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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Motions

International Day for Disaster Reduction

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (11:25): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises that Saturday 13 October is International Day for Disaster Reduction;

(b) expresses its appreciation to all emergency services workers, professional and volunteer, who work so hard to protect our community throughout our state; and

(c) calls on the state government to work with our emergency services to ensure that they are adequately resourced to prevent and respond to natural disasters.

It goes without saying that, like almost all of us in here, I have enormous respect for our emergency services—for each and every one of them who puts their life on the line and who puts their own personal time aside in order to help others, often selflessly and often under very extreme circumstances. I have had the good fortune—firstly, as an MP, of course, like most of us—to have very good relationships with my local emergency services. It is great to see their training and their dedication firsthand. No matter what the weather, they come out and they train. I have also had the good fortune to have worked firsthand, as a police officer, with many of our emergency services.

There are often jokes between the services about who is more valuable and who is worth more, but over the top of all that there is a camaraderie that they are all in it together and that, when the chips are down, everyone pulls together. They have one goal, which is to keep people, property and our entire community safer, often while we sleep and often while we are unaware. We are often unaware of the work that our emergency services do every day.

Of course, this camaraderie was on show at an event on Monday. Along with the Minister for Emergency Services and the member for Croydon, our leader, I had the good fortune to attend the retirement celebration for the outgoing chief officer of the MFS, Greg Crossman. That camaraderie was on show amongst the uniformed officers who were there, including all the chiefs of the services: the SAFECOM CEO, Malcolm Jackman; the new MFS chief, Michael Morgan; the SES chief, Chris Beattie; CFS chief, Greg Nettleton; and of course the police commissioner, Grant Stevens, who played a role in that ceremony.

Many officers and rank and file members of those organisations came out to pay their respects to Greg Crossman and to celebrate the camaraderie that sits behind all these emergency services. Greg made a very moving address—and, I think the minister will agree, quite lengthy, it has to be said—to the gathering, during which he and the police commissioner shared that good-natured banter I spoke about.

I think the police commissioner's words were, 'God invented police so that fireys could have something to aspire to,' but it was all very good natured. I think it shows that, from the top down, those organisations work well together, and I have enormous respect for them. Unlike the police, corrections and road safety, though, emergency services largely escaped the budget cuts that we saw in recent times. I think we should be thankful for that. I think that $38 million over four years for the police is a stretch and that the privatisation of the ARC was completely unnecessary, but, as I said, emergency services has largely been quarantined from that.

This motion is about disaster reduction, and I have some concerns about some of the measures that this government has taken, or has allowed to happen by simply not being there. The first is around SAFECOM, of course. We learned in the weeks after the budget that the CEO, Malcolm Jackman, had requested and had been granted leave to reduce his working hours from five days to three. This, of course, from Malcolm Jackman's perspective is perfectly reasonable. Everyone has a right to try to negotiate their own working arrangements; that is fine.

What it also did was precipitate a general review into SAFECOM's operations. I quizzed the minister about this in estimates. It is still a bit unclear where that review will end up, but there are two overarching concerns. One is that the timing of these announcements—Mr Jackman's working arrangements and the review—so close to bushfire season could cause some confusion and perhaps even some lack of morale within the organisation and in the organisations that SAFECOM is there to serve and work with. This is a concern.

The other concern is a broader concern and one that I asked the minister about. He told me that it is not the case—but it remains to be seen—that it is a deliberate attempt to run down SAFECOM, to come to the conclusion that perhaps it is superfluous and to get rid of it altogether. I hope that is not the case. I certainly hope that it is not the case that this process has been put in place so close to bushfire season. There is a time and a place to make these reviews. On the cusp of bushfire season is not the time to go messing around with an organisation that is charged with setting the strategic direction for our emergency services.

I understand from conversations with my friend the member for Kaurna, who is a former emergency services minister, that Mr Jackman had a similar conversation with him a year ago and that for the very reasons I have outlined the member for Kaurna did not accede to that request. This is neither here nor there; these are just concerns I have. We will wait to see how that plays out.

Another concern in emergency services, in terms of the potential for our emergency services to respond to disasters, is two separate matters that can be put together under the same heading, which is that perhaps the minister has not been as focused on operations as he should have been in the first six months of this government. The first is the Alert SA app. We talked about this at length in the estimates process. I am still not satisfied that things were carried out as expeditiously as they could have been. I will not go over the details now, but again the member for Kaurna as minister last year—

The Hon. C.L. Wingard: Scrapped it.

Mr ODENWALDER: He did scrap it. He scrapped it under advice, and he wore the opprobrium for it. He set in place a process to replace that system very quickly, and he set it in place so that over the caretaker period that process could unfold and whoever formed the next government could start off on the front foot and get something in place very quickly. I still do not understand from the questioning in the estimates process why that process has taken so long. There are more questions on notice about this, and we will see how that unfolds.

It is a similar case with the control centre for the SES and CFS. It became very apparent during the recent unprecedented disasters around Sampson Flat and Pinery that the SES/CFS control centre was not adequate. Government became aware of the urgency of this last year and again set in train a process by which whoever was elected after 17 March this year could very quickly get rolling on a new facility. We knew that a new facility was critical so that our emergency services could adequately respond to major disasters like Pinery and Sampson Flat. Again, the government has had six or seven months to consider the proposals but, as far as I am aware, has done nothing. I look forward to some announcements in this space.

Those minor quibbles aside, we largely have a bipartisan approach in this parliament to the importance of emergency services, and a wholly bipartisan approach in regard to the esteem in which we hold our emergency services. I commend the motion to the house.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (11:35): I rise to speak in support of this motion that this house recognises the International Day for Disaster Reduction on 13 October 2018. The International Day for Disaster Reduction started in 1989, with the approval of the United Nations General Assembly. The UN General Assembly sees the day as a way to promote a global culture of disaster reduction, including disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness.

