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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-05-17 Daily Xml
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Bills

Emergency Management (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 24 March 2016.)

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (15:30): I rise today on behalf of the opposition in this place to make some brief comments on the Emergency Management (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2016, and I echo some of the comments made by my colleagues in the other place. Obviously the opposition will be supporting this bill and my colleagues have made significant contributions. I do not intend to go into any great detail today, however there are a few points that I would like to make.

It is my understanding that this bill follows a legislative review undertaken by the State Emergency Management Committee and formalises the role of the hazard leaders and the Zone Emergency Management Committees within the structure of the SA emergency management arrangements. The bill aims to do a number of things. Firstly, to clarify the authority of the State Emergency Management Plan, known as SEMP; secondly, to enable the efficient operations of the State Emergency Management Committee; thirdly, to ensure the emergency management arrangements are clearly defined; fourthly, to provide objects and principles to address clarity on the role and function; fifthly, to clarify the powers that may be exercised in relation to the disconnection of water and drainage; and, finally, to clarify various emergency management definitions.

The State Emergency Management Plan outlines the responsibilities of authorities and the mechanisms to prevent or, if they occur, manage and recover from incidents and disasters within our state of South Australia. The State Emergency Management Plan will be updated as required and reviewed by the State Emergency Management Committee. The State Emergency Management Plan relies on strong, cooperative, coordinated and consultative relationships among state government agencies and local government. State government agencies and local government will also be required to maintain effective relationships with other services and equipment owners and operators, to ensure that an efficient coordinated response can be made to an incident or a disaster.

I would like to echo the words of my colleague in the other place, the member for Hammond, and I am pleased that this bill absolutely ensures the protection from liability for those people who act in good faith in accordance with the act. People in the past have found themselves in difficult circumstances because they have actually just been trying to do the right thing and prevent the spread of a fire or save somebody's property, and then found that they have been somewhat liable for any of their actions. So I do think that it is important that if people are acting in good faith to attempt to help the community they should also make sure that they are indemnified or protected from liability.

The bill extends appropriate coverage to individuals executing directions in accordance with the State Emergency Management Plan. This option will allow any group of persons carrying out any directions or requirements issued under either the act or the State Emergency Management Plan to be provided with appropriate protection. This protection ensures that those at the forefront of the fire can make decisions without fear or prosecution. It requires a great deal of bravery to make some of those calls under high pressure and sometimes life-threatening situations, so I very much welcome this provision.

Ultimately this is not a contentious bill, and nor should it be. The bill seeks to ensure our state has strategies and systems in place to enable effective response and prepare a plan for disaster events. The safety of our community should always be of paramount concern for the members of parliament.

With those few words, I commend the government for undertaking this review and look forward to seeing the bill implemented effectively. I am not sure whether we are doing the committee stage of the bill today or just the second reading. If we are to do the committee stage, I will not put them on the record now, but there are just a couple of minor questions I would like to ask the ministerial adviser, if we are doing that today. I am not sure whether the plan is that we are going right through to the committee.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Okay, that's fine. I have a couple of questions that I will ask but they will not be terribly difficult ones. I am not sure I have them at hand at the moment, but I will ask them, perhaps at clause 1, just so that the adviser can perhaps find the answer. So with those few words, I indicate that the opposition will be happy to support the bill.

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:34): Recent local and world events, whether in the context of natural disaster or terrorism, remind us of the need to maintain effective emergency management arrangements. It has been 12 years since the Emergency Management Act 2004 was enacted. Since then, the state's emergency management arrangements have held us in good stead. They have seen us through the disaster and loss that was Black Tuesday in 2005; the one in 20 year flood of Virginia, also in 2005; the heatwave of 2009; and the recent fires that ravaged Sampson Flat as well as Pinery, which ultimately took two lives late last year.

This government is committed to ensuring that South Australia has effective emergency management and protective security arrangements. In recognition of this commitment, the state's arrangements have been updated and strengthened to ensure best practice and encourage community resilience through coordinated planning and disaster preparedness activities.

The Emergency Management Act provides the legislative framework for the management of emergencies in South Australia. The amendments to the act are important because they strengthen and enhance the government's already effective emergency management framework. Constant learning and experience has provided us with improvements and clarifications that will ensure the act can continue to provide for community safety and resilience into the future. These changes will ensure further clarity and integration of emergency management arrangements. This bill achieves this by further enhancing the PPRR hazards approach:

P for Prevention—taking actions to reduce or eliminate the likelihood or effects of an incident.

P for Preparedness—taking steps before an incident to ensure effective response and recovery.

R for Response—contain, control or minimise the impacts of an incident.

R for Recovery—taking steps to minimise disruption and recovery times.

This model is accepted Australia-wide, and I am pleased that this bill will now specifically cite this approach within the act. I commend the bill to the council.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:37): I was caught out because I thought the Hon. Rob Lucas would have spent 1½ hours on the Supply Bill, but I have discovered that no-one is spending any time on the Supply Bill. I rise on behalf of Family First to speak to the Emergency Management (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill No. 112. I know that the new minister is going to get an easy leg up with this bill as I believe it has bipartisan support, and I confirm that Family First supports this amendment bill.

The government aims to maintain effective emergency management arrangements to prevent, respond to and recover from emergency situations where necessary. The Emergency Management Act 2004 is legislation that governs the management of emergencies, but the act establishes strategies and systems to respond to and recover from disasters such as terrorist acts, natural disasters or pandemics. The act prescribes roles and responsibilities of key personnel and departments under emergency situations.

The State Emergency Management Committee initiated a review of the Emergency Management Act in light of recent disasters, and I commend them for that, because traditionally and until we had the tragedies in the United States of America we did not have to consider such broad strategy and planning as we do today. Whilst at this point in time, and let's hope always into the future, South Australia and Adelaide are a relatively low target when it comes to terrorism, we are seeing different strategies by terrorist organisations and therefore we need to be vigilant and have regular reassessments of what we are doing when it comes to emergency management.

