Page 502 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007
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various emergency services. Finally, and most importantly, it congratulates the emergency service personnel on their ongoing commitment to protecting our community.
Mr Speaker, if members of the opposition were truly prepared to wait and see how it goes, which is what Mr Pratt committed to publicly last week, we would not be considering this motion today. But, quite clearly, they have already made up their minds. At least they should be honest and say so when they are interviewed on radio. As it is, the government is compelled to amend the motion to reflect a more accurate position. I move:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“(1) notes:
(e) that the ACT Government has already fully or partially implemented 51 of the 73 recommendations from the Coroner’s report into the January 2003 bushfires;
(f) the Emergency Services Authority has operational autonomy which is enshrined in legislation and that this is unchanged; and
(g) the proposed new structure contained within the Emergency Services Authority’s Three Year Business Plan will ensure closer operational command and control links between ACT emergency services; and
(2) congratulates the staff of the ACT emergency services who continue to keep our community safe.”.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (10.59): First of all, I must thank Mr Pratt and the opposition for continually focusing on the fires and the structures, if simply for what it has done for my own education on these issues. It has forced me to do my homework and, since the release of the coroner’s report in December 2006, I have read and discussed these matters over and above all the other concerns that I believe also need to receive this much attention. It is very obvious, I think, that this motion reflects the opposition’s view, despite what Mr Pratt said on radio last Friday, which I do believe that Mr Corbell may agree was an aberration rather than in line with what Mr Pratt had been saying in the Assembly, where we have heard really nothing but criticism and, I suspect, some innuendo.
In a period when the opposition is continually dwelling on the flaws, fault and blame it perceives, I think it would do us well to hark back to the feelings in the community immediately after the fires. I remember these as being extreme gratitude to the firefighters, both voluntary and professional, who fought to stop the unstoppable fire and to protect lives and homes. I believe that at that time we were not dwelling on the faults and mistakes that may have been made, though I think that at that time, in our great compassion, we might have thought that people were really doing the best that they could under the circumstances. Those circumstances included structures and the situation of a fire that none of those people had seen the like of. But I do believe that we should always remember that people were doing the best they could at the time.
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