The International Day for Disaster Reduction provides an opportunity to acknowledge how people and communities are reducing the risk of disasters and raising awareness about the importance of disaster risk reduction. Knowledge and awareness of natural disasters and prevention measures are important in ensuring lives, properties and livelihoods can be protected. Each year the day is themed. This year, the theme is to reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to global gross domestic product.

South Australia is recognised for delivering great emergency responses. We express great appreciation to both professional and volunteer emergency services workers throughout our state. Those involved in the emergency services sector show outstanding commitment in supporting and assisting the community. This includes the work of South Australia Police, the SA Ambulance Service and the SA Metropolitan Fire Service, as well as the volunteers at the SA Country Fire Service and the SA State Emergency Service.

Disasters can come in many forms. South Australia is the second driest state in the driest continent on earth and subject to more fires than we deserve. If it is not fire season, we could have floods and storms to contend with. I note that there were storms earlier this week and that the SES responded to over 300 callouts from across the state. It is reassuring to know that there are hundreds of SES volunteers who are always ready to go above and beyond to help in their own communities and further afield. The government is committed to identifying and investing in opportunities to support front-line services in this sector to assist in disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness.

Working in partnership with the emergency services sector and the community to achieve sustainable disaster risk reduction includes ongoing support for the recruitment, retention, training, equipping and maintenance of paid and unpaid personnel in all aspects of the emergency services to strengthen our capability to respond to and recover from natural disasters. The government is committed to strengthening our state's emergency services by incorporating new technologies to assist emergency services personnel and the general public with disaster relief efforts.

In fact, just this morning I was at Brukunga, at the CFS training base, looking at the roadshow going around showing new training mechanisms that can help our CFS brigades prepare for the season ahead. It was fascinating to see a lot of virtual reality displays. One of the pieces of technology on display was an app which was put together by our very own Country Fire Service and which is now being showcased right around the country. A training trailer was also put together by the CFS here, and other states are showing great interest in adopting this trailer technology and taking it around their states as well. I commend all involved with that project.

The government is adding another nine firefighting aircraft to the CFS fleet, taking the total number from 17 to 26. These aircraft are increasingly important to bushfire response and disaster relief and provide great support to ground crews. This truly is a great initiative. Aircraft that respond immediately to a bushfire emergency are able not only to begin to suppress the fire from the air but also provide timely information to the community about the scale and movement of the fire.

The government is implementing a new CFS air base at Hoyleton, in the Clare Valley. This will house two fire bombers, a tactical coordination helicopter and an intelligence helicopter and allow the creation of a new primary response zone in the Mid North. Where before planes and helicopters would need to be redirected from the Adelaide Hills to help out in the Mid North, this new air base will mean quicker response times and safer communities within our region. There are now four primary report response zones: one on the West Coast, one in the Mid North, one in the Adelaide Hills and one in the South-East. This government has increased those primary response zones with extra aircraft, which I know is greatly appreciated by the local community and the CFS.

The government is working on developing the new Alert SA mobile app and website, which the shadow minister mentioned. What he did not mention was the disaster created by the previous government when they just went in and scrapped it. They did not pull it apart or try to fix it or tweak it: it was in a state where they felt it had to be totally scrapped, totally deconstructed and thrown away and now it has the be rebuilt from the start. Yes, the procurement process did begin before the election, but what I do note, and the shadow minister failed to mention, is that they set about procuring it but did not allocate any money in the budget to actually deliver this project. That is not a surprise because that is what this previous government did: it talked about a lot of stuff but did not deliver the funds to deliver this project.

However, on this side of the house, we went through the processes, we have delivered the funds and we are delivering the app. To make sure we do not have the catastrophe that happened with the previous Labor government, we are doing everything in our power to make sure that we take the time and give the resources to the company that is building the app. We want to do everything we can to make sure this is as sturdy and stable as possible, given what happened under the previous government.

We know, though, that during the bushfire season communication is very important, and the emergency services have been building their capability in this area. I want to take this opportunity to implore everyone who lives in a bushfire danger zone and pretty much all South Australians travelling around during a bushfire season to be intensely aware of their conditions and their surrounds. Bushfire information can be gathered from the radio, social media and also the internet.

We implore people to have a number of ways of receiving this information. Do not rely on just one source: make sure you have a few. Be aware of your surroundings and make sure you have a bushfire survival action plan in place and you are ready to execute that plan. We know that the foothills, especially the Mount Lofty Ranges, are a very vulnerable place in our state, and we want to make sure that people are as safe as possible. We implore people to take responsibility for their own plan and make sure that their family and the people around them are aware of the plan and that on high bushfire danger days, and when and where appropriate, they take the appropriate action.

I cannot stress that message enough, Mr Speaker. You may well get sick of hearing me talk about it over the coming weeks and months. I hope everyone in this house drives that message very hard. If you have any questions or you want to get any information, go to the CFS website and it is all there for you. There are numbers for people to contact as well if any more information is needed.

This government works closely with local communities, local rural and regional CFS and SES branches, to assist with their specific needs. In the last budget, we also committed $5 million—$2.5 million over two years—to upgrading local CFS stations. In the lead-up to the election, we found that a number of stations right around the state had been left to go into disrepair. Simple things like the electrical system within some of these CFS stations had been left to run down and do not have a safety switch or things such as backup power generators. We want to make sure they have the facilities they need, so we have put a program in place to try to deliver on as many as of those requests as we can because we know they have been ignored under the previous government for far too long.

Working together and harnessing local knowledge can play a significant role in both limiting the impact of natural disasters and aiding recovery efforts. Working with volunteers is something we are very keen to do. We are grateful for the efforts undertaken by both professional and volunteer emergency service workers throughout our state. Recognising International Day for Disaster Reduction provides an opportunity to recognise the emergency services sector and acknowledge that we must continue to reduce the risks associated with natural disasters and raise awareness about the importance of disaster risk reduction.

With that, I want to take this opportunity to truly acknowledge the volunteers, who do such an outstanding job within our community. I would like to take a moment to address a point made by the shadow minister, who was at the farewell for MFS chief, Greg Crossman, the other day. He specifically said he spoke to the SES, the CFS, SAPOL and SAFECOM chiefs, and that was really great to see.

He talked about the review of SAFECOM, being at this time of year as we head into the fire season. If he had spoken to the SAFECOM CE he would know that SAFECOM has no operational role in summer—or in winter, for that matter. They do not have an operational role. Operations are done by the CFS, the SES and the MFS; they run the operations and SAFECOM is the overarching body.

The CE did ask to go to three days a week, and it is interesting that the shadow minister mentioned that the CE asked that of the previous Labor minister, the member for Kaurna, who dismissed that request. However, that did not trigger him to think, 'If the CE can go to three days a week, maybe I should look into this and look at why a CE can go to three days a week.' We are doing that, and will report back on it a later date.

Mr Odenwalder interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Premier has the call.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (11:45): I rise to speak on the motion acknowledging International Day for Disaster Reduction and note that this year's theme is 'reducing disaster economic losses in relation to global gross domestic product'—rather a mouthful, and I suspect somebody from the United Nations General Assembly has come up with that clumsy but nevertheless thematic description.

Essentially, I suppose this directs our minds to the fact that disasters obviously affect not only people's lives and property but also their productivity, and they are asking us to consider that and recognise how that occurs and its impact on the world. It is designed to ensure we promote a culture of disaster reduction, including prevention, mitigation and preparedness.

I have listened many times in this house to members talk about the reduction of fuel loads as we approach a fire season, and it has been touched on again today. It is a real and present danger we have in this state, and I heard just recently a proposed advance in some districts in South Australia in terms of closure of the fire operating season, essentially bringing forward the fire ban and enabling us to reduce fuel load.

Sometimes this is important, but it is equally important when we get early rains in autumn, and I again say to those who are in a position to make a decision on this matter that we need to look at bringing forward the opportunity to burn because, in my view, one of the big issues is that every year we have a lucky dip and we play Russian roulette in dealing with the protection of our environment when we fail to reduce the fuel load.

The minister has implored others to step up and take personal responsibility in respect of preparing their own properties and families in the event of a natural disaster, particularly a bushfire, and I thoroughly endorse that. I also say that it is important we have a culture, throughout our government and our instrumentalities in South Australia, of making sure that spring and autumn are used to maximum effect to undertake cold burns.

Fire, flood and storm damage are well known to us as being natural disasters, and power failures, interruption to the distribution of potable water, homelessness, injury and loss of life are all very direct and dire consequences. However, we should look at some of the newer and emerging not necessarily natural disasters but issues that have a human element, such as the vulnerability we have in relation to cybersecurity. Our state could, quite literally, shut down in its operations, with a massive impact on our productivity should we have a cyber breach, the theft of data, the extortions that sometimes follow, and threats in relation to shutting down access to data in business and in government.

This is a 21st century natural disaster, I believe, and it is one that we should understand is ever present. We only have to look at recent challenges in relation to access to data at the Land Services office, which was recently privatised by the previous government, and the concerns raised in relation to access. In terms of the stealing of data and identity theft, the value of this material should never be underestimated. The threat to our economic operations as a government and as a state is a real and present danger.

With regard to pest infestation, for a state that prides itself in being fruit fly free in its operation, and having protection against serious diseases in relation to our stock, given it is clearly our most significant income producer for the state, again, there are massive problems if that occurs. We have had a taste of that sort of thing. We had the flu that came in and affected all the horses, asses, donkeys and so on in Australia. As I recall, that was some mishap or failure on behalf of AQIS many years ago, coming through one of its international ports. These incidents have very serious consequences when they occur. In that case, we had to have a major quarantine shutdown and no movement of those animals off or on properties, etc.

Human disease outbreaks should be obvious. We only have to look around the world to see the legacy of recent disasters where there has been a contamination of water and there have been disease outbreaks and serious consequences for our health services and our emergency responses. May I also place on the record the significance of the legal costs in respect of a major disaster. I say this as a proud, newly minted member of the council that sits in relation to emergency management in South Australia. The costs that occur in relation to these types of events should never be overlooked.

In respect of this year's national theme, let's not forget the cost of insurance—not just claims but the disputes and litigation in respect of them—and litigation in respect of the liability and damages arising out of a person or persons who might be responsible for the failings in relation to that. Sometimes we have had royal commissions. I think of Queensland's major inquiry into the then Labor government's failure to release enough water out of its water reserves. When a storm event and large rain events came, there was massive flood damage in that state.

In recent times, we have also had a number of coronial inquiries that occur as a result of deaths in relation to major events. Every death is significant in these circumstances, but I think probably the most significant of those were the 11 or so deaths arising out of the fire north of Port Lincoln some years ago—

Mr Treloar: It was 2005.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —in 2005, 13 years ago. I think every member of the house should read those coronial reports. It is a sobering reminder of what on occasions we have failed to do, and what we must ensure we do if we are genuine about being prepared and actually protecting people's lives. No less important is the work of the forensics experts. Forensic Science SA provides considerable support, both in litigation and in coronial inquiries arising out of these types of disasters. The testing alone is expensive, as is reporting availability for evidence in court litigation, etc.

