Page 4277 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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These are things that simply did not exist 10 years ago but are now in place as a result of this government’s ongoing commitment to improving the capabilities of our emergency services, and which have occurred during my tenure as minister.
The government has also invested significantly in a major upgrade of our communications systems. We know, following 2003, that communications was one of the critical failures of the 2003 bushfires. We have made the investment in a new trunk radio network, a digital radio network, that gives our services the capability not only to talk with each other but also to talk with services across the border in New South Wales and to have great capacity for growth and multiplicity of talk channels to manage large-scale incidents. These are the investments that this Labor government has made, and which improve the capability and operational response delivered by our emergency services.
We also put in place the strategic bushfire management plan. The strategic bushfire management plan now delivers one of the most comprehensive on-the-ground fuel management programs of any jurisdiction. We see tens of thousands of hectares every year managed for fire fuel, everything from grazing, slashing and physical removal to hazard reduction burning. These are important measures that help keep our community safe, and the government has put in place the investments needed to make them happen.
The government also has supported better training and investment in training for our volunteers and paid personnel in ambulance and fire and rescue. We have developed new capabilities that are now regarded as some of the best, if not the best, in Australia. The remote area firefighting team capability, for example, means that we can get our firefighters to remote area fires quickly. We can get on top of those fires early and stop them growing and becoming a major problem.
That is exactly the capability that we demonstrated last summer, when the ESA deployed a comprehensive and aggressive attack on multiple lightning strikes in Namadgi national park with only days before a dangerous hot weather system arrived with very strong winds from the prevailing north and north-west. Those fires were brought under control. Those fires were put out before they became a threat to our environment, a threat to Namadgi national park, a threat potentially to other landholders or to the city itself. That is the capability, that is the investment and that is the leadership that this government has put in place when it comes to our Emergency Services Agency.
Emergency services agencies are complex beasts—multiple interests, multiple services, each with a different culture and perspective. They are challenging organisations to run. But do not for a moment detract from what these services and these operational leaders deliver on the ground every day—capability to deal with emergency which is one of the best in the country, and which has been backed up and supported every inch of the way by this Labor government and by the investments it has sought to make and the strategic decisions it has made to support the growth and development of our emergency services.
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