Parliamentary Committees

Select Committee on the Fire and Emergency Services (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

Adjourned debate on motion of Mr Treloar (resumed on motion).

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (17:40): I rise to speak on the report of the Select Committee on the Fire and Emergency Services (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill. In doing so, I want to put on record, first and foremost, my thanks for the fantastic work that is done by our emergency services, especially in and around the areas of the Barossa, Mid North and Adelaide Plains of our state. They are parts of our state that, because of mother nature and circumstance, have had to deal with some extremely tragic circumstances. On each and every one of those occasions, the work of the Country Fire Service, as well as the State Emergency Service and everyone else, every farmer on a farm fire unit, has helped to make us more safe.

In fact, the number of stories that I have heard over my time as a parliamentarian and even before then of where individual acts of selflessness have helped to stave off disaster have been too many to recount to this place in the mere 20 minutes that I have. We understand that these groups are part of the very fabric of society within South Australia. These are groups who are farmers themselves, who are volunteers from townships themselves, getting involved to help and keep their local community safe.

We know that in this modern era unfortunately there is a tendency to move away from volunteerism in society and move towards the professionalisation or, indeed, the increased advent of government providing services in our community. But this great bastion, the Country Fire Service, remains steadfastly true to the fact that it is a volunteer service. In fact, off the top of my head, of all the policies put to me in my time as a shadow minister in relation to the CFS Volunteer Association, their number one priority is to remain a volunteer organisation, because they understand that this is a commitment that people give freely, a commitment that people give without seeking favour.

It has been my experience that it is a commitment that people make simply because they love the place they live in, and so I think we need to continually acknowledge that in this place. In fact, if indeed there were a day when we had to try to replace those volunteer hours with paid professional service men and women, the cost to the South Australian taxpayer would be immense. In fact, it would make it very difficult to actually administer because a lot of the time these people are not needed on a daily basis, they are not needed even on a weekly basis, but they are needed when things go wrong. They need to be able to respond at a moment's notice, and they need to be able to respond with all the knowledge, equipment and experience that comes with being a member of the CFS.

What we are dealing with here today is essentially this government's commitment to make sure that we consult with regional communities about issues that affect regional communities. Again, there have been very significant bushfires in my electorate, including the Krondorf fire back in 2013, the Eden Valley fire in 2013, the Sampson Flat bushfire in early 2015, and the Pinery fire in late 2015. Whether it be the Angaston fire that happened in my electorate just last week or whether it be a small fire that seems to have cropped up in Springton at 3 o'clock this afternoon, my community has been ravaged by fire in recent years.

What tends to happen in these situations is that the community looks for answers. I know with the Sampson Flat fire, having attended a Kersbrook community meeting post that fire, a lot of questions were being asked of CFS hierarchy about what exactly sparked that fire in the first place. I know that that is something the community was very keen to get to the bottom of. In fact, during the Angaston fire just last week it was suggested to me at the time that the fire was started because of spontaneously combusting horse manure.

It turns out that was not the case. There was a fire pit next to the pile of horse manure that had been used to burn things somewhere back in June or July, and after some three, four or five months of that fire having been put out there was a re-sparking of something that was smouldering deep within that pit. From there, in turn, it sparked the fire into the horse manure, and then on a catastrophic fire day with 42˚ and some decent winds coming from the north things tend to get out of hand extremely quickly.

I would also like to correct the record. I made a speech earlier in this place about the fact that there were 19 appliances that helped to fight that fire. In fact, there were 20. So to that 20^th service, can I say thank you for the work that you did last week keeping my house safe, keeping everybody's house in Angaston safe and also keeping all those people safe who operate in our horse industry out the back of Angaston and around Collingrove Homestead and the Cornerstone Stud, as well as the Yalumba property that was evacuated last week.

Getting to the heart of where and why these fires start is of concern to communities and it is why we need to be extremely vigilant. At times, there is the ability for the conduct of individuals, whether they be a farmer on a header, somebody on a lawnmower or somebody out doing a bit of welding in the backyard when they should not be—there are a whole host of examples about where people's conduct can spark a bushfire—to spark a catastrophic consequence. Making sure that there are appropriate powers in place to deal with those eventualities is important.

We certainly understand that there is a central tension there: people wanting to be safe, but also not wanting to get in the way of people in regional communities being able to quietly enjoy and go about their business. I think that central tension is one that this fantastic select committee sought to deal with. They took their time. They dealt with this thoroughly. In fact, as I understand it, there were some 62 witnesses called forward to this committee, which I think is a phenomenal amount of people.

At this stage, what I would really like to do is put on record my thanks to the members of the committee who helped to undertake this very important work to essentially get to the bottom of the central tension that exists in regional communities. I particularly want to thank the member for Finniss for his work; the member for Mawson, whose Fleurieu communities and Kangaroo Island communities would very much be at the heart of this; the member for Giles, whose community out in the Far North is certainly prone to bushfires when things get hot and dry; as well as the member for Heysen, whose electorate no doubt is prepared for and worried about bushfire every time things get warm. I must admit I was a bit young when the Ash Wednesday bushfires came through the Hills, but I know how important those issues are to his community and so I definitely understand his desire to make sure we get this right.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to thank you for your chairmanship of this committee, as somebody who has a wealth of knowledge being on a farm somewhere north of Port Lincoln and around Cummins. It is God's country, as some would say. I think harvest still turned out alright this year. Thank you for your work on this committee.

Regarding the deliberations of this committee and the recommendations that they put down, I think that they have come to a very good and sensible solution. Those recommendations are essentially around proposing that the powers outlined in clause 23 of the bill be introduced, subject to amendments recommended by this report. They recommend:

2. Clause 23 of the Bill be amended to clarify which officers will be authorised to exercise the proposed powers to direct that a prescribed activity be ceased or not commenced. This power should be limited to South Australia Police officers.

3. The South Australian Government develop enforcement criteria and guidelines for the exercise of the proposed powers. The South Australian Government should consult with industry bodies and relevant stakeholders in developing these criteria and guidelines.

That is a very important and very sensible recommendation. They also recommend:

4. Clause 23 of the Bill be amended to require that the exercise of powers in section 82 must take into account any relevant industry-led codes of practice, including the Grain Harvesting Code of Practice.

Again, this is recognition of the fact that this is not an issue the grain farmers of South Australia have not thought about. When fire happens and things go wrong, it tends to be their crops first in the firing line. In fact, a hearing from the Minister for Primary Industries about the level of devastation and crops lost on Yorke Peninsula last week speaks to the fact that farmers have a pretty strong vested interest in making sure their crops do not burn before they get them off the land. So again the Grain Harvesting Code of Practice is an important measure to keep in mind.

We move on to recommendation 5:

5. The South Australian government support and encourage all relevant stakeholders, including peak industry bodies, to implement and review relevant codes of practice, including developing codes of practice for prescribed activities that may cause fires. This should include developing a mechanism to recognise codes of practice for the purpose of exercising the proposed powers outlined in clause 23.

Again, this is an extremely important measure. I commend this report to the house. I thank all members of this committee for their work, and I look forward to the further passage of subsequent bills to put into effect the very broad consultation this government has undertaken.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.A.W. Gardner.

Sitting extended beyond 18:00 on motion of Hon. J.A.W. Gardner.