Page 4271 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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yesterday and today there are reports about concerns about how the control room is run inside the Emergency Services Agency.
During the motion on 30 October, Mr Corbell, as he always does when he does not have something sensible to say, sought to simply ridicule the motion. I will read from what he said:
I am sure that if there was a malfunctioning drinks machine at the ESA headquarters I would be held responsible for it … He seems to have a remarkable understanding—unique, I would suggest—about the role of a minister when it comes to the day-to-day management of our emergency services. Believe it or not, I do not check and make sure that the oil is put into the tankers when they go through their service. Believe it or not, I do not check that the batteries are charged for the radios. It is not my job to do so. It is the job of the operational leaders of the services to make sure these things are done.
Well, what is Mr Corbell’s job and where does ministerial responsibility come into the management of an agency? House of Representatives Practice says it is through ministers that the whole of the administration—departments, statutory bodies and agencies of one kind and another—is responsible to the parliament and thus ultimately to the people. Yes, Mr Corbell—surprise, surprise—you are responsible for your department and your agencies and your statutory bodies, and you are responsible to this place. You can laugh and snigger and do all you want, but the reality is that ministerial responsibility says you are responsible for the things that go on inside your department, particularly when they have been brought to your attention.
Oddly enough, House of Representatives Practice goes on to say parliament is the correct forum—the only forum—to test or expose ministerial administrative competence or fitness to hold office. There you are, Mr Corbell. This is the place where you are tested over your administration. You are responsible to us for the appropriation this Assembly might vote to you in your role as minister for emergency services, and you are responsible to us for the day-to-day administration and reporting back to this place of what you do with the funds and the responsibility given to you through approp bills and through the administrative arrangements.
I have to say, the minister fails dismally when it comes to the management of the Emergency Services Agency. It is an important agency; it is an agency that people turn to in times of need. They have very high expectations, as they should, of what that organisation does. That is why we are saying today it is time to take the emergency services out of the justice and community portfolio and put it back into a statutory body, as so many people have recommended and as so many people recognise, to ensure it can operate properly.
Perhaps that is the reason the Chief Minister has moved for extra ministers—so she can take from him some of the more troubling portfolios Mr Corbell seems not to be able to administer. Perhaps that would be a good thing, Chief Minister. Perhaps you should take ESA off Mr Corbell. I suspect anybody on your backbench could do a better job of it than the current minister does.
Following the January 2003 bushfire disaster in the ACT, the ACT government established an inquiry to examine the way in which the emergency services responded
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