I commend the SEMC and its advisory groups that the government have consulted with. I understand that the draft bill did have fairly wide key stakeholder consultation back in December 2015. I also understand that the government has advised that it received feedback criticising the bill for using what was described as vague language and a lack of clarity regarding the role of hazard leaders. The government committed to addressing these concerns through reviewing the State Emergency Management Plan and my understanding is that we can take the government at their word on that.

There are key recommendations from the review that are being introduced in the bill clarifying the authority of the State Emergency Management Plan, enabling the effective operation of the State Emergency Management Committee, which is a very important and broad committee, clearly defining the emergency management arrangements and finally providing for protection from liability.

We have had a look at the bill. These bills should be updated and reviewed regularly and we commend the government for doing this. We trust that this bill will have fairly quick passage through the house and that it will assist those emergency volunteers, paid staff, our police officers and other departmental people who from time to time are involved in state emergency management. We commend the bill to the house.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:41): I want to thank everyone for their contributions to the Emergency Management (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2016. The Emergency Management Act 2004 provides the legislative framework for the management of emergencies in South Australia. The act establishes the development and maintenance of arrangements to prevent or mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies and disasters.

In short, the act ensures that South Australia has the capability to manage risk to communities and the environment by making sure that the key elements of the state emergency management arrangements, including roles and responsibilities, are clearly articulated. The government has considered the emergency management arrangements in the context of many recent natural or human made disasters, and has identified improvements and clarifications to be made that will ensure the act can continue to provide for community safety and resilience into the future.

This bill is important because it takes our already effective emergency management framework and strengthens and enhances it based on learnings and experiences both here and elsewhere. The main components of the bill will:

clarify the authority of the State Emergency Management Plan;

enable the efficient operations of the State Emergency Management Committee;

ensure the emergency management arrangements are clearly defined;

provide objectives and principles to address clarity on role and function; and

clarify various emergency management definitions.

These changes come as a result of an extensive consultation process that sought input from all major emergency management stakeholders and was overseen by the State Emergency Management Committee.

The government believes that the proposed changes will update and strengthen South Australia's emergency management arrangements, provide reassurance to the community, encourage community resilience, and reduce vulnerability to emergency events through coordinated planning and disaster preparedness activities.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

In committee.

Clauses 1 to 3 passed.

Clause 4.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: In relation to section 2—Objects and guiding principles, subsection (2) states:

The objects of this Act are to be achieved through—

(a) establishing the State Emergency Management Committee;

It is probably in the actual Emergency Management Act that this is amending, but can the minister tell me all the people who make up that State Emergency Management Committee?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: I am just trying to make sure that we do not leave anybody off. There are a number of people on there, as I am aware, but I want to make sure we get the list right. The committee is chaired by the CEO of DPC, Mr Winter-Dewhirst. The deputy chair is the police commissioner. The rest of the committee is made up of a whole range of CEs and chiefs from various agencies and departments. Obviously the chief officers from the SES, CFS and MFS are on there, and then the CEs from a whole range of different agencies. For instance, SA Water, the education department, DTF, SA Health, the South Australian Ambulance Service, PIRSA, DCSI and DEWNR are all represented on there. I do not think we have left anybody off.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Is the CFS on there?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: Yes, the chief officer of the CFS. That is, generally speaking, who is represented on the committee. There may be someone we have left off, but from recollection I do not think we have. The SAFECOM CEO is on there as well, I should mention.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am sure it is actually in the act that this bill is amending. I just did not have that with me which is why I was asking. Of course, section 2(2)(b) provides for the appointment of a state coordinator. What is the actual role of a state coordinator? Is that to manage the incident, manage the recovery, appoint somebody for the recovery, or all of that? Can you just explain that?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: I understand the state coordinator is always the police commissioner.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Given the make-up of the State Emergency Management Committee and the state coordinator is the police commissioner, why is it that the current practice not only here but in other states, and certainly in the most recent bushfires, is for the Premier to head up the press conference at the beginning of each day every time there is a major incident, rather than the chairman, which may be Mr Winter-Dewhirst, or the actual police commissioner, who is the state coordinator? I understand the Premier and the government have a role, and maybe they should be at the back end of the press conference. Obviously this committee has to brief the Premier, the Premier's media advisers, probably one or two of the ministers, yourself and other ministers who may be involved, if sadly there is an incident.

It seems to me to be an awfully large waste of time and resources to be briefing the spin doctors and the Premier rather than just letting the police commissioner and maybe the head of the CFS distribute the information that people want, rather than having to go through this process and then back end it, if you have to have a political operative there. I would like to know why it is common practice in a lot of states, and especially here, to have the Premier front the press conference prior to hearing from the people who are actually doing the work.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: The Premier is the leader of the state. I do not want to be flippant about this, but I think it is a reasonable expectation on behalf of the public to have the leader of the state leading the government. The Premier, of course, more specifically is the chair of the Emergency Management Council, which is a different body again, which the State Emergency Management Committee sort of answers to, ultimately. The Premier is the chair of the Emergency Management Council. He would often be represented at those sorts of events in that capacity.

First and foremost, and I think to go back to my initial response, the Premier is the leader of the state. I think the public would be quite right to expect the Premier to be well briefed and across all the detail of any significant emergency that comes to hand. I do not think you would expect anything less either. Then, of course, as it is time for information to be disseminated, it is entirely appropriate for the Premier and the leader of the state to be playing a role in that respect.

Clause passed.

Remaining clauses (5 to 13), schedule and title passed.

Bill reported without amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:52): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.

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