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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
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PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES (BUSHFIRES COMMITTEE) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 1 July 2010.)

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:06): Once again, I think this is a sensible initiative. I do not believe that as a parliament we do enough in relation to using our committees and the potential of committees to full effect. We are on the eve, potentially, I think, of a very serious bushfire season. You have only to look at the growth of grass and other soft plant species in the Hills areas to realise that, given the wrong conditions, we could have a major problem on our hands. I think that what the member for Davenport is trying to do here is make sure that concern and, more particularly, the way in which we deal with bushfires is at the top of our agenda here in parliament.

I would be surprised if the government supported this measure; it does not seem to be keen to support any positive initiatives. There is merit in having a committee that will monitor and keep an eye on what is happening, and has happened, in relation to bushfires. I think this measure has merit, and it is worth supporting. If the government does not believe that the wording is perfect or absolutely correct, it can amend it. As I have said, the committee system here could be used to better effect, and it is a good way not only of keeping members informed but also of ensuring that what is happening in the world outside in relation to bushfire management is of the highest order. I support the measure.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (11:08): I rise also to support the move to establish a bushfire committee in this parliament, and I support the member for Fisher in his comments; I think the committee system could be well used in this regard. What people fail to remember sometimes, I think, is that a bushfire is the single most likely natural disaster that we face in this state, and history records that.

There have been many significant fires; some that come to mind are the Adelaide Hills fires in 1939, the Ash Wednesday fires in the Adelaide Hills and also in the South-East in 1983. My own experience extends to the Wangary Black Tuesday bushfires in 2005. Even in my own electorate of Flinders, there have been many smaller but admittedly significant fires that have had a big impact on local communities and landholders.

As I have said, it would seem that bushfires are the single most prevalent natural disaster that we face. They are likely to occur often: it is possible for them to occur every summer in this state. What people do not always remember is that in any given year the landscape of South Australia will burn for almost six months—from November through to April.

So, I think that a committee of parliament focused on bushfire safety and prevention, and really providing oversight on the whole range of services that go towards managing, preparing for and fighting a bushfire, would be a good thing. There are some very complex issues around vegetation and safety management, and I believe this committee could provide some oversight also in that regard. I indicate my support for this proposal, and I hope that the government also will see the light and support it.

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (11:10): The government opposes this bill.

The Hon. I.F. Evans interjecting:

Mr ODENWALDER: That is no surprise to the member for Davenport. It seeks to establish a parliamentary standing committee to do with bushfires. Members in this place in the last term (when I was not a member) may recall that the government did not support this bill when it was introduced in 2009. The Rann government has acted proactively and strategically in its response to bushfire risk management over the past eight years and, since the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, the Rann government, along with emergency services agencies, has taken decisive action to deliver significant new safety measures and improvements to better prepare the state against bushfires and to protect lives.

Members opposite will be aware that, since the private member's bill was introduced the first time, the government passed legislation at the end of 2009 to amend the Fire and Emergency Services Act based on a significant number of reviews, including the 2007 ministerial review of bushfire management and the 2008 review of the Fire and Emergency Services Act by Mr John Murray. These changes in legislation brought about the establishment of bodies such as the State Bushfire Coordination Committee and bushfire management committees in support of the already established bushfire task force and zone emergency management committees.

The government's formation of the bushfire task force will bring South Australia to a new level of bushfire preparedness. The task force is chaired by the CFS chief officer and has representatives from a wide range of government and non-government departments, including the Department for Environment and Heritage chief executive, SAFECOM, the MFS, the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, the State Recovery Office, South Australia Police, the Department of Planning and Local Government, the Department of Treasury and Finance, the Department of Education and Children's Services, the Department of Primary Industries and Resources, SA Water, the Native Vegetation Council and the Bureau of Meteorology.

