Page 1948 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2017

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(iii) “The abatement zone should be declared a bushfire-prone area, and the requirements of the Building Code of Australia—in particular, its standards for bushfire-prone areas—should be applied to all future developments in the zone.”;

(b) following the recommendations of Mr Ron McLeod, and in line with the later report handed down by Coroner Maria Doogan, the Emergencies Act 2004 was enacted and provided:

(i) a Bushfire Abatement Zone for planning and operational purposes;

(ii) for the BAZ to include “city areas” (“built-up areas” (BUA)); and

(iii) the Response Arrangements at that time (see Notifiable Instrument NI2004—499) included that: “If, in the opinion of the ACT Fire and Rescue, the fire poses a risk to life or property in the Built-up Area, then the ACT Fire and Rescue will assume incident control”. This remained in place in the 2006 iteration (Notifiable Instrument NI2006—221);

(d) in 2011, the BAZ was updated to clarify response arrangements, as agreed by the then Chief Officers of the ACT Fire Brigade and the ACT Rural Fire Service;

(e) in 2016, following a review of the Emergencies Act 2004, there was an update to further clarify response arrangements; and

(f) in 2017, the BAZ and BUA boundaries were updated again to include the suburbs of Throsby and Jacka as built-up areas. This was notified by the Acting ESA Commissioner in a notifiable instrument in April 2017;

(2) notes that:

(a) changes to the BAZ and BUA have not altered the existing response arrangements, which are that first response to all grass and bush fires in the ACT will be by the nearest available most appropriate resource, irrespective of jurisdiction or Service; and

(b) ACT fire services continue to work together in responding to fires in the bushfire abatement zone; and

(3) calls on the Minister to report to the Assembly by the last sitting day in August:

(a) how the BAZ is controlled in regards to planning and operations and what operational procedures are in place to protect the ACT’s urban and rural areas; and

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