Motions

Bushfires and Emergency Services

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. S.S. Marshall (resumed on motion).

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (17:37): I rise to support the motion moved by the Premier:

That the house expresses its sincere thanks to South Australia's emergency services personnel and the community organisations which support our emergency services for their efforts to protect life, property and the environment on 20 November 2019 and subsequent days when much of the state was facing catastrophic fire conditions.

In doing so, I acknowledge and thank also the families, the partners, children, parents and other family members of our MFS and CFS staff and volunteers and other emergency service workers who I know undergo a considerable amount of fear and concern for the safety of their loved ones fighting these often catastrophic fires. I know that not until their loved ones return safely home do they breathe a sigh of relief. I commend the motion.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (17:38): I, too, wish to make a brief contribution to support the Premier's motion acknowledging the efforts of South Australia's emergency services and community organisations during the recent catastrophic fires in South Australia. Much of the discussion and contributions today have been around the events of 20 November. Of course, that was the day of extreme heat, extreme wind and catastrophic fire conditions.

I would like to go back a few days earlier, to Monday 11 November, when a fire began that has become known as the Duck Ponds fire. Given the extraordinary efforts on that day by the CFS, SES, SAPOL, SA Water, MFS and also Aerotech—pilots and loaders both—and I am sure many others as well to protect the City of Port Lincoln in the face of strong westerly winds, the fire was contained late in the day on Monday 11 November. Unfortunately two homes were lost; just one was inhabited, the other was uninhabited. Of course there were various fences, pastures and outbuildings lost as well. I think the area was about 280 hectares, but I stand to be corrected on that.

The work done in the ensuing week by the aforementioned emergency services was an extraordinary effort. In essence, they managed to contain the Duck Ponds fire within the fireground and get it to a point where, just nine days later when we entered catastrophic fire conditions, the fire was still able to be contained within that fireground. There were a couple of outbreaks within that fire zone on that day, one in the morning of 20 November and one in the afternoon, but they were quickly pounced upon. There were patrols going right through that day and, as I said, they managed to keep the fire contained.

It was an extraordinary effort on the day of the fire, in the nine days ensuing, and then again on 20 November. I was actually able to sit within the CFS control room on the day of 20 November. It was a day of catastrophic fire danger on Eyre Peninsula, and a decision was made by SA Power Networks to cut mains power to Lower Eyre Peninsula at 11 o'clock that morning. There has been some criticism of that decision, but I can fully understand why it was made. As it turned out trees came down lines came down, and in other parts of the state on that day electrical faults did start fires.

I support the decision by SAPN on that day, given the weather conditions and the forecast. As I said, I was in the CFS control room, and at 1 o'clock on the afternoon of 20 November the grassfire danger index peaked at a reading of 293. I can tell the house that catastrophic conditions are reached when the grassfire danger index exceeds 100.

As I said, at 1pm it reached a reading of 293, almost three times the fire danger index that brings it into catastrophic conditions. Once again I stand to be corrected, but my understanding is that it has only ever exceeded that reading on one occasion, and that was when it tipped over 300 on the day of the Wangary bushfire back in January 2005. In amongst all that, the fire remained contained within the fire zone—fortunately because, as with other fires around the state that day, had they got away they would have been very difficult to stop.

So there we were with no power. The City of Port Lincoln council set up a community refuge at the back of the Nautilus Theatre, and that was much appreciated by the people who made use of it. It is particularly the very young, the very old and the infirm who can become quite distressed on those very hot days of low humidity with no electricity.

I think that we, as communities, can do better. Some did it very well. I understand that up at Cummins the bowling club set up a community refuge, and that worked very well. There was a generator functioning and people were welcomed there. I think other communities need to be better prepared to handle those catastrophic days when the electricity goes out, because they will happen again.

An unintended consequence, although one we have experienced before, is that when the mains electricity supply goes out for an extended period of time so do our communications, particularly our mobile phones. I do not pretend to understand the technology involved, but it seems that most mobile phone towers have a battery backup that will last for about 1½ to two hours. Of course, once the main supply is out for longer than that, the batteries run flat and mobile communication is lost. Ultimately, modern communication systems rely on mains electricity supply.

Generators are an option for telecommunications companies and suppliers to use to back up those towers; however, when the power is out over a large part of the state the demand for generators is beyond the capacity at the moment. We will have to consider this carefully going forward. I have certainly had conversations with many people about this, including the federal government and also our communications companies. Even though it is distressing when the power goes out, I believe it is more distressing and even more dangerous when we lose communications when it is critically important that we have them.

Once the power was restored, which was some 12 hours later—I understand it was 11pm that night, although it may have been different in other places; for us it was off for 12 hours and it came back on at 11pm—it seemed to take a while for communications to be restored fully. Certainly, Dr Gerard Quigley at Cummins made the comment in the Port Lincoln Times on Tuesday 26 November that when the power came back on the signal was still weak.

Once again, I do not necessarily understand the technicalities of all this, but my understanding is that in Cummins the 4G service was able to be restored but not the 3G service. That led to some weak signals and some inconsistencies with the service for some time after the power came on. We need to learn the lessons from catastrophic days, and I think we need to do much better when it comes to retaining our communications systems through periods of extended power outages.

I would like to thank the emergency services in relation to the fire at Port Lincoln and the fires right across the state. It has been said earlier today that there were up to 60 fires across the state on 20 November. They ranged from the Mid North, Yorke Peninsula and I think even to the Riverland. It has been an extraordinary effort by emergency services workers, some of whom are paid staff and many of whom are volunteers who leave their work and their families to go and fight fires and defend property.

Another thing we are generally much better at is our preparedness going into the summer fire season. The messaging has been long and strong for many years now. There have been a number of fires across the state that have caused significant devastation, as well as many smaller ones. People understand the risks that we face in our summertime, given that our Mediterranean landscape will burn for six months of the year, from November right through to April. At any point during that time, our landscape and countryside potentially can burn.

I congratulate people on their preparedness. That really shines through on days when property is threatened, so well done to them. I commend the motion and I commend all the emergency services that do such a fantastic job defending us here in South Australia.

Motion carried.

At 17:49 the house adjourned until Thursday 28 November 2019 at 11:00.