The members of this task force are experts in their various fields and are the best people to look into immediate, medium and long-term solutions needed to improve bushfire management practices and strategies in South Australia and to provide advice to the government. Additionally, standing committees such as the Natural Resources Committee can currently inquire into or have referred to them matters pertaining to bushfires.

There are a number of other bodies that provide a forum for bushfire management and governance. The government has committed over $47 million in additional funding to ensure South Australians are more prepared than ever to face the threat of bushfires. These include: $9.4 million for new technology, infrastructure upgrades, equipment and volunteer support; $18.1 million for bushfire community awareness and education campaigns and additional community educators; $12.4 million for a new emergency warning system; $4.5 million for 10 extra DEH fire management officers and to increase burn-offs to reduce fuel hazard; $2 million for a response and recovery emergency information and support call centre; and $1 million for five additional bulk water carriers. Emergency services expenditure has been increased from $159 million in 2005-06 to $196 million in 2009-10, and we have increased the state's aerial firefighting capabilities from $831,000 in 2002 to over $7 million in 2010-11.

South Australia adopted a new national framework for advice on warnings to the community in 2009-10. The system was developed to alert the community to bushfires and to provide advice on what to do when threatened by a bushfire. The Rann government will continue to increase bushfire awareness through the Prepare. Act. Survive program. This program will help bolster community awareness around bushfire preparation, giving every South Australian the chance to adequately prepare for the upcoming fire danger season. Prepare. Act. Survive will ensure that people continue familiarising themselves with the new warning system and it will help to motivate people to take action so they are prepared for any eventuality during the fire danger season.

The intentions of the member for Davenport in moving this bill are clear. However, setting up another committee would do nothing more than increase the workload of our emergency services agencies and, in turn, place pressure on their precious resources. There is a major risk that our emergency services will be so tied up with responding to another committee that it will detract from their current responsibilities and primary focus of saving lives. For these reasons, the government has not changed its position regarding this issue and does not support the bill.

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (11:15): I cannot believe we have just heard what we have from the member for Little Para. I cannot understand it. Here we are, on the cusp of the worst bushfire threat we have seen in my memory, and he is worrying about a few cents the committee would use up in time. I certainly support the member for Davenport's motion and commend him for the concept, as it is a good idea and ought to be put in. This committee could be called, say, the 'natural disasters committee' and look at issues other than bushfires—maybe floods or any other disaster that might happen. I am certainly open to that, but at the moment bushfires are the subject we are all very interested in. A dedicated committee could and should be established.

We are on the eve of the worst bushfire threat I can remember. The amount of growth on the roadsides and along railways is huge. I have been out slashing around our farm, around the railway lines and fence lines.

Mr Pederick: How did the yaccas go?

Mr VENNING: A few of those go under the blades. Some of the wild oats and turnips are over the top of the tractor, two metres high. On the railway line, at night you can see the sparks that come off these trains, and it is an inferno waiting to happen. It is just unbelievable. I have spent many hours—and it is good recreation for me—driving around and cutting down some grass on the few occasions I get home.

Members interjecting:

Mr VENNING: No, I do not do that. We should encourage cool burning, which we will have to do in the next week or so, but cool burning can be very touchy. It will burn but, after the change coming in now, there should be an opportunity for farmers and others to cool burn, particularly where you cannot slash—again, alongside railway lines where, because of the rocks and stones, you cannot slash effectively.

Cool burn is the way to go, and the railway authorities should be encouraged, with local farmers present, to burn along the railway lines rather than just grade them as they do. When they grade them, they push all the dirt up with the soil and they end up with a windrow full of dirt, rocks and weeds—a real mess. I know that they try but, with the growth there, it is very ineffective, so cool burning should be encouraged and, in some cases, it should be mandatory.

I note the use of the air crane, as the member mentioned a moment or two ago, and it is a good example of why an independent committee should be set up to look at an assessment of the use of that crane as it is a major state investment and cost. The committee could also look at whether we need more of them and how the ownership of those cranes should be done. We will see some horrific fires in the next few weeks and anything we could do as a parliament, or be seen to do, we should.

