Page 2841 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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management of my directorate, and it is certainly not for this Assembly to try to become the line manager for a part of the ACT government.
My responsibility as a minister is to make sure that services to the community can be delivered and that there is a capability to do that. When this matter was brought to my attention I asked my directorate to give me an assurance that any changes that were made in relation to the organisation of my directorate did not diminish or compromise the capacity of my directorate to deliver the vital fire management function. Those assurances have been given.
On that basis, I am backing the judgement of my senior management team, and this Assembly should do the same. These managers are paid a considerable amount of money to undertake the day-to-day management of a part of the ACT government on behalf of the community. If we do not have confidence in their judgement about how these matters are best managed day to day, then perhaps we should go and apply for their jobs. It is not for this place to try to determine what are essentially day-to-day administrative matters for parts of the government service.
Secondly, the accusation in the motion that the fire management unit is being abolished is simply incorrect. The capacity is being maintained and all the positions are being maintained. This is ignored by Mr Smyth. I am very conscious of the importance of fire management. I am not only minister for TAMS but also Minister for Police and Emergency Services. I am accountable in relation to these matters, and I am not going to permit changes that in any way diminish or compromise the capacity of the government to meet this vital land management function.
So what is occurring, Madam Assistant Speaker? What is occurring is that the proposed parks and conservation branch structure will be comprised of three main sections: planning and logistics; regional parks, reserves and fire management, and national parks, Tidbinbilla nature reserve and rural districts.
This restructure is not about individuals. Under the proposed structure, fire planning will be integrated with other planning areas of parks and reserves because these things overlap and interrelate. For example, fire planning will be integrated with weed control, vertebrate pest management, asset maintenance planning and rural lands planning because on the ground the delivery of those functions and fire management functions involve the same types of equipment needing to be procured, the same types of physical labour having to be deployed on the ground, and it makes sense that that is done in an integrated and coordinated fashion.
Under the proposed structure, as I have said, fire planning will be integrated with other planning areas of parks and reserves, and this makes sense. Fire operations will continue as a single discrete unit within the regional parks, reserves and fire management section, but it will cover all of the ACT, as it should. Fire management should not just be about parts of it. It should be about all of it.
In effect, what this means is that only the officers within the current fire management unit involved with fire planning will be relocated to the planning and logistics section, where they will work with the other parts of the directorate who are responsible for
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