Page 1868 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 22 August 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
season. That is why Mr Corbell’s amendment is unacceptable—it simply does not address the urgency of the matter.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services (4:08): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to move an amendment to my amendment.
Leave granted.
MR CORBELL: I propose to add a paragraph to the end of my amendment. I move:
Add:
“(e) the Minister for Police and Emergency Services will provide an update on the implementation of alternative communications systems for vehicle location prior to the commencement of the 2007-2008 bushfire season.”.
I simply want to indicate to members my goodwill, in that members will be informed, and of course the community will be informed, of the status of arrangements for being able to identify the physical location of vehicles in the event of incidents occurring in the 2007-08 bushfire season. I am happy to undertake to the Assembly to do that before the commencement of the next season, on 1 October.
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (4:10): I welcome Mr Corbell’s additional amendment in that he is now prepared to come back to this place and give that information. It is urgent information that the opposition and the community need to know—and no doubt the men and women in the field need to know—about what is going to be done. So I welcome Mr Corbell’s additional amendment. However, I cannot support the entire amended amendment, because the first four paragraphs go to the heart of the argument that I put forward a couple of minutes ago. So while I do welcome and support paragraph (e), I cannot support the entire amendment because it is still self-congratulatory and avoids the fact that we are not getting to the heart of what went wrong with this project in the last three years.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (4:11): I am very pleased that Mr Corbell has responded to community concerns, and to what is perhaps at the heart of Mr Pratt’s motion. It was certainly a response to my concerns that no action was included in his original amendment. Consequently, I think he has perhaps understood today the extent of community concern and insecurity about whether we have a decent communications system—something that is basic to fighting fire. I commend the fact that he was prepared to do that, and I support his amendment.
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (4:12): In closing, I will address a couple of the issues. Firstly, I reiterate that the opposition is happy that Mr Corbell amended his amendment in the way that he did. We look forward very much to getting his advice prior to the bushfire season as to what action they have taken or will take to address the gap regarding the mobile data system component of the communications system.
I will address the first point that Mr Corbell raised earlier. He said that only since the emergency services agency became an agency, having been downsized from being an independent authority and returned to JACS, has it been possible to identify the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .