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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-05 Daily Xml
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FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES ACT REVIEW

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Finance, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:15): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: I wish to inform members that I have appointed the Hon. Paul Holloway to undertake a review of the Fire and Emergency Services Act 2005. A review under section 149 of the act is required to commence after 30 March 2013 and be submitted to me by 30 September 2013. The act requires that the review be conducted by a person who, in the opinion of the minister, has appropriate knowledge and experience but who is not a member or former member of an emergency services organisation.

The Fire and Emergency Services Act was proclaimed on 1 October 2005 to establish the South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission. The act provides for the commission's role in the governance, strategic and policy aspects of the emergency services sector. It also provides for the continuation of a metropolitan fire and emergency service, a country fire and emergency service and state emergency service to provide for the prevention, control and suppression of fires and for the handling of certain emergency situations and for all other purposes.

The Hon. Paul Holloway is well qualified to undertake the review. He is well known to members of this chamber, and the honourable members in the other place, as a skilled legislator. He was appointed a member of the other place on 26 September 1995 and retired on 13 September 2011. He has held numerous ministerial appointments between 2002 and 2011, including minister for police from March 2006 to July 2010. He was acting minister for emergency services on numerous occasions.

I have asked the Hon. Mr Holloway to consult with stakeholders in the emergency services sector and to complete his review within several weeks. I discussed his proposed appointment with chief officers of the Metropolitan Fire Service, the Country Fire Service and the State Emergency Service and also with the shadow minister for emergency services. All indicated their support for his appointment. The act requires that copies of his report must be tabled in both houses of parliament within 12 sitting days of my receiving it. I look forward to updating members on the outcome of the review.

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