FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES ACT REVIEW

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:21): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: The Fire and Emergency Services Act 2005 commenced operation on 1 October 2005. This new act brought together the three emergency services organisations—the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service, the Country Fire Service and the State Emergency Service—under the one act. The Fire and Emergency Services Act 2005 also established the South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission, a central agency responsible for supporting the three emergency services organisations, as well as undertaking strategic policy, planning, governance and resource allocation for the overall fire and emergency services sector.

The act includes a provision for it to be reviewed after the second anniversary of its commencement. I advise the chamber that on 11 September 2007 Mr John Murray, a former assistant police commissioner of South Australia Police and Deputy Commissioner Australian Federal Police, was appointed to conduct the review. In addition to the requirements for the review set out in section 149 of the Fire and Emergency Services Act, supplementary terms of reference were established to assist and guide Mr Murray in the review process.

Over the six months of the review, Mr Murray conducted detailed consultations with various stakeholders and their representative organisations. He spoke to and received written submissions from interested parties. Mr Murray conducted the review with complete independence, and his report provides frank advice on the operation of the Fire and Emergency Services Act. I thank Mr Murray for his report and commend him on the way he went about coming to his conclusions.

The reviewer made 49 recommendations, which will be analysed and responded to; some require legislative change, while others relate to changes in practices and administrative policy. The review report will be publicly available from this afternoon, and the government, through the South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission and the Commissioner for Fire and Emergencies, will seek feedback about the report from volunteers, representative associations and the community.

The formal consultation about Mr Murray's report will include listening to the views of emergency services stakeholders and their representative associations. The government will then formulate a response and make this public before initiating any legislative changes. Any such changes introduced will also include the recommendations from the Bushfire Management Review and the recent work undertaken after the coronial inquest into the Wangary fires.

The review makes clear that our emergency services organisations—the CFS, the SES and the MFS—should remain as three distinct and separate operational entities. The government is pleased that the review found no need to change this and continues to support and promote the cultural histories and traditions of our three services and their members.

While most recommendations will be considered and accepted by the government, it will not support some of the recommendations in the report. Recommendations about removing volunteer representatives from the SAFECOM board will not be considered by the government. The volunteers in the emergency services sector and their representative organisations bring a unique perspective to decision making that is essential. Instead of removing volunteer representatives, the government intends taking further steps to enhance volunteer participation and consultation in the emergency services sector.

The review report examines ways of enhancing and protecting our many emergency services volunteers, and I intend to have face-to-face discussions with the emergency services representative associations very soon in this regard. Any legislative changes arising from this review, and those that flow from the Bushfire Management Review and the Wangary inquest about bushfire mitigation and prevention, will be brought before the parliament in a timely manner. I will endeavour to table legislation as soon as possible following the consultation process. The government will also consider Mr Murray's recommendations to prescribed bushfire management principles in regulations rather than in substantive legislation. This will allow those measures to be reviewed and altered, as is required by changing land use and environmental and climatic considerations.

Copies of the report will be available on the SAFECOM website from this afternoon and are also available in hard copy through my office. Copies will be provided to all those in this and the other place, as well as representative associations and those who made submissions to the review. In addition, I will contact all my parliamentary colleagues and arrange an opportunity for members of parliament to attend an information and feedback session to allow them to provide me with their views on the review recommendations.

Once again, I thank Mr Murray for his work in conducting this review, and I look forward to meeting with and consulting the various representative groups in the emergency services sector before providing a formal government response to the recommendations of the review.