There are unforeseen but extraordinary costs that come from these events and nothing less should be considered than the rebuilding of people's lives. When the fire has gone, the fire trucks have gone home, when the fences have been rebuilt and when the fights with the insurance companies have occurred, people have to then work out how they are possibly going to rebuild their enterprise to actually be productive again. This is the hidden cost in relation to that.

I, too, wish to acknowledge the work of the first responders, many of them volunteers across South Australia in relation to our disasters. Of course, we thank them for the work they do and the trauma they themselves have to go through, sometimes sacrificing their own limb or life to do so. However, it is important to understand that when a community has to rebuild after these traumatic experiences, it is an extremely costly event, both economically and emotionally, and it should not be underestimated.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (11:54): I also rise to support the motion about the reduction of the impact of disasters. It is very difficult to plan how to respond to disasters because there are so many things that can affect our communities. Certainly, the obvious one in our region, through the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu, is bushfire. Over the years, we have seen many significant fires through the region. The one that really comes to mind is the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires. I was at boarding school at the time here in Adelaide. I remember looking out over the Hills mid-afternoon and barely being able to see them because of the smoke and dust. An extremely eerie orange glow came through that smoke and dust.

Back then, it was quite frightening because we were unaware of what was occurring. Communications were nowhere near where they are today. We knew that there were fires burning right through the immediate parts of the Adelaide Hills in the Stirling and Aldgate region, but we also knew that there were fires burning down at Kuitpo and Meadows that were possibly heading to my family's property. We were unable to know exactly where they were going and what was happening. Likewise, there were fires down in the South-East.

The improvements in communication have been an important part of minimising the impact of these disasters, allowing people to know what is happening as quickly as possible so that they can prepare when these sorts of disasters occur. I think that one of the greatest improvements in this space has been Alert SA and the previous CFS app, which allowed people to understand where fires had started and where they were travelling.

It is imperative that we get that back up and operating to give people a communication tool that communicates to them rather than them having to seek information by going somewhere to look for it. The problem is that those few minutes from when the fire starts to when you react are so important. As the Deputy Premier said, it is also very much about preparation. As a landholder and farmer, one of the key things that I am very conscious of, from about this point in the year onwards, is how to minimise fuel around the property. It goes back even earlier; it certainly goes back to early winter.

I very much need to go out around the home and the dairy on the farm to make sure that we spray all the grass to minimise growth under trees, etc., in the areas around the buildings. That is the preparation to reduce the load right back at that point in time. It continues right through to the day the fire season is announced, when we make sure that we continue to reduce any trees, etc., that have fallen down and may be an issue. We try to get rid of the fuel load from the area, whether it is burned or just moved somewhere else. Those are the sorts of things we have to manage.

The volunteer sector is certainly an extremely important part of our network to minimise the impact of disasters. My grandfather had a very long history in the EFS and CFS. Following a fire back in the fifties, he was one of a few people who decided that they needed to set up a brigade to work together to try to protect themselves and their assets from a fire. That was the start of the Port Elliot emergency fire service, as it was at the time. It later became the CFS down there. These have emerged right across the region. There are eight CFS stations based in Finniss. Within Region 1, which is the Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island, I think there is a total of 80-odd stations. Finniss has about 10 per cent of those. The volunteers are the key people who keep them functioning.

There are many other disasters that could occur. In 2010-11, a dairy farmer friend of mine was involved in the floods in Queensland. His property went under and the damage to that business still affects him today. He is no longer a dairy farmer. He changed to cropping because of the risk from a future flood. Livestock are much harder to manage in a flood than crops, particularly when you need to milk them twice a day. He has changed the way he operates on his property to minimise the risk to him. That is what we do: we learn from a disaster to make sure that next time it does not affect us as badly. We see that continue to this day. We learnt a lot from the two Ash Wednesday fires, we learnt a lot from the fires through Victoria more recently and we continue to learn. We need to keep changing what we do to make sure that we protect people from these sorts of disasters.

The Deputy Premier mentioned the disaster of biosecurity. I have had many hours of training and interest around the biosecurity risks that we face and the impact that would have on our economy. Many years ago now, the Australian government and the state governments, along with all the livestock industries, decided there was such a large risk that they set up a disaster plan, effectively, to manage any major disease outbreak that affected livestock across the country, and the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA) was established. That plan is always monitored, tweaked and changed to make sure that it meets the needs of industry and government to protect livestock.

As livestock producers, our greatest fear is a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Australia. That would be a complete and utter disaster. It is very much about making sure that we not only minimise the risk of that coming into our country—making sure that we continue to do research on how that disease behaves and reacts, the changes it makes as it evolves and the different strains that are out there—but also make sure that, if it does get here, we have a way to try to get our industries back into an operating state. If the disease did get here, there is now the ability to vaccinate all the animals within an area around an outbreak to stop it spreading. We need to make sure that we continue to monitor what is out there and what ability there is to protect our industries.

As the Deputy Premier also mentioned, we have a stock standstill policy, which we are able to implement. There is agreement between industries and governments around the country on how to manage these stock standstills. They can be implemented at very short notice. There is also the understanding that you cannot just say, 'No-one can move.' There has been a whole heap of planning put in place to allow a permit system to operate with quick and easy access to get those permits.

For example, if you are a dairy farmer and your dairy has a road going through the middle of it and the milking cows are on the other side of the road from the dairy, those cattle need to be moved at very short notice to get them back to the dairy to be milked. A permit can be sought and granted extremely efficiently to make that happen. I thank the member for bringing this motion to the house and I wholeheartedly support its intent.

