon report in 1992, the McDonald report in 1993 and its supplementary in 1994, the McBeth report in 1994, the Glenn report in 1995 and finally, of course, the McLeod report in 2003.
I think it is unlikely that successive governments would have commissioned so many reviews if there had not been deep concerns about the services charged with the protection of Canberra, its natural and built environment and its people. Problems identified include:
• cultural differences between the services—career firefighters and volunteer firefighters and between urban and rural firefighters;
• lack of a shared ethos;
• different administrative and reporting lines; and
• uncertainty about geographical and operational boundaries.
The latest of these reports was, of course, the McLeod report, which was commissioned in response to the 18 January fires. This report seems to have had broad acceptance within the services, including among all Assembly members and within the community. The government’s response was positive, agreeing to all recommendations.
Let me quote from the comment upon this report by Tim Keady, who was then the Chief Executive of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, and Peter Lucas-Smith, who was then the Director of ACT Bushfire and Emergency Services:
All those involved in dealing with the January fires will never forget the suffering inflicted on the community we were unable fully to protect. The hurt suffered by firefighters and emergency workers in the Fire Brigade, Bushfire Service and Emergency Service because of the inability, despite their unstinting efforts, to prevent the large scale destruction of January will also take a long time to heal. Whilst the past will remain with us, our duty now is to move forward, to implement the McLeod recommendations as quickly as possible and thereby provide the community with assurance that bushfire will never again cause such damage to life and property.
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