❓ Opposition Leader questions the Minister for Emergency Services about delays in implementing recommendations from previous bushfire inquiries, specifically regarding vehicle tracking and mapping. The Minister defends the delays, citing the need for a comprehensive and future-proofed system.
AnsweredQoN 424Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
WAROONA–YARLOOP BUSHFIRES —
FERGUSON REPORT
424. Mr M. McGOWAN to the Minister for
Emergency Services:
Before I ask my question, I acknowledge
Mr Euan Ferguson and his work on the bushfire inquiry. I also acknowledge the
wonderful work of all of those involved in community safety and fire
management.
I refer to today's Waroona
fire special inquiry report and the 25 incomplete recommendations arising from
inquiries into previous fires, including the reviews into the 2011 Perth hills
and Margaret River fires and the 2014 Parkerville fire.
(1) Why have
previous basic and practical recommendations such as a vehicle tracking system
and a critical messaging system only recently been tendered or actioned after
years of them sitting out there?
(2) Can the
minister explain why the lack of suitable maps continues to be a problem five
years after a recommendation for better maps was made?
FERGUSON REPORT
424. Mr M. McGOWAN to the Minister for
Emergency Services:
Before I ask my question, I acknowledge
Mr Euan Ferguson and his work on the bushfire inquiry. I also acknowledge the
wonderful work of all of those involved in community safety and fire
management.
I refer to today's Waroona
fire special inquiry report and the 25 incomplete recommendations arising from
inquiries into previous fires, including the reviews into the 2011 Perth hills
and Margaret River fires and the 2014 Parkerville fire.
(1) Why have
previous basic and practical recommendations such as a vehicle tracking system
and a critical messaging system only recently been tendered or actioned after
years of them sitting out there?
(2) Can the
minister explain why the lack of suitable maps continues to be a problem five
years after a recommendation for better maps was made?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) Certainly,
and I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question. I also acknowledge
the work of Mr Ferguson and the team that supported him, and in particular all
the firefighters who were involved in fighting those fires, both career and
volunteer. It was obviously a significant fire in Western Australia's
history. It was probably the largest one and an unprecedented amount of people
were impacted, not least those who fought the fire.
I will start with the automatic
vehicle location system. Of course, there was a recommendation to do this and
it would be very easy for the government to go onto eBay, buy a $50 GPS tracker
and stick it in a fire truck. This has taken some time and I will go into it in
some detail so we are crystal clear about why it has taken a few years to go
out to tender. It is because rather than throwing good money down the drain, we
wanted to ensure that anything we do in this space is futureproofed. Let me
give some examples. We wanted to make sure that the AVL, which would transmit
in real time to the incident commander and give them a very overall tactical
picture of the battle space, for want of better words, does a number of
different things and that it is foolproof and futureproof. We have to consider
things such as its polling rate. Does it send the information—is it
location, is it speed, is it direction? Is it future upgradable to include
things like the volume of the water in the water tank and fuel in the fuel
tank? Will it poll over the analogue radio network? Can a module be changed so
it can poll over the digital radio network? If that fails, will it revert to
the 4G network? If that fails, will it then revert to the Iridium satellite
network? Can other fire trucks plug an iPad or something similar in to solve
mapping issues in order to have real live maps and also to see where other
vehicles are located on the fireground? Will it have an emergency distress
button so if a crew and fire truck gets into trouble they can press a button
and alert the incident management team or the sector commander of what the
issues are and where that fire truck is right there at that point in time? Will
it also look at the introduction of a future—we are looking at options
for this—computer aided dispatch system from the Department of Fire and
Emergency Services, which we are considering obviously with police and other
agencies? Will it allow for the introduction of radio frequency identification
cards or near field communication, as we roll out a new volunteer
identification —
Mr
D.J. Kelly interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Bassendean.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : I am going through all of the possible things that we had to
consider before it.
Mr
M. McGowan : Four years.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : If you want to go and buy a $50 GPS tracker off eBay, that is
fine, but as soon as you go out of radio range —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Butler, I call you to order for the first time. Through
the Chair, a short answer, thank you.
Mr
F.M. Logan interjected.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : Because we did not want to waste money on something that was
going to be outdated straight away.
