Page 455 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 13 March 2007
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Given the time of the storm event, 9 pm in the evening, it would not have been practicable in any event for most residents to get up on their roofs in the dark to clean their gutters, if they had not already done so. As members would have seen for themselves, with the level of hail involved, it would not have mattered whether your gutters were empty or not; the hail would have filled the gutters and would have caused localised flooding in buildings, which is what occurred.
Those matters aside, the point to be made is that the decision whether or not to issue a warning using the all hazards warning system was a matter for the ESA and the ESA alone. It was done without reference to me or any other member of the government.
MR MULCAHY: My supplementary question to the minister is: what action have you taken, as minister, to ensure that the ESA warns people about potential serious threats to their safety?
MR CORBELL: This is a matter for the emergency management experts; it is not a matter for politicians to get involved in and to direct in what circumstances an emergency warning—
Mr Smyth: Is that why you sacked Dave Prince? Prattie, is that why Dave Prince was sacked?
MR CORBELL: I ask Mr Smyth to withdraw that, Mr Speaker.
Mr Smyth: I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to Mr Pratt.
MR SPEAKER: I did not hear it.
MR CORBELL: Mr Smyth made the comment: is that why I sacked Mr Prince?
Mr Pratt: He asked me. He didn’t ask you.
MR CORBELL: That is quite an outrageous allegation and I ask Mr Smyth to withdraw it.
Mr Pratt: It was a question actually.
MR SPEAKER: Order! What is alleged to have been said here, Mr Corbell?
MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, Mr Smyth just indicated, in his typical fashion in an interjection: is that why I sacked Mr Prince?
Mr Smyth: It wasn’t an interjection. I asked Mr Pratt a question.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Smyth!
MR CORBELL: He asked: is that why I sacked Mr Prince. That suggestion is quite disorderly and it is also offensive to Mr Prince. I think Mr Smyth should withdraw the comment.
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