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (12:04): I rise to support the motion:

That this house—

(a) recognises that Saturday 13 October is International Day for Disaster Reduction;

(b) expresses its appreciation to all emergency services workers, professional and volunteer, who work so hard to protect our community throughout our state; and

(c) calls on the state government to work with our emergency services to ensure that they are adequately resourced to prevent and respond to natural disasters.

All South Australians should take a moment to pause and reflect on the hard work and commitment provided by our emergency services workers. These workers across the Country Fire Service, Metropolitan Fire Service, SAPOL, SA Ambulance Service and State Emergency Service selflessly give their time to protect and help others. When we need them, they are always there, just a phone call away.

I think one of the most important days when we learned the value of our emergency services was on 16 February 1983, which was Ash Wednesday. On this day, more than 2,500 homes were destroyed, hundreds of thousands of animals were lost and 28 South Australians lost their lives, including volunteer firefighters Andrew Lemke from Lucindale, Peter Matthies from Summertown and Brian Nosworthy from Callendale. This tragedy brings home the reality of working in our emergency services and the dangers they face.

On a personal note, the dad of one of my very good friends in primary school was severely burnt in the Ash Wednesday fires and only survived by having dead animal carcasses on top of him as the fire front passed through. I grew up around Lambert Verhoven, who had compression bandages and the effects of very severe burns for a fair part of his life and my adolescence.

While we are at dinner or enjoying family celebrations, our emergency services personnel can be out attending car accidents, house fires, trees across roads and a whole range of other situations. When bushfires threaten lives and properties, we look to our emergency services for safety. Often, they conduct training at their own expense and on their own time to keep up to date with the skills necessary to do the job. For volunteers, there is no financial reward, just the knowledge that they are contributing and making a difference to their community.

Many of the emergency services workers and volunteers in my electorate of Mount Gambier have been in the job for decades, a testament to the dedication of regional communities. Simon Poel is the Mount Gambier and Districts State Emergency Services unit manager and has been a volunteer with the service for 34 years. He joined the service at the age of 17, the week after his dad, Tom. Simon says that it is the satisfaction of helping the community as to why he enjoys the job. He jokes that some weekends he does not even see his wife as he is always out somewhere with his team of 25 volunteers.

Earlier this year, Simon was out with the SES team when a young man crashed his ute through the fence surrounding the Blue Lake and narrowly escaped with his life. At that incident, which happened at 11 o'clock on a Friday night, Simon set up a forward command post, sent abseilers down the cliff face and liaised with other emergency services at the scene. It is not all serious jobs though. Simon donates his time to local fundraising events and even directs traffic and floats at the Mount Gambier Christmas Pageant. Every few months, he heads to training courses that last all weekend. He jokes that if he had been paid for all the time he has devoted to the SES, they would never be able to afford it.

I tell Simon's story to illustrate how much regional communities rely on the good people who choose to give their time to our emergency services. Next year, he and his father, Tom, will be awarded long service medals. Simon and Tom epitomise the community spirit that makes South Australia such a great place to live and work. I take this opportunity to commend every South Australian who has taken the time to contribute to our emergency services.

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (12:09): I rise to support this motion brought to the house by the member for Elizabeth and congratulate him on that, recognising that he was, for a time at least, a member of SAPOL and, as part of that, I am sure he was involved in emergency response from time to time. The motion reads:

That this house—

(a) recognises that Saturday 13 October is International Day for Disaster Reduction;

(b) expresses its appreciation to all emergency services workers, professional and volunteer, who work so hard to protect our community throughout our state; and

(c) calls on the state government to work with our emergency services to ensure that they are adequately resourced to prevent and respond to natural disasters.

I must admit that, before seeing this motion, I was not aware that we had an International Day for Disaster Reduction, but it is an important day and has been celebrated and recognised each year since 1989. It has been entrenched by the United Nations. The UN General Assembly called for the International Day for Disaster Reduction way back in 1989 as a way to promote a global culture of risk awareness and disaster reduction. That includes disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness, and the contributions we have heard today and will continue to hear will touch on all of those things.

The day celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters, whatever they may be. They can come in any guise. For example, this year it is about reducing disaster economic losses in relation to global GDP. I was just thinking about what I might say prior to this. Of course, the global financial crisis of 2008 would be described by some as a disaster: it was a financial disaster for many of the big financial institutions, primarily in the United States of America but it had repercussions around the world. That could be deemed as a disaster.

It has covered many things and has been themed each year. Some of the themes are: Knowledge for Life; Resilience is for Life; Living with Disability and Disasters; Women and Girls: the [in]Visible Force of Resilience; and Making Children and Young People Partners for Disaster Risk Reduction. Each and every year a theme is identified. The one that particularly caught my eye was the theme in 2008: Disaster risk reduction is everybody's business. I guess that is the crux of the message today.

I acknowledge the emergency services that are active in this state. The member for Elizabeth highlighted them: the MFS, the CFS, the SES, the South Australian Ambulance Service and, of course, SAPOL. Many of our service providers are professional people and many, of course, are volunteers. Particularly for those of us who represent country electorates, and certainly in Flinders, this is the case as the vast majority of our emergency services are manned by volunteers.

On the back of the state budget, I would like to quickly talk about a number of things that we as a government are doing to assist in the management and response to disasters in this state. Obviously, bushfire is the most likely and usual disaster that we face in this state. Way back in 1983, we saw Ash Wednesday, as the member for Mount Gambier mentioned. I am old enough to remember that day. Even though it did not impact my district, it did impact much of the state, including the South-East and the Adelaide Hills. We will have fires again, make no mistake, and we will have bad fires again. Unfortunately, that is part of the landscape and the scenario of where we live.

