Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canning. The practical management of major fires, not just in Western Australia but right around Australia, is extremely challenging. What happens in an incident control centre during this sort of incident is a response based around real time and constant change. I saw this, given that a large proportion the fires referred to, including the very devastating fires in Waroona, Yarloop and the Shire of Harvey, were, in fact, in my electorate of Forrest. We were at our family farm and watched the fires as they evolved, and constant change was the one thing that we could certainly rely on. Depending on the wind and the weather conditions, there was constant change in the fires.

Consider who in Western Australia manages fires. In actual firefighting, we have the Department of Parks and Wildlife and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services. We also have a whole group of wonderful volunteer brigades and, of course, the people on the ground who are often in that first line: our farmers and locals. In a fire, you always see a whole raft of local farmers, with their fire units on the back of their utes, doing everything they can to deal with the fires, not only those on their own property but also those on their neighbours' properties and elsewhere. We saw significant aerial support. The water bombers and helicopters on one of those days were just like bees over my home, with the number of flights they were doing. I saw my local fire brigades of Yarloop, Cookernup, Harvey, Uduc and the Harvey Hills doing extraordinary things. I have referred to them previously as ordinary people who do extraordinary things. In Western Australia, the government has set up an inquiry to be conducted by the former head of the Country Fire Authority Victoria and the South Australian Country Fire Service, Mr Euan Ferguson, with powers under section 24 of the Public Sector Management Act 1994. It will have similar powers to a royal commission. These are powers to subpoena people to attend and require them to produce documents and give evidence under oath. In this particular inquiry, the terms of reference are to investigate:

(a) The effectiveness of pre-incident bushfire prevention and mitigation activities;

(b) The effectiveness of emergency management plans and procedures;

(c) The effectiveness of the suppression strategies and tactics used during the fire;

(d) The effectiveness of incident management, including coordination of agencies, volunteer fire and emergency services and interstate assistance;

(e) Protection of essential services infrastructure and access to essential services (power, transport, water, communication) by emergency services organisations and the community;

(f) The effectiveness of public messaging including the adequacy and timeliness of emergency warnings issued to residents and visitors;

(g) Effectiveness of assistance to and management of those affected by the fire:

(i) Evacuation procedures

(ii) Communications with the community over the course of the fire

(iii) Provision of welfare support

(iv) Management of people seeking to return to their properties

(h) Livestock and companion animal management and welfare issues.

I have been on the ground talking with so many of my constituents—all of the various levels of emergency management, the local volunteers, each of the groups involved in fighting this fire, and even the local farmers and residents. I would encourage everyone who has experiences and recommendations to offer in relation to those terms of reference to put in a simple submission to this process. Their experiences and what they saw and heard will be a critical part of the findings and of management of future emergencies such as this one.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:37 to 15:59

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