What about the role of the volunteer
and career emergency services identification card? Is that RFID? Is that near
field communication? Will that solve the problem? There are many recommendations
in that report, such as fatigue management of crews, the observations —
Ms
R. Saffioti interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for West Swan.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : The opposition asked the question and I am giving a very
detailed answer. The opposition should be happy about that. What about
catering, so if a volunteer brigade self-deploys onto the fire —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Through the Chair, a short answer.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : If a volunteer truck self-deploys onto the fireground without
the knowledge of the sector commander or the incident management team, will it
be able to address issues as to maximising resource use in order to combat a fire?
Would we be able to address catering concerns, so we would not see issues with
volunteers coming off shifts without being catered for because no-one knew they
were there? There are a whole lot of things that will be addressed in a report
just for the rollout of an automatic vehicle location system, including the
safety of firefighters, and we wanted to make sure that when we went out to
tender it addressed every single one of these issues and was futureproofed so
we would not have to replace it with more things in the future and see
taxpayers' good money being thrown after that.
and I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question. I also acknowledge
the work of Mr Ferguson and the team that supported him, and in particular all
the firefighters who were involved in fighting those fires, both career and
volunteer. It was obviously a significant fire in Western Australia's
history. It was probably the largest one and an unprecedented amount of people
were impacted, not least those who fought the fire.
I will start with the automatic
vehicle location system. Of course, there was a recommendation to do this and
it would be very easy for the government to go onto eBay, buy a $50 GPS tracker
and stick it in a fire truck. This has taken some time and I will go into it in
some detail so we are crystal clear about why it has taken a few years to go
out to tender. It is because rather than throwing good money down the drain, we
wanted to ensure that anything we do in this space is futureproofed. Let me
give some examples. We wanted to make sure that the AVL, which would transmit
in real time to the incident commander and give them a very overall tactical
picture of the battle space, for want of better words, does a number of
different things and that it is foolproof and futureproof. We have to consider
things such as its polling rate. Does it send the information—is it
location, is it speed, is it direction? Is it future upgradable to include
things like the volume of the water in the water tank and fuel in the fuel
tank? Will it poll over the analogue radio network? Can a module be changed so
it can poll over the digital radio network? If that fails, will it revert to
the 4G network? If that fails, will it then revert to the Iridium satellite
network? Can other fire trucks plug an iPad or something similar in to solve
mapping issues in order to have real live maps and also to see where other
vehicles are located on the fireground? Will it have an emergency distress
button so if a crew and fire truck gets into trouble they can press a button
and alert the incident management team or the sector commander of what the
issues are and where that fire truck is right there at that point in time? Will
it also look at the introduction of a future—we are looking at options
for this—computer aided dispatch system from the Department of Fire and
Emergency Services, which we are considering obviously with police and other
agencies? Will it allow for the introduction of radio frequency identification
cards or near field communication, as we roll out a new volunteer
identification —
Mr
D.J. Kelly interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Bassendean.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : I am going through all of the possible things that we had to
consider before it.
Mr
M. McGowan : Four years.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : If you want to go and buy a $50 GPS tracker off eBay, that is
fine, but as soon as you go out of radio range —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Butler, I call you to order for the first time. Through
the Chair, a short answer, thank you.
Mr
F.M. Logan interjected.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : Because we did not want to waste money on something that was
going to be outdated straight away.
What about the role of the volunteer
and career emergency services identification card? Is that RFID? Is that near
field communication? Will that solve the problem? There are many recommendations
in that report, such as fatigue management of crews, the observations —
Ms
R. Saffioti interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for West Swan.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : The opposition asked the question and I am giving a very
detailed answer. The opposition should be happy about that. What about
catering, so if a volunteer brigade self-deploys onto the fire —
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Through the Chair, a short answer.
Mr
J.M. FRANCIS : If a volunteer truck self-deploys onto the fireground without
the knowledge of the sector commander or the incident management team, will it
be able to address issues as to maximising resource use in order to combat a fire?
Would we be able to address catering concerns, so we would not see issues with
volunteers coming off shifts without being catered for because no-one knew they
were there? There are a whole lot of things that will be addressed in a report
just for the rollout of an automatic vehicle location system, including the
safety of firefighters, and we wanted to make sure that when we went out to
tender it addressed every single one of these issues and was futureproofed so
we would not have to replace it with more things in the future and see
taxpayers' good money being thrown after that.
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