Page 3871 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 4 December 2007
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In relation to the headquarters, the government is moving ahead with the implementation of the Fairbairn headquarters. Following 2006, the changes to the structure of ESA necessitated a review of the accommodation arrangements for that organisation. It also required the completion of the enterprise bargaining arrangements for the ACT Fire Brigade, which is the single largest paid element, and therefore full-time employee element, of the ESA. Those negotiations are largely complete, as of course is the restructure of the ESA. We are now in a position to move forward with the development of the new headquarters at Fairbairn. Yes, it has taken longer than anyone would have liked, but it is still proceeding. That is where the ESA will be, and the government will be announcing further measures to ensure that that does occur in the coming months.
The government’s record is a strong one when it comes to emergency preparedness. It is easy to play the fear card in this debate and to talk up risks of disaster, but it is harder to deal with the very serious issues that we face in running an organisation of this size and budget and making sure that it is well prepared to meet emergencies and to protect our community into the future.
This government has a strong record: more funding for our emergency services, improved governance, better business management and improved accountability. We have shown that our emergency services are up to the job—and not just with small-scale, ad hoc emergencies, whatever they are, according to Mr Mulcahy, but with ongoing, serious, large-scale incidents such as the hailstorm earlier this year and the flooding associated with some of those severe storm events.
We have seen significant fires in areas of the ACT that have required a coordinated response across agencies, and we have involved our emergency services in detailed exercising around countering terrorist-style events. In all of these incidents, the structures have worked, and worked well. Our emergency services work well together, they coordinate and communicate effectively with each other, and they now have the resources, the governance and the framework to deliver their important services to the ACT. The effectiveness of our emergency services is not in doubt, and they will continue to go from strength to strength.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (3.55): Mr Speaker, I am quite sure that I will be brief compared to the other speakers because I want to add a different element to the debate. I want to start by saying I think it is a pity that the topic of emergency services, like health, has become so politicised. I suppose it is unavoidable. This is a political place; politics is our business. My concern is that it does not lead to constructive discussions and moving forward on these matters. Like health, emergency services is absolutely basic to our wellbeing in this territory. I am not sure that it is really helpful to have one side trying to find fault and the other in the position of defending itself. There is a lot of ground in the middle where there could well be agreement but one does not often hear it in these kinds of debates.
There are a number of issues. Mr Mulcahy touched on them in his speech, and no doubt Mr Pratt and Mr Stefaniak will do so in theirs—and they will be right, in many senses. But I do get the impression from Mr Corbell that there is a genuine attempt to move ahead on most of those matters, and I do appreciate that.
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