PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES (NATURAL DISASTERS COMMITTEE) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 29 September 2011.)

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (10:34): I would like to speak to the Parliamentary Committees (Natural Disasters Committee) Amendment Bill. I note this bill came about because of the actions of the member for Davenport when looking at having a standing committee into bushfires. I certainly think we should have a committee inquiring into natural disasters and bushfires, and I can understand the member for Davenport's interest in this area knowing the locality of his electorate. It is certainly something that is vitally important for all South Australians. We are seeing things change regarding what is needed to be in place as far as what happens on so-called catastrophic fire days, especially in relation to schools.

There was quite a bit of confusion last fire season when this policy was first put in place for catastrophic fire days and it caused a great deal of confusion, not just in the city but also in the regions. It can cause a great deal of angst as to whether or not school buses run. A lot of school buses have a start time of seven in the morning, if not earlier, so there need to be firm policies as to what procedures need to be in place about shutting down a school and where the refuge of last resort is for education facilities. I can certainly remember my school days, and they seem a long time ago.

Mr Williams: With good reason!

Mr PEDERICK: Not that long ago, member for MacKillop.

Mr Griffiths interjecting:

Mr PEDERICK: Just a couple of years ago; thank you, member for Goyder. The procedure at our little school, Coomandook Area School, was to head out to the school oval. That was a pretty good procedure: you are out in the open, you are on a green area and you are pretty safe. The guidelines being put in place now—the rules, so to speak—are that you need to have an assembly area that is serviced by toilet facilities. In the first instance, some would think that is quite a good idea, but in light of some of the procedures that are in place now with regard to my old school, Coomandook Area School, where my children go—

Mr Pengilly: Did you get expelled?

Mr PEDERICK: No; not at all—the mustering point is one of the central classrooms in the school. I have a problem with that as far as access for fire trucks to get in there. A lot of these school buildings are timber buildings, so likely to light up. I can understand the bit about being near toilets, but toilets might be your last thought if you are trying to escape a blazing inferno that could engulf classrooms.

I certainly think there is a lot more work to do, especially regarding fire safety and what procedures are put in place. I would like to think an open area is far safer, and I know that my area—and I know I am speaking mainly about near where I live at Coomandook—is fairly low risk, but these things really come to the fore when you come to heavily timbered areas, for example, throughout the Adelaide Hills and a lot of the side streets and back streets and that kind of thing.

I am certainly well aware of reports in the newspapers and in the media several years ago about the possibility of losing 300 people in the Hills if we have something like Ash Wednesday 1983 again. I still believe that could be the case because there are a lot of areas where the streets are not very wide, obviously a lot of hills to negotiate, and for people who are not aware of the local area, a lot of places where people could get lost and trapped.

I acknowledge that in the Country Fire Service we now do what is called a burn-over drill every year, where you are either inside the CFS truck or on the back. With our newer trucks all the crew can be in the cabin. There are blinds that can come down on the inside and there are sprinklers around the outside of the cab and around the edge of the truck, and you can certainly get monitors going to propel water around the track as a refuge of last resort.

I think a lot of people will remember those terrible images of several years ago—I think it was in Victoria—of crews that had got caught out in fire trucks and had paid the ultimate sacrifice for their volunteer efforts to protect the community. It was a very sad day for firefighting authorities in that state and for the people involved and their families. So I think there is certainly room for a standing committee in regard to natural disasters. You only know how bad things can get if you are involved in something like this, and I have been involved in the CFS for many years and have fought plenty of fires.

Thankfully some of the guidelines for putting the firefighting aeroplanes in the air have relaxed so that they can go up far sooner to protect property, not just buildings and other built assets, so that fires can be put out far earlier. We noted the debacle that happened at the start of the terrible Wangary fires on the Eyre Peninsula, where a local contractor wanted to put his plane up to fight the fires but was not given approval. To this day—and he can say it for himself—I bet he wished that he had gone against the rules and done that. However, I am pleased that things have moved forward, as I understand it, with regard to getting aircraft in the air. I know that we can get the Elvis Heli Crane—

The Hon. C.C. Fox: Elvis?

Mr PEDERICK: Yes. Elvis re-enters the building.

The Hon. C.C. Fox: I've got the shoes.

Mr PEDERICK: Oh, very nice shoes, Minister for Transport Services. Blue suede? You've hit the money.

Members interjecting:

Mr PEDERICK: Yes, the minister on the other side and other members are trying to distract me, Madam Speaker. I seek your protection. All I am saying is that it is a deadly serious affair. When you hear first-hand accounts of people watching their grandchildren die in a fire, like I heard about the Wangary file, it really hits home. It is quite emotional just to listen to those stories, and to know that there is someone in that situation, who has witnessed these terrible things.

We do need to make sure that the right education programs are put in for the citizens of this state, we need to make sure the right protocols are in place the citizens of this state, and we need to make sure that our emergency services personnel, not just the CFS and MFS, have the right legislation and the right protocols to operate under.

I have been made aware of terrible decisions that have been made with regard to fires, where people have held off back-burning scrub because they were frightened of what the environmental agencies would do to them, but they would have saved a world of pain for communities in the Lameroo region if they had back-burned one day in Ngarkat, because the fire was going to come out at 90 km/h—which it did in the end anyway.