A big part of our emergency services is paid for by the emergency services levy. Of course, as part of our state budget and election commitment, we have reduced that levy to taxpayers and our constituents by $360 million over the next four years. I would particularly like to highlight this positive move by the government. When the previous government took away support in relation to the ESL levy, it really got the backs up of a lot of our volunteers. I certainly had CFS brigades in my electorate who took a stand against that and made the decision not to attend any emergency fire situations on government land. I am not exactly clear on whether they ever took that stand, but the point was that they put it out there in protest against the decision made by the previous government.

In the latest budget, we have allocated $9.2 million for additional aircraft to aid firefighting efforts in South Australia. I need to declare an interest: my future son-in-law is a firebomber who works for Aerotech and plays a role in manning the Port Lincoln station during the fire season. We are establishing a new base at Hoyleton in the Mid North. There is an existing base in the Mount Lofty Ranges and one in the South-East. Those areas deemed high-danger and high-risk zones due to their rainfall, topography, landscape and vegetation have much better coverage now.

We have increased the number of aircraft from 17 to 23, including a chopper at Port Lincoln, which is most exciting. I have not actually seen it yet, but it will certainly aid reconnaissance and observation. I do not know whether it is a water-carrying aircraft but it will be able to observe and direct the fixed-wing aircraft to where they need to be. We have also allocated $5 million for CFS facility upgrades. That is really good news because any of these tiny little towns, which are sometimes not much more than crossroads, have a focus on their CFS sheds. These sheds are a big part of any particular district's capacity to react to an emergency. CFS volunteers are not just called out when there is a fire; often, they assist the SES, ambulances and South Australia Police as well.

I reiterate and support the comments made by the Minister for Emergency Services urging South Australians to be prepared for the upcoming fire season. As I said, we are always at risk. Lower Eyre Peninsula experienced a significant bushfire in 2005, now known as the Wangary bushfire, which burnt 80,000 hectares in 12 hours. It was almost identically replicated during the Pinery bushfire, which was in a very similar area and burnt in a similar amount of time. The devastation of these bushfires was extraordinary. There was certainly loss of life at Wangary. Sadly, a couple of my friends—fellows who I had played footy with—lost their lives.

It was a very sad day and it took the community a long time to recover. It is about building that resilience but also about being prepared for any particular situation. At this time of year, we always encourage people to clean up around their houses and yards, have plans and firebreaks in place, and ensure household and farm firefighting units are available and in working order. There is nothing worse than pulling the start rope and have nothing happen, which can occur.

The Deputy Premier touched on a couple of possible disasters in the future. We are all aware that these could potentially happen. She spoke briefly about cybersecurity. Breaches in cybersecurity are a growing part of our modern way of life. I do not know whether it is possible, but I sometimes wonder what would happen if the internet failed and ceased to exist in our modern world. It would bring modern life to a standstill. There was an episode about that on South Park. What they did in the end was switch it off and switch it on again, and thankfully the world regained the internet and we could continue with our emails and banking.

Biosecurity has been touched upon. I am a sheep farmer. There is a potential risk to the entire nation's livestock industry should foot-and-mouth disease or something similar be introduced into Australia because it would be very, very difficult to control. It is not just about response; it is about preparedness and prevention as well. I think coastal degradation is a risk. The big storm in 2016 that blacked out the state also did a lot of damage to our coastline. We need to prepare and have the capacity to protect our coastal environment.

Time expired.

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (12:19): I rise today to wholeheartedly support the motion from the member for Elizabeth to recognise International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction, which was, of course, last Saturday, 13 October. I do so because I take every opportunity I can in this place to highlight the huge value of the role volunteers play specifically in regional communities across our state: the role they play in protecting lives and property and in general just improving the lives of people who live in the communities they serve.

The CFS volunteers and the ambos are front of mind for me. These people leave their homes in the middle of the night and their workplaces during the middle of the day, they miss precious family time and events and they sacrifice much and place their own needs second to those they serve. They do this because they care about the communities they live in and understand that regional communities, by sheer tyranny of distance, could not be protected, fires could not be put out quickly and people in car accidents could not be assisted in a timely manner without the commitment of local people who are willing to undertake the necessary training and give the necessary time away from home and workplace, such as farmers who down tools and leave their tight schedules, their tractors and their headers to help others living in their local community who are in distress.

Our country towns could not exist without such people, and I take this opportunity to again highlight their efforts. Since being elected as the member for Narungga seven months ago, I have met so many people who serve their local districts in so many vital ways. It has certainly opened my eyes to the value of the volunteer resource, be they firefighters; incident controllers; farmers setting up text messaging systems to communicate on bad weather days when reaping is not recommended, thus avoiding a potential disaster themselves; or park rangers at Innes advocating for efficient mobile phone and internet communication services to secure isolated Innes residents and the 100,000 tourists who flock there every single year.

It could be the fishermen and coastal patrol volunteers who so regularly down tools to assist in sea rescues or the people who volunteer at food banks and charities to improve the lives of their fellow citizens. Just last week I met with volunteers at The Station who help locals struggling with mental health issues by offering a friendly ear. That service in itself is vital in avoiding a potential disaster. I have also met many progress association members who fight for improved infrastructure in their towns, which they work to progress every day.

