Page 511 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007
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During the general departmental restructure in about 1998 which bypassed Fran Hinton, there was a dotted line between Mark Owens, my general manager of sport and recreation, and me, and there was another line, which was not dotted, from Mark to Trevor Wheeler, then to Fran and then to me. At the time all those officers were great operators. They were good, loyal and competent public servants in the Department of Education and Training, where the Bureau of Sport and Recreation, a much bigger bureau then than the piddling little office it is now as a result of all the government cuts, was located at the time. I probably would have met with Mark Owens at least two or three times a week.
Even with that arrangement, which is not dissimilar to what the minister is talking about—although there were even fewer formal layers between Mr Owens and me, apart from that little dotted line in that bureaucratic structure; there were not six layers and it was more like two or three—and even with all the very best of intentions there were still some problems with that because Mr Owens had to report to Mr Wheeler, who had to report to Ms Hinton. Other factors came into play which took away the necessary independence for which we were aiming in the Bureau of Sport and Recreation.
A general subsumption into other areas of the department came into play—something that just happens. It is bureaucracy; it is not necessarily because people are deliberately doing the wrong thing. Invariably I am sure that people deliberately try to do the right thing but that is what occurs when layers of reporting and layers of bureaucracy are imposed. It is important that we get the structure right in something as crucial or important as emergency services. It is at the coalface to protect the people of Canberra, to put out bushfires, to stop bushfires coming into the city, and to warn us. Hundreds of volunteers who are involved give up their spare time. In this place the minister and my colleague Mr Smyth do that most admirably.
It is important that we get the structure right. It is important for us to listen to people such as Val Jeffery, the volunteers and Mr Barling. We should listen to people like that at the coalface who know, who have been there before, who have done that and who are still doing it. We have two reports—the McLeod report and the coronial inquest. When McLeod and Doogan, two competent and able individuals, make these recommendations surely even a government as arrogant as this one should listen, think again, and say, “Okay, let us get it right. Maybe we have not got it right. Let us listen to all these people rather than stick our heads in the sand, do absolutely nothing and try to justify what we have done.”
A stand-alone authority would not cost any more than it would cost if it were put into the department. We could make it even more efficient so that it would not cost as much. However, I do not think that is the main issue; it is a matter of detail that the government will have to address. In this important matter the government had ample warning. The bushfires burned over 500 houses in Canberra and killed four people. Emergency services personnel, both paid staff and volunteers, are up in arms in relation to this issue. Surely it is time for the government to stop and think and to say, “Right, maybe we have got it wrong. Let us do what we can to get it right.”
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