Page 3072 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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In both of those sheds I think there are significant problems. Recommendation 133 is that the Auditor-General conduct a follow-on audit into all aspects related to the move to Fairbairn. Perhaps to that we should add the sheds at Jerrabomberra and Rivers, because I know a number of the volunteers have concerns about what is going on there. There really is a question about the role of shared services procurement in all of these projects.
We heard during the hearings some very sad discourtesy to the Bushfire Council. These are volunteers. They are individuals with great expertise. They do a great deal in protecting the ACT, yet none of them were aware that the minister was to advertise and seek a new council and potentially put them all out of their job that they have volunteered to do. When he was asked, “Why did you put the ads in without telling these individuals?” the minister said:
They were aware that it was the government’s intention to—let me put it this way: they were aware that it was my intention to only reappoint them for a limited period of time.
It still does not let the minister off the hook in regard to the basic courtesy of at least writing to the council—a short email would not have hurt—saying, “Please be aware that on the coming weekend we will have an advert in the paper seeking people who would like to be on the council.” It does not cost much but I think it is a shame that the minister did not act in a courteous way at all.
As we heard yesterday the emergency services commissioner is warning that there is potential for a big grassfire season in particular this year. It is eight years since the disastrous 2003 fires. In that time we have had a couple of years with some decent rainfall. There is a lot of growth. As you drive home from work you can all see that the curing has commenced. Potentially it will be a big season.
My concern is that we have a minister who does not seem interested in the portfolio. For years the Ambulance Service was neglected and we had that very sad report from the Auditor-General about the state of the Ambulance Service. We have had some response to that. There have not been too many colleges for new Fire Brigade officers, so it is good to see that there are some in this year’s budget.
We have taken a dreadful amount of time to build three sheds. Two of them really are not as good as they could be and one has not even started. So the story goes on. You do have to question the strategic leadership that the minister gives. You do have to question the way in which the minister governs this department. And you do have to praise the commissioner and all of his staff, all the professional firefighters, ambulance drivers, the SES officers, the RFS staff and the volunteers for the work that they do, because their work is not being made any easier by this government and in particular by this minister.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (8.23): I will address the Corrections area of this portfolio. There are some underlying issues running through the Corrections portfolio that concern the Greens. Most reports indicate that the first years at the AMC are
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