I have met council staff working alongside communities to divert traffic, to sandbag and to place tarpaulins over roofs in the rain and wind during storm events. There are SA Power Networks staff out in all weather to restore power to homes and business in any sort of conditions. I have a mate, a great friend, who is a liney with SA Power Networks, and I often consider him when I am sitting at home without power while there is wind and rain and storm outside. I imagine him out there, somewhere, on a ladder, trying to fix the power.

All these people I have listed reduce the risks associated with all sorts of disasters, natural and otherwise, and this motion pays tribute to the wonderful work they do. Effective community resilience requires good working relationships within communities and between communities and those who support them on a professional or voluntary basis. This working relationship is also required between agencies and organisations engaged in this work. The importance of working together and harnessing local knowledge was no better showcased than during the largest disaster that the people of Narungga electorate have faced in recent years: the Pinery bushfire of November 2015.

This bushfire claimed the lives of two people; hospitalised a further 16, five with critical injuries; and burned more than 82,500 hectares. Very similarly, on Eyre Peninsula there was a fire which the member for Flinders referred to before and which was just as devastating. In the reports since, it has been revealed that insurance losses from the fire exceeded $75 million, with 91 homes, more than 400 farm structures, 483 vehicles and 70,000 livestock destroyed.

I regularly drive around the area touched by the Pinery bushfire, and the scars are still lingering today, with burnt trees on the side of the road and houses still being built and replaced. It is a real omen for the people living in that area. The Pinery fire was a particularly fast-moving and ferocious grassfire, which meant that firefighters could not control the blaze before conditions changed, and several crews were caught in life-threatening burnovers. The blaze ignited while other fires burned near Clare and Pinnaroo in the Murray Mallee, further challenging scarce resources.

In supporting the motion today recognising International Day for Disaster Reduction, I also want to acknowledge all agencies, personnel and volunteers involved with the Pinery fire who worked diligently over a 12-month period after the fire to complete independent reviews and incident reports commissioned by the state government. These are vital tools from which we can learn lessons for future fire and disaster management, thus mitigating the impact of the disaster.

The state government commissioned these reports into the operational response of the South Australian Country Fire Service and the Government Radio Network to identify areas for improvement and better position the state to respond to emergencies of this scale in the future. There were nine themes from which the CFS drew learnings. They were incident management, public information, intelligence gathering and sharing, facilities, relocations and relief of persons, aviation, personnel safety, interagency operations and fatigue management.

Outcomes delivered from lessons learned include the government committing to fit more CFS trucks with burnover technology, thermal curtains, water spray curtains, in-cabin breathing equipment, increasing the fleet of CFS trucks—and it was pleasing to see $5 million allocated towards CFS upgrades in the state budget. Similarly, it was recommended that we committed to better train radio operators, make improvements to public warning systems and the Government Radio Network to reduce congestion and network overload.

A separate report found that the large number of calls, combined with lengthy conversations on the network impacted available capacity for agencies and that portable radio terminals were used in areas not designed to deliver reliable two-way portable communications. These are important lessons, and in particular lessons learned uniquely specific to country areas such as the issue of district area names not being familiar or able to be recognised by people outside of the area or from the metropolitan area.

Personnel from agencies have come in to assist, meaning more work has since been done on mapping and geographical descriptions, rural addressing and the like to enhance communications. The findings of the Project Pinery Review, released in April 2016, give a pertinent summary of the huge number of personnel and agencies required to deal with an extreme event such as the Pinery fire, and I share facts from the report to highlight the enormity of the tasks faced in protecting life and property in this state.

I also reiterate that a key finding of all reports is that no actions taken by the SA CFS could have altered the course of the Pinery fire, such was its size and complexity in 38⁰ heat, 90 km/h winds and with high fuel loads of standing crops ready to be reapt. That is, no changed behaviour by responders could have altered the impact of this severe event. Conditions were such that they carried no expectation of containing the fire until the weather changed, and that is the crux of natural disasters. They place us all predominantly at the mercy of nature, not a great position to be in.

I would like to reiterate that I have had the wonderful opportunity to interact with a number of volunteers from across the electorate of Narungga since being elected and it has heightened my appreciation for the contribution they make towards our communities. Without them, we would be in serious trouble and the mitigation of said natural disasters would be even more tedious, so it is wonderful to acknowledge today a goal to reduce natural disasters.

As has been previously mentioned by other members, while a noble goal, there will also be natural disasters that impose themselves upon us, and the report from the Pinery fire is a timely reminder that the processes need to be in place to mitigate the impact natural disasters have on the people of South Australia when they unfortunately present themselves to us. With that, I commend the motion to the house. I commend the goal of reducing natural disasters to the house and I thank all who were involved in the Pinery fire fight to save house and life.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:29): I rise to support the motion:

That this house—

(a) recognises that Saturday 13 October is International Day for Disaster Reduction;

(b) expresses its appreciation to all emergency services workers, professional and volunteer, who work so hard to protect our community throughout our state; and

(c) calls on the state government to work with our emergency services to ensure that they are adequately resourced to prevent and respond to natural disasters.

I am a Country Fire Service member myself, as are many members. I would also like to acknowledge, as the member for Flinders did, the millions of extra dollars that we are pouring into fire safety in this state to provide better facilities for some fire stations, including the one at Tailem Bend. I know there are some down at the South-East in the member for MacKillop's electorate. These are much needed.

As well as that, as I saw in media reports the other night, the upgraded fleet of more planes and more services for our aeronautical battle against bushfire have really changed the fight against bushfire in this state. I would like to acknowledge the contribution that Bob McCabe, who started down in Tintinara and now has a base in the Hills as well, his family, his staff and crew make towards keeping this state safe. Over time we have had the Elvis helicopters come in. Things have really improved since the terrible events in 1983 on Ash Wednesday.

