Page 3659 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 26 August 2008
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something I do not recall seeing in any committee proceedings in this Assembly. I was particularly concerned to see the Chief Minister refuse to appear, as he is the minister responsible. Some of the officials from TAMS simply could not answer questions because they related to the environmental area. So it was crucially important, as far as that was concerned, for the Chief Minister to appear. The two relevant ministers, apart from the Chief Minister, did appear.
The Chief Minister, as the environment minister, is responsible for many areas relevant to bushfire preparedness and fire prevention. There was a very real need for him to appear and answer fundamental questions, for example, questions in relation to the disastrous 2003 bushfires that still remain unanswered. I refer to such basic questions as why we were not warned. The committee dealt with quite a volume of information, including the McLeod report, the Doogan inquiry and information on our current state of preparedness, or otherwise. It was crucially important for the Chief Minister to appear in relation to that, and to answer those unanswered questions in relation to just what went wrong in the 2003 bushfires.
Having heard all of the witnesses, it is very clear to me that there is still very much that needs to be done to improve our readiness for a serious fire. Indeed, as experienced firefighters such Val Jeffrey said in evidence, it is only a matter of time before the ACT will be faced with another very serious bushfire crisis. The government needs to listen to people like Val Jeffery, Wayne West, Pat Barling and other very experienced volunteer firefighters. They do a wonderful job and have been around fighting bushfires for decades. I think they know far more than any bureaucrat ever really can. I would strongly urge the government—whichever party is the government after the next election—to second such people to run the rural fire-fighting arm of TAMS, however that agency may be structured.
When I compared some of the statements made to the committee by people in the field and their bureaucratic masters, they bore some similarities to the way World War I was won on the Western Front, and that is concerning. That is even allowing for people being passionate about what they are doing. There really does need to be a lot of work done on relationships, and I will come to that shortly. I am not saying that everyone is not trying to do their best; of course, they are. However, far more notice needs to be taken of what the troops on the front line are actually saying.
Whilst the report mentions the significant problems that still exist in terms of the relationship between the volunteers and the commissioner, I am concerned that not enough is being done to re-establish trust between the volunteers and the ESA management. There has to be an effective two-way street between the volunteers and the organisation, and the government must pull the organisation into line. It must do all that is necessary to re-establish that trust. Clearly, from the evidence before the committee and the opinions given by experienced rural firefighters, that trust simply is not there. There is a huge problem, and we saw that with fire-fighting captains throwing in their keys and putting in their vehicles not all that long ago. It seems to me that the volunteers have ongoing, real and legitimate concerns that must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
It is quite clear to me, too, from all the evidence before the committee that a stand-alone ESA should be re-established. Both McLeod and Coroner Doogan made
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