Our committees are not overworked. If you do not want a dedicated committee, at least give one of the existing committees the extra role by title to do this. It should sit down straightaway with the authorities to discuss and make sure where are their concerns. If there is anything the parliament can do or anything local members ought to know and be aware of, it should be done. At the moment we leave it entirely to them: well, it is not on, it is not fair.

I commend all the volunteers for the preparation they have gone through in readiness for this huge bushfire year. I have seen them, with brigades out training and getting everything organised, because within 10 days it is on in earnest. They are harvesting today out at Pirie West. As the member for Frome would know, when they are harvesting things will burn. I commend all the volunteers, crews and officers and wish them all the best for the year. We should be doing our bit to watch this, and I certainly commend the member for Davenport and support the setting up of this committee.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (11:20): I have to say that the member for Little Para is a thoroughly decent chap, but he has been sent in here to do a dreadful, dreadful job. We are all familiar with the term 'announce and defend', but I tell you this: if we have a fire anywhere in South Australia, the government will be flat out defending after announcing that it will not support the member for Davenport and his initiative to set up a committee on bushfires.

I am a proud and active member of the CFS in South Australia in the Wilmington brigade. I had a call-out one night last week—it was Tuesday or Wednesday night—to a fire near Quorn. This is a very serious issue. We all know that there are no rules in regard to bushfires. It is not as if you just look at what has happened and say, 'Right. We've studied it. We know what's going on. We'll put the rules in the cupboard and we'll look at them whenever we need to.'

Fires in Victoria, fires on Eyre Peninsula, fires all over the place teach us that there are no rules. We need an active standing committee in parliament to look at this matter year in and year out to see how we should be addressing it, how we should be dealing with it and how we should be trying proactively to avoid bushfires. I remember very well the day I moved into Wilmington, about 6½ years ago. There was a fire in the hills behind Wilmington (strongly suspected to have been started accidentally by tourists) in Horrocks Pass. It burnt out thousands of acres and killed thousands of stock in those hills.

The key issue there is that the people who were suspected of starting the fire were just not knowledgeable about the risks they were taking. They were driving through those hills and presumably smoking—no-one knows for sure. I am not having a go at the individuals, but the reality is that they just were not familiar with what is required; they just were not familiar with how easily bushfires can start; and they were not familiar with the devastation they could cause.

I believe that having a standing committee of the parliament to look into this matter on a regular basis is a very important issue to consider. I would say to the member for Little Para (who is making a statement on behalf of his government) that, if there was a fire in his electorate, at One Tree Hill or somewhere like that, he would consider this very differently. I support the member for Davenport's motion.

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (11:22): What we have had so far in the eight years that I have been in the parliament are more plans and more pamphlets. We have not had a consistent review and management of what is happening. We have had proposals for cold burns. We have had allocated burns every autumn and every spring, and they do not happen. The one little light here has been an improvement that I have observed in the parks and wildlife area in my own electorate: it now has a plan which will be operating and about which I will be given an annual briefing.

We have sirens but we have been told not to use them, which is just ridiculous. This is the one thing that saves the people in the Burnside CFS region in a highly volatile situation. We have had delays about even improving bunkers. We have this Prepare. Act. Survive. program. We now have a video or a DVD that everyone can watch. They may be helpful to some people to alert them to their own personal responsibility, but they are not enough. The latest measure is to have particular areas you are to go to in the event of a fire.

The Uraidla oval is one of the nominated places in my electorate. This oval is in a basin which has a very high rainfall. Prolific growth has occurred over this winter and, obviously, responsible landowners—public and private—are acting on that at the moment. Let me say that the government announced the Uraidla oval as a place to go to, but it has no independent water supply and it has no independent generator or power supply. What on earth will those people do when they get there to be protected in that circumstance?