Certainly I know family members of people who perished in that fire, especially down in the South-East. It was a terrible fire, ripping through the Adelaide Hills and also down the South-East. We did not have the aircraft resources we have now and certainly did not have a lot of the capabilities that our modern firetrucks have now. We had a few Bedfords running around and that sort of thing, but they were not carrying the water loads. Now we have 34s or 44s, with 3,000 or 4,000-litre carrying capacity. I know we have one each of those at the Coomandook brigade, with one stationed at Ki Ki. We also have a 9,000-litre water tanker in the shed at Coomandook as well.

We have heard about the terrible fires in 1983 and the savage and terrible loss of life of 28 people. Several of those people were firefighters. A local farmer at Coonalpyn, Ken Lutze, who has since passed on but I know his son very well, survived the fire. He was out trying to plough firebreaks, getting in front of the onslaught of the fire, and he got caught. He only survived because he jumped in a sheep trough. I was very intrigued to hear the story from the member for Mount Gambier about a man who survived just by piling sheep carcasses on top of himself. The lengths people go to survive are just fantastic. I know Ken suffered the after-effects of that fire until the day he left us. He was still with us for many years, but I believe it probably shortened his life.

It just goes to show how terrible these fires are. We look at what happened with the Wangary fire and the very sad loss of life there. I heard the chilling story about the young kids who were lost in the ute, and it tears your heart out. It just goes to show that you cannot take anything for granted, and that is why you have to have your facilities up to speed. As those of us who live in the bush all know, you cannot rely just on the emergency services. Until about 19 or 20 years ago, I used to have only an 800-litre fire tank on my mobile fire cart. Now I have 4,600 litres. I really upgraded, but it is handy. It is on a trailer, and if I hook it up to a decent tractor I am not held back by anything bar heavy scrub.

So, yes, people do have to look after themselves, but we also have to have those adequately resourced capabilities of the Country Fire Service, the Metropolitan Fire Service and, obviously, our environment department, which has a fire service as well. Many fires start out in Ngarkat Conservation Park, which goes from my electorate through to the electorate of the member for MacKillop and seems to attract lightning strikes pretty well, with tens of thousands of hectares being burnt out at any single time in Ngarkat towards the Victorian border. Certainly there have been plenty of times when the CFS, local farmers and environment department firefighters have worked hard to contain those blazes.

I think that things have really got better in acknowledging what we need to do with regard to decent firebreaks and bringing that big roll around. I know that at Keith they have some excellent machinery stationed there for action in big park fires or scrub fires. To be frank, sometimes it is better to knock a bit down to save the rest.

There was a fire—and I have spoken about it in this place before—close to around 12 years ago now, maybe more, that came out of Ngarkat. Everyone knew it was coming and was heading towards the Mallee Highway. I believe that it was a Sunday morning. It was going to come out with about 90 to 100 km/h winds. The question was whether we do a burn-back and stop the fire coming out of the scrub and burning farmland because the line of defence was to be the Mallee Highway near Lameroo.

My thoughts were that the burn-back should have been done for a lot of reasons. There was some nervousness about lighting up heritage scrub, but there are protections in the act if people do that and, quite frankly, it would have been the most sensible thing to do to save not only some of the park but also farmland because, guess what, as predicted, that was not done and the fire burst out of the park and raced through farmland, putting much property and lives at risk, but it was eventually pulled up. We have to be practical as well. We have to acknowledge the real risks and not tie ourselves in knots about the consequences of taking what should be the most sensible action on the day.

With regard to other recent fires like Pinery and Sampson Flat, Pinery was a real example not only of fire but also of what farmers can produce in a pretty good year. There were a lot of wall-to-wall crops from the Pinery area right through to the Gawler area. It is only when you drive through later that you realise that the fire had actually jumped the four lanes of highway near Gawler and that Gawler was the next town, not that far from here. It would have been horrendous if that fire had torn into the streets of Gawler. We can imagine the potential loss of life and property.

I commend the work of all our emergency services personnel, who are certainly pushed to the limit. I think, with the resources we have now and the extra money we are putting in as the Marshall Liberal government, things will be better in future, but we can never be complacent. Those of us who have lived with fire, fought fire and also used fire as a tool know that you can never be complacent because, if you do not watch it, it will not be your tool: it will be your enemy. It will not be your friend: it will be your enemy. Even though we have better equipment, I salute the training people go through and the commitment and time that everyone puts in to keeping safe not only our properties but also our lives.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (12:39): First, I want to thank members opposite for their support for the motion and for the thoughtful contributions made by the minister and the members for Bragg, Finniss, Flinders, Mount Gambier, Narungga and Hammond. I particularly want to thank the regional members who spoke for reminding me—my speech and the initial impetus of my motion was around the first responders, who are of course very important—of the role of individual householders and landowners, particularly in regional and peri-urban areas, in disaster reduction and mitigation.

I want to thank you, Deputy Speaker, for pointing out that not all disasters are natural, and you pointed to the financial crisis as a disaster which, while not natural, certainly had a huge impact and is something we should prepare for. I want to restate my respect for the emergency services and, in particular, the way they work together, their spirit of camaraderie and, when the chips are down, the way they pull together selflessly and, in the name of public safety, work very hard, sometimes behind the scenes, for the benefit of all.

When I talked about the retirement show for Greg Crossman, I forgot to mention that chief officer Michael Morgan, who is replacing Greg, was there. I want to place on the record my respect for Michael Morgan. I have not known him for that long, but I think he will be a fine chief officer. He is continuing the good work of Greg Crossman in making the fire service an even more modern and inclusive organisation, so I am very pleased to see him in that role. With that, I commend the motion to the house.

Motion carried.

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