So some of these people in the environmental sector really need to get their heads screwed on; instead of replanting dead trees at Keith get out into there into the real world and have a look at what actually happens. I certainly support the establishment of a committee on natural disasters. It is not just fires; it can be flood or a whole range of other issues that can happen, and I think we should have a standing committee in this place. I fully support it.

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (10:44): I rise to support the member for Davenport and the member for Hammond who has just spoken. I will not speak at length. I think this is a very good move, because I also represent fire and flood-prone areas, particularly in the Barossa Ranges and the Northern Mount Lofty Ranges, particularly in relation to fires.

South Australia has a lot of disasters, usually at least one major disaster per year—whether that be a fire, a flood or a wind storm. Just the other day we had a wind storm in the Riverland. As the member for Chaffey said in this house yesterday, we are all getting phone calls from people who have been very seriously affected by this storm. In fact, some whole orchards have been taken out and glasshouses totally wiped out. Really, I think that there is a strong case here for some sort of compensation from the government, because the government has form in relation to assisting people struck with a natural disaster.

I believe that a committee such as this would be very helpful in relation, first, to doing what it can to assist with that natural disaster to help the victims affected, whether it be fire, flood or a wind storm; and also then to consider what the government should do in relation to any financial assistance.

Over the years, Madam Speaker, you would be aware that we have had several special committees called. We had one for the Mount Remarkable fire (and that went on forever), and we have had several with respect to the Hills and Eyre Peninsula (Wangary) etc. in my time in this place. I think that it is a good move to have a permanent natural disasters committee in place. I think it is a good idea, and I would urge the house to support it.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (10:46): I will speak very briefly because I understand that we have three other very important pieces of private member's business to get to this morning. I strongly support the Hon. Iain Evans' (the member for Davenport) motion. I put on the record that I am an active CFS volunteer member, and I certainly have an interest in this issue, but I certainly support it far more broadly than just because of my interest.

The Natural Resources Committee has done an inquiry into this issue. We will speak at greater length on that inquiry another time, but I would just like to point out that this is not just a country issue: this is a country and metropolitan-fringe issue (as the people in Canberra can attest and as the people at the edges of Sydney can attest), but certainly it is a country and outback areas issue as well.

We have recently seen fires in the north-east of South Australia that were in the Northern Territory and Queensland as well. Those fires, in fact, burnt out an area in excess of the area of the whole state of Tasmania. There have been lots of other disasters as well. I understand that this motion is not just about fires—it includes all natural disasters, including flooding, and earthquakes.

With regard to fires, I would like particularly to put on the record my thanks on behalf of the people of Stuart to all those CFS volunteers who joined strike teams, left home and went up to Queensland, the Northern Territory and the far north-east pastoral area of South Australia to help with those recent fires up there because, without that sort of dedication and commitment, fires all over the state and the nation would not be put out nearly as quickly Thank you very much to all those people.

This motion is particularly important given our recent experience in Queensland with floods. We all remember the earthquake in Newcastle many years ago, and, certainly, the devastating experience in the Adelaide Hills is in everyone's mind as well. Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT have all had devastating experiences with natural disasters, and we have seen very recently the difficulties at Payney Station when, trying to do a burn-out, DENR staff (in the words of some CFS members) 'significantly over-achieved' and had issues there.

I strongly support the member for Davenport's motion. The government did not support his last motion, which was only into bushfires. I hope that the government will support his motion, which is to establish a standing committee into natural disasters.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (10:49): I, too, rise to support the motion from the Hon. Iain Evans to establish a parliamentary committee to oversee natural disasters. In this land of drought and flooding rains, as Dorothea McKellar so famously said, it is not necessarily at the top of our minds most days but, of course, a natural disaster can occur at any time and in any place. What happens in Australia generally, or often, in fact, is a drought, an occasional flood and even—in Adelaide and surrounding areas—the odd earth tremor. So, there is no immunity to natural disaster.

Members who have previously spoken have concentrated particularly on fire danger, and I guess that is the most prevalent and most likely natural disaster here in South Australia given that, with our Mediterranean climate, a good part of our landscape can and will burn for up to six or seven months of the year. So, really, for half of the year we are at risk of that natural disaster, our old enemy in this nation: bushfire.

As recently as yesterday in WA we saw a fire rage out of control and, as of this morning's news, up to 20 houses have been lost. Fortunately, nobody has been hurt, as far as we are aware.

The SPEAKER: Order! There is too much background noise. Show the member for Flinders some respect.

Mr TRELOAR: Thank you, Madam Speaker; because natural disasters and the establishment of a standing committee to consider natural disasters in this state is an important topic. I mentioned the bushfire that raged yesterday in Western Australia where some 20 houses were burnt. I know the devastation that those people are going through. I understand their sense of loss and their sense of pain.

It is at the time of natural disaster that people look to the government; it is when they need government assistance and guidance the most. It is up to the government to put in place management and protocols around natural disaster and the handling of such. As I said, there can be a natural disaster at any time, so we as a state, as a parliament and as a government need to be ready to act and have the appropriate measures in place.

It is an extraordinary demand on resources when a natural disaster does occur, and everybody in this place is well aware of that. It is about the best use, the best management and the most efficient use of those resources, and the preparedness of those resources, in a time of natural disaster. I have much pleasure in supporting this motion.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.