It is highly irresponsible of the government to have announced and advised the public and then not provide the infrastructure to go with it. Local people in the community came with me as a delegation to minister Holloway to attempt to deal with at least the water aspect so that that can be managed. It was laughable when I listened to the radio this morning and heard that the 400 proposed detainees at Woodside—the people whom the Minister for Families and Communities would have to look after (those who are processed and released)—will be instructed on the 'stay or go' policy. What utter nonsense!

Firstly, one has to wonder whether they even understand English. Secondly, how can you stay and go when you are in a detention centre? How can you possibly have a stay and go policy when you are under detention? What absolute lunacy. At the very least, I would have hoped that the government had got its act together and recognised that, if these people are going to reside in the Hills in a highly volatile area for future bushfire and be restrained behind a fence—these people do not even have cars—they would want to go and that, when they do go, they have some hope in hell of getting out of there alive.

I endorse this bill. I thank the member for Davenport for introducing it and he has my full support.

Mr BROCK (Frome) (11:25): I cannot believe that the government will not at least look at this bill and establish this committee, as the member for Davenport has requested. I will be very brief. Many speakers on this side of the house have been very passionate about this. Bushfires know no rules; they have no boundaries. If anybody understands what it is all about it is the people living in the communities. I understand members on the other side are only following the directions of the caucus or the party, but please look at it quite seriously.

We need to establish a committee to look at the facts. It is very easy for us in this house to make rules and regulations. The people who understand the issues are those at the coalface; namely, the ones who are out there working, the CFS and the farmers who deal with it all the time. As members on this side of the house have indicated, it is a very, very emotional and personal issue. This year is going to be the worst ever for bushfires. You only have to travel outside of the metropolitan area of Adelaide to the northern parts of the state and the West Coast to see that the bushfire load is very high. As the member for Schubert has indicated, there are crops and weeds out there that are two metres high. We need to be able to deal with that.

The member for Bragg has indicated that we have taken away the early warning fire sirens. We are not able to use those. Just in Clare, they had a fire siren, an early warning system, which was not allowed to be used. I am very supportive of this bill. I encourage and implore the government to support this member's bill. The member for Davenport has my 100 per cent support.

Mr GOLDSWORTHY (Kavel) (11:28): I will be extremely brief in my remarks, because I understand that this part of our procedures will conclude in a couple of minutes. As the shadow minister for emergency services, the member on this side of the house responsible for these issues, I certainly applaud the member for Davenport for bringing this matter before the house. He introduced it in the last parliament and he has re-introduced it in this parliament. It has my support and the full support of this side of the house. I could raise many issues in relation to this matter being the opposition spokesman on these issues. I could raise a number of things to refute the comments that the member for Little Para put before the parliament. With those few words, I support the bill.

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (11:28): I thank all members for their contribution and look forward to its going to a vote.

The house divided on the second reading:

AYES (20)
Brock, G.G. Chapman, V.A. Evans, I.F. (teller)
Gardner, J.A.W. Goldsworthy, M.R. Hamilton-Smith, M.L.J.
Marshall, S.S. McFetridge, D. Pederick, A.S.
Pegler, D.W. Pengilly, M. Pisoni, D.G.
Redmond, I.M. Sanderson, R. Such, R.B.
Treloar, P.A. van Holst Pellekaan, D.C. Venning, I.H.
Whetstone, T.J. Williams, M.R.
NOES (22)
Bedford, F.E. Bignell, L.W. Caica, P.
Conlon, P.F. Foley, K.O. Fox, C.C.
Geraghty, R.K. Hill, J.D. Kenyon, T.R.
Key, S.W. Koutsantonis, A. O'Brien, M.F.
Odenwalder, L.K. (teller) Piccolo, T. Portolesi, G.
Rankine, J.M. Rau, J.R. Sibbons, A.L.
Thompson, M.G. Vlahos, L.A. Weatherill, J.W.
Wright, M.J.

Majority of 2 for the noes.

Second reading thus negatived.

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