Page 124 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 12 February 2020
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The danger of a motion like this and wanting to give thanks—and I think a few people touched on this yesterday—is that we of course do not know all the things that have been done. But it has been great to see this Assembly take this opportunity both yesterday and today to make those recognitions. All of us know different little anecdotes and different little stories that we have seen, either through our own personal connections or through stuff that has been in the media, but, as many people have said through this period, whilst these have been incredibly difficult times it has also shown, in many regards, the best of human nature and the best strengths of our community. On that, I add my thanks to each person who has done their bit to contribute.
I think there are many learnings. Again, we have heard some of that conversation this morning. For me, the first starting point in learnings is the comparison to 2003, which Mr Parton just made some remarks on. There is no doubt that the ACT is significantly better prepared than we were in 2003. That, again, goes to the work of a lot of people over the years in between and those that are still there today.
One of the things that I particularly noticed in the preparation, and I have seen this for a couple years but it really came through during this period, was that there are still a significant number of people around who were here in 2003, for whom the lessons are very personal, and therefore we can have a real confidence that those lessons will not be forgotten—people like Brett McNamara and Neil Cooper from the parks and conversation service, a couple of people I have dealt with over the years, and many others whom I perhaps do not know as personally. They are, for me, a couple of examples of, in this case, guys who were around in 2003—there are, of course, women as well—who have a very personal conviction to making sure we are better prepared because they experienced the shortcomings that we had in 2003.
I think where one can really lay criticism, if there is to be any, is not learning the lessons. I think what we can see is that lessons were well learned. Both our preparations and response this time around were much better as a result. I have already seen it—people internally making observations: “That worked pretty well but we need to do this,” or “Technology has come so much further and now we can do this as well or instead.” For me, a big part of the learnings is actually the fact that we have learned from last time. I think our community can be both proud of that and grateful that those lessons have been learned.
Having said that, there will be new lessons from this time. I think the hazard reduction discussion will go on quite substantially. We have seen that play out in many forms over the summer—some of it helpful, some of it not so helpful. Members may have seen that I wrote a column on this because there were some important things to say. I think we do it pretty well in the ACT.
Our strategic bushfire management plan, I think, is the key to that. It is a long-term plan. It is a five-year plan. It brings in all key stakeholders, be it the rural fire services, the rural lessees, the traditional custodians or conservationists. All those people who have a stake in this are at the table and, as I observed in my remarks in that article, for me, one of the real strengths of our strategic bushfire management plan is the
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