Sampson Flat Bushfire

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:34): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Emergency Services a question about the Sampson Flat bushfire.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Can the minister advise the council whether the recommendations from the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council's independent operational audit of the Sampson Flat bushfire have been implemented; in particular, has the role of the CFS been clearly defined as per recommendation 18? Has the number of state incident management teams been increased from four to six as per recommendation 8?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:35): I thank the honourable member for his important question. The honourable member is quite right that after each significant bushfire a review is undertaken. It is an incredibly important part of the process. The honourable member would be aware, as I am sure most members of the chamber are, that each bushfire is different. Very rarely are two bushfires the same.

Each and every time we experience such an event, there are always going to be learnings to be taken from that bushfire in order to ensure that our level of preparedness as a state and the CFS's level of preparedness to be able to equip themselves to deal with different circumstances that different bushfires present are able to be met.

The review of the Sampson Flat bushfire presented a number of different recommendations and you have specifically referred to two of them. I am more than happy to come back regarding the two specific questions that you asked with regard to the Sampson Flat bushfire.