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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-24 Daily Xml
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Bills

Fire and Emergency Services (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 5 March 2020.)

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:50): I rise to speak today about the Fire and Emergency Services (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill. Much of the time of this parliamentary session so far has been occupied by members' contributions regarding the recent horrific bushfire season that had such a tremendously terrible impact on South Australia. We have heard numerous recounts of the damage and lost inflicted on South Australian citizens and their properties right across the state, but especially on the peninsula, in the Hills and on Kangaroo Island. Many spoke about how South Australians banded together and in some cases did so despite significant adversity that they faced as individuals. What is clear from all the members' contributions that we have heard on that topic thus far is that there is unanimous support for our state to recover from these terrible fires and the devastation that ensued.

Fortunately, the bushfires that were ablaze for weeks have now all been extinguished for some time and the effort to clean up and recover is well underway. The inevitable fact of the Australian environment is that bushfires will burn again in the future. We have seen them in the past and, unfortunately, we will see them again. With all that is happening in the world currently in addition to that, we cannot neglect to implement improvements from the lessons learned from the fire season that we have all just suffered through.

There is much work to be done. Albeit just a single piece in the puzzle, this current bill before us is a step in the right direction for our state and our future resilience in the face of a very significant emergency. I know that my colleague minister Wingard has been working hard on this bill for some time. He and the department have consulted widely and considered the findings of a parliamentary committee and presented a bill which will improve the state's emergency services. The bill was introduced following a number of reviews undertaken over several years, dating back to the previous government.

This bill aims specifically to rectify a range of long overdue technical issues that were identified in the reviews. Other adjustments include improvements to the fire safety provisions, as well as recognising the command structures of the SES. All of these changes should streamline and complement the current legislation. As you would be aware, this bill also seeks to protect volunteers who sacrifice so much for their fellow South Australians, and this is one aspect of the bill of which I am particularly proud. If passed, this bill would protect volunteers from being liable to dismissal or prejudiced in some way in their employment due to being called to the emergencies in their capacity as a volunteer.

As we have seen recently, volunteers missed significant amounts of their normal work time to go and fight the fires and help save properties and people's livelihoods. As a government, we want to continue to incentivise South Australians to volunteer for their local CFS brigades or to join an SES unit. To the greatest extent possible, these volunteers should not be financially penalised due to their generosity and sense of service. Indeed, we should do all we can to protect them in the circumstances.

Under this bill, a volunteer's sacrifices cannot equate to their job being sacrificed, lost or in any way prejudiced against them. These employment protections solidify what I believe would be a widely held community belief that those who help in our time of need for no personal gain should be protected in their work. Another change this bill seeks to reform is the procedure regarding the cessation of an activity that may cause a fire. This bill will grant power to SAPOL to direct a person to cease an activity deemed likely to cause a fire. A significant activity which would fall within the scope of this section is, of course, harvesting.

The minister has consulted widely on this section and it has clear implications on those regionally based. The power to cease harvesting considers this consultation and draws on the recommendations of the parliamentary select committee report of 4 April 2019. It is clear that this is not a power for SAPOL to exercise daily throughout the harvest period and, as the member for Narungga has said in the other place, many of our farming communities have sophisticated networks of weather stations that they utilise to guide their harvesting.

This cessation direction power is a safety net for our community and it should only be used in the most rarest of circumstances. Indeed, it is very unusual for farmers to engage in rogue or unsafe practices and it is our government's intention to try to create safeguards against future preventable fires in our regional communities.

I should stress that, whilst there has been some considerable debate about this particular issue in this particular bill, I think it has landed in the right place. These powers rightly lay with SAPOL in my view, and they should be used very rarely indeed. Farmers, on the whole, do a magnificent job, are very sensible people and will do nothing to risk unnecessary fires. That is why these powers should be used very sparingly indeed and I hope that is the case.

I congratulate the minister on this bill. It is one thing to commission reports and it is another to go about making change. Now is the time to implement greater protection for emergency volunteers in their everyday employment. Additionally, it is an appropriate time, given what we have seen, to implement precautions for our community's safety. Granting SAPOL the power to cease activity deemed likely to cause a fire is one safeguard we can implement to try to stop preventable fires in high-risk areas. I stress again that I see this power as being something that should be used in very limited cases where appropriate, and SAPOL is the appropriate agency to be able to enforce that power.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:56): I rise on behalf of the Greens to support the Fire and Emergency Services (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill but note that we have some concerns that will be addressed by support of the Labor amendment to this bill. Without support for that amendment, however, we will withdraw our support for the bill in total.

I outline that this has been a long time in the making. I draw members' attention to the fact that we have heard that the minister has consulted long and broadly. We had a select committee in the other place because the minister had not originally consulted appropriately. Errors were made, lines of responsibility and liability were not clarified, and key stakeholders were neither consulted nor happy. Those key stakeholders being the police, through their representation of the Police Association, and the CFS Volunteers Association representing those volunteers that we laud so long and so rightly in this place when we talk about these topics.

The Greens say it is not worth all of the words that we put on the record in this place, that we value our volunteers, that we value our police force, if we cannot listen to them when we legislate to directly affect them. When that legislation may indeed adversely affect them, as the Police Association has raised in the case of the police, then we need to listen a little harder in the Legislative Council so that the government ministers of the day may perhaps hear.

I draw members' attention to the correspondence of 9 December 2019, which was a reason for this bill being deemed as somewhat controversial and not passing before parliament was prorogued last year. That letter from Mark Carroll, the President of the Police Association of this state, states that with regard to this:

The Police Association does not support this clause in its present form.

With regard to the insertion of section 105IA—Power of direction by police officer, he notes and I have had conversations with Mr Carroll about this as well to inform the Greens' position:

It is concerning that legislation would empower a police officer to direct a person (or a farmer) in this manner, without advice from an authorized expert possessing the requisite skills, knowledge and training.

I also have concern for members who might fail to give a direction, and are subsequently blamed for a fire and loss of life or property. Without some form of legislated interaction with an authorized expert, police officers will be set up to fail.

At the time, he noted that the legislation also makes no provision for what form the direction of a police officer might take, and it was the association's view that a prescribed direction should be included in either the act or supporting regulations. My understanding is that while nobody actually disagrees with these errors that were identified with the legislation through the consultation process of the parliament—not of the government through that select committee process—despite efforts by the Police Association, they have been assured by the minister that he understands their concerns, he agrees with their concerns, but it can all be fixed up in the regulations later.

That is not acceptable. That is not something that this Legislative Council should accept, and the Greens will not accept that. Those changes, that nobody disagrees with, that everyone has now through that select committee process been made to realise is the appropriate way forward, should be in the act, not in the regulations.

We will not leave to chance something to be gazetted by a minister who failed to consult properly on this bill in the first place, who has failed to amend the legislation we currently debate, and who has waited for the Labor opposition to put that amendment to this bill that we debate in coming days and hours. That is not good enough and the Greens will not support this bill unless that Labor amendment is endorsed.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.

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