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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-13 Daily Xml
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WANGARY CORONIAL INQUEST WORKING PARTY

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:54): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Emergency Services a question relating to the Wangary Coronial Inquest Working Party.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Yesterday, the minister made a ministerial statement regarding the Wangary Coronial Inquest Working Party and its role in ensuring that the recommendations made by the Coroner are implemented. The minister also stated that the CFS has made many changes already following the Smith report and as part of Project Phoenix.

However, there are a number of recommendations made by the Coroner which are either similar to recommendations of past reports previously declared to have been completed or are repeating similar recommendations yet to be addressed. As an example of recommendations previously identified as completed, I note that Dr Smith's report and Project Phoenix both highlight the need for better integration of private firefighters into the CFS systems and operations, while the CFS claims this recommendation has been completed; and I note that the Coroner has made a similar recommendation.

In terms of recurring recommendations, I note a series of recommendations which relate to bushfire readiness in national parks. In 2003, cabinet officially endorsed the recommendations of the Premier's Bushfire Summit, including those related to the management of native vegetation and public land, including firebreaks and access tracks in national parks

Similarly, recommendations were made by the Environment, Resources and Development Committee of this parliament in November 2005, following the Wangary fires and, again, in 2007 by the Coroner in his report on the Wangary fires. The Kangaroo Island bushfires recently burnt 90,000 hectares of land, including 75,000 hectares of national parks, again highlighting the need for better management of vegetation on public land. My questions are:

1. Will the minister broaden the Wangary Coronial Inquest Working Party terms of reference to ensure that they undertake a stocktake of recommendations made in previous reports, including the Premier's Bushfire Summit, and progress made in implementing those recommendations?

2. What will the minister do to ensure that recurring recommendations are finally addressed and resolved?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:56): I thank the honourable member for his question. He has already identified that many of the recommendations in the coronial report were already dealt with either by the recommendations of Dr Bob Smith or Project Phoenix. It does not mean, of course, that they were not picked up again at the coronial inquest stage. However, as I clearly outlined yesterday—

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: We are working on them and, as I said yesterday, we have a working party that has already met three times. Different groups of people have been tasked to undertake a body of work as well. The intention is that later everybody will come back together to have a look at what everybody has done and, if there are any issues that need to be looked at, of course, they will be.

One of the first things the honourable member said today was in relation to private farm firefighters. Of course, the CFS undertook to prepare a code of practice for private firefighter farmers. I remember being up in the Adelaide Hills the day that code of practice booklet was launched. As I said, that would have been something we would have said earlier had been completed. If there is any aspect of that arising out of the Wangary coronial inquest which we need to improve on or add, then of course we will do so. As I undertook yesterday, I will come back to this parliament and let this chamber know exactly what we have done with all those recommendations.

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