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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-05 Daily Xml
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BUSHFIRES

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (15:40): The subject I am going to talk about is one of extreme importance. When the Minister for Emergency Services stood up to make a contribution today in relation to responding to the fires in Victoria, I thought: here we go, we are really going to get some positive action, but what did we get? We got a committee. If you want to lose something, get it off the agenda and refer it to a committee.

I read through the press release carefully, because I wondered who was going to be on the committee. With two exceptions, I doubt whether any of the people on this committee have ever been involved in firefighting, controlled burning off or any other aspects of hazard reduction.

Let us just examine this committee. We have the chief of the CFS. This is totally appropriate, and we have full confidence in him. We have Mr Holmes from the Department of Environment and Heritage, who I understand was a forester, so he would have knowledge in this area. I also do not have a problem with the chief fire officer, but why do we not have someone from local government? The Mayor of Mitcham has been before the NRM committee advising of the hazards in Mitcham. Why do we not have someone like the chairman from Mount Remarkable where, unfortunately, bushfires have occurred on a regular basis.

Mr Pengilly: The member for Stuart. They should put him on it.

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: I'm just a simple farmer.

Mr Venning: You'll be available, too, in 12 months' time.

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Perhaps with the exception of the member there, I am one of the few people left in this parliament who has actually been involved in land clearing and lit decent scrub fires. I did it on a regular basis in my younger days. We are still involved in burning off stubble and grass, and we absolutely know what it is like and how to light a fire.

Mr Pederick: And how to manage it.

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: And how to manage it in the public interest. I say to the minister: I do not know who concocted this particular task force, but I ask him to come into this house and tell us, and justify why there are no ordinary agricultural people on this committee who actually understand—

Mr Pengilly: Practical.

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: —and have some practical experience. For God's sake, why do we have to have one set of bureaucrats sitting in judgment of others? This is the government's second attempt. It brought this document in here when we came back a couple of weeks ago: 'The Code of Practice for the Management of Native Vegetation to Reduce the Impact of Bushfire'. When this was put in our letterbox, I thought perhaps we had had another win but, when I read through it, I saw that it was the same old nonsense.

I will give you one example. If you have a shed and a water tank with your fire pump, whether it be electric or petrol/diesel driven, you are only allowed to clear five metres. I would like to put the minister and the bureaucrat who wrote this in a situation where fires are coming over the hill, because they really would get more than scorched pants. It is a nonsense. If you had any practical understanding, you would know it is a nonsense. Why do they continue to insist?

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Why, Gunny, why?

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Because they are either bigots or they do not have an understanding of the dangers they are creating for the people of this state. The government has been warned, it has been pleaded with, but it takes no notice. When more of these areas in South Australia go—as they will—and a great deal of damage is done, the government will have no-one but itself to blame, because it has not listened.

Anyone knows that, to control or contain these vast areas of native vegetation, you have to back-burn, and you have to do it at the right time of the day. You have to be able to get in there and you have to have decent access tracks. Five metres is an absolute nonsense, and anyone who knows anything about it knows that it is a nonsense. So, I appeal to the minister and the government to add to the task force at least two or three people who are not public servants, who have had practical experience. I suggest the Mayor of the Adelaide Hills Council or the Mayor of Mitcham, someone like Trevor Roocke, and other people who have had practice and experience—

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Well, someone who at least has some responsibility. The Mayor of Mitcham told us that his fire prevention officers are having trouble with native vegetation, and that they do not want him to mow the edge of the roads because they might chop off orchids, even though there are hundreds of them in the paddock through the fence—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: But, you cannot have that—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: —you might do something constructive.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, the member for Stuart! I allow members to complete sentences relating to facts but not rhetoric.

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