Fire on the Limestone Plains/Inquiries and Reviews

1988 to 1995

The ACT’s Emergency Services have been the subject of various inquiries and reviews these include the 1988 Purdue report, the 1991 Hannan Report, the 1992 Purdon Report, the 1993 McDonald Report, the 1994 McBeth Report, and the 1995 Glenn Report.

1997

LEGAL AFFAIRS - STANDING COMMITTEE Report on Proposed Restructuring of ACT Emergency Services

MR OSBORNE (11.59): Mr Speaker, I present Report No. 4 of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs entitled "Inquiry into the Proposed Restructuring of the ACT Emergency Services", together with a copy of extracts of the minutes of proceedings. I move: That the report be noted.

2003

Mr Ron McLeod (a former Commonwealth Ombudsman) headed the Inquiry into the Operational Response to the January 2003 Bushfires. Final Report was presented to the Chief Minister, on 1 August 2003.

The Inquiry found in the structure of the ACT’s emergency service arrangements inefficiencies that frustrated emergency workers and volunteers in their efforts to make their contribution as effective as possible. Taking into account the ACT’s size, the Inquiry considers it would be more efficient if all the ACT emergency services, their assets and their personnel (with their considerable skills), were maintained and managed within a single, larger operational body specifically set up outside the framework of the ACT Public Service. This would bring the various emergency service bodies closer together and would facilitate more flexible use of equipment and personnel, to better meet changing circumstances and a variety of different types of emergencies.

The proposed new body—the ACT Emergency Services Authority—would need its own legislation and its own management and governance arrangements, and it would report directly to the ACT Government through the relevant Minister. A move in this direction would be consistent with the trend elsewhere in Australia towards greater integration between the different emergency service bodies and a stronger ‘all hazards’ approach to emergency management. The proposed ACT authority would replace the existing Emergency Services Bureau.

2003 Coronial

Coroner Maria Doogan "Inquest into the deaths of Mrs Dorothy McGrath, Mrs Alison Tener, Mr Peter Brooke and Mr Douglas Fraser as a result of the January 2003 Canberra bushfires" was formally opened at a directions hearing on 16 June 2003 and began to hear evidence on 7 October 2003. See Coroner Doogan's Report Volume 1 and Volume 2.