Map showing area of fires and the Tasman Peninsula {on right}
The bushfires in early January 2013 affected many people with the Tasman peninsula particularly severely affected because the peninsula became totally isolated from the rest of Tasmania as the road, power and many communications services were cut and no action was taken to provide a regular water borne service for residents and others.
The peninsula residents were thus isolated for about 9 days between Jan 3 -12 2013 while some services such as fixed line phones still not working after Jan 17.
The following narrative attempts to give voice to Tasman residents who experienced various unnecessary difficulties during, and immediately after, the fires.
Community and business worked to meet the evident needs
During the period, many stories were presented on TV, radio and in the papers about the massive levels of help provided by individuals, companies and groups. From a raft of volunteers and professionals fighting fires, installing generators, helping people to a few ferries loaned by private operators in the early days, to massive efforts by local fishermen and boat owners to ferry supplies and people, to donors providing food for people and livestock, plus a whole range of other services provided by people who saw and need and went out of their way to supply it.
It was a brilliant effort by police, fire services, SES plus a whole range of community members who took the initiative and did what obviously needed to be done.
Centrelink processed payments to affected residents quickly and efficiently, crews from power and phone companies and multiple sub-contractors, did heroic work to re-establish services while certain insurance companies opened local tent based offices in the worst affected areas.
Overall it was a brilliant effort by communities, helpful individuals and businesses to help alleviate the worst of the suffering experienced by those involved in the emergency.
What we didn’t see in the media (or on the ground) was how the State government had moved to help residents and others to reduce the impacts of the emergency, the reason is that there were no such efforts.. Indeed by defining telecommunications as non-essential, the federal government has left our telecommunications systems exposed with inadequate back ups and an overall system that isn’t robust enough to take Australia into the 21st century. How our economy would work without telecommunications has never been explained and weaknesses in t’comms during an emergency can create profound problems.
Apart from PR, State government was notable by its absence
Politicians toured with TV cameras, pressed flesh and offered sympathies but they didn’t send logistics and communication experts, nor organise regular ferries to help residents to get supplies, nor did they implement any useful emergency telephone contacts for isolated residents who needed information. They didn’t provide needed food, or help for farmers whose stock were starving, neither did they assure that the various emergency plans that they claimed to have1, were actually implemented, nor that information was integrated, factual and distributed to everyone who needed it. They hadn’t even provided emergency responders with adequate maps and technologies to co-ordinate and respond most effectively to the disparate fires spreading around the peninsula.
Relief at last? Sent in the first few days to the fire ravaged areas in the Tasman peninsula, not logistics and health professionals, not generators, not hand cranked radios but politicians - Dick Adams, Lara Giddings, Julia Gillard etc
Lara Giddings was ‘talking with’ a family who had been burned out in Dunalley. When they stated that they believed that the fires wouldn’t have been as serious if more frequent fuel reductions had been carried out by government and its various instruments the Premier replied to the effect that fuel reduction wouldn’t have made any difference, the damage was the result of the weather.Isn’t it great to know that the Premier has that expertise?
What’s happening? At one Emergency Services Command HQ
Visitor: “Why aren’t there any maps anywhere?”
Operator “The Police took it”
Visitor: “What are you using?”
Is shown a traced outline (unlabelled) of Peninsula on piece of white paper
Of course, the police took the map because they didn’t have one either!
How were briefings carried out? How were geographic issues understood? Only emergency services pressed by major budget cuts could have no maps of the areas that they are supposed to work in. And only an organisation where the members were constantly under threat of management repercussions would stay silent about such a lack of critical tools Indeed many local emergency responders cannot make local decisions, they have to refer decisions to bureaucrats in Hobart – more delays and morale busting lack of power for those doing the actual work.
In fact, it appeared to many in the community that the State government was more of an impediment, a mountain for emergency service personnel to climb, rather than an active participant in helping to deal with severe threats to the community.
The result was a schemozzle of co-ordination and communication.
Some comments and some typical stories
The two main emergency contact numbers were often slow or unavailable, 000 created frustrating delays as overseas operators utterly unfamiliar with local geographyand English struggled with descriptions and spelling while frustrated residents struggled to get calls through on mobile phones that were running out of charge and money.Others (e.g. local Council) simply did not have the requisite information and were unable to help despite the best efforts of the few secretaries and receptionists there. The most common statement from operators was “I’m sorry I can’t help you”.
Residents planningto ‘stay and defend’ relied on fire categorisation to finalise their plans (stay or leave) but many found out that emergency personnel (police, Parks & Rec, FT etc) did not know what category of fire faced them at any given time. Lack of such critical information leaves residents to carry all of the risk. Where was the co-ordinated information that people could trust? Who was supposed to have provided that service…the Council?
The power provider Aurora announced that 700 power poles were downed by fires. The lack of power meant no water, refrigeration, communication, cooking, showers, toilet flushing etc for many people.
Integrated information After a week stuck on the peninsula, one couple found out that police had organised a convoy to escort people out leaving at 9a.m from a local centre. They were first to arrive at 8:50 and were told by police at the checkpoint, that they couldn’t leave the peninsula as the road was closed.
Couple: “But there’s a convoy leaving here in 10 minutes”
Police: “Is there?” Goes to check on the radio…“Oh yes, so there is…”
At the time of writing (17 Jan) the community is still offering most of the services needed by residents such as food, stock feed, water, supplies, money and other support. The State government has formed a recovery committee and demonstrated their lack of interest in local businesses by giving the clean-up work to a Burnie based company leaving local heavy equipment operators to compete for any sub-contracting work.
Telecommunications were a mess, with mobile phone towers out due to power losses,optic fibre cables melting and landlines not working due to fires affecting exchanges and cables. Promoted web sites such as the Fire Service were unavailable as most residents had no power, and many such sites crashed anyway as there was an ‘unplanned’ load on them. After 8 days without power generators were flown in ( http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/tas-peak-bushfire-period-still-weeks-away/story-fn3dxiwe-1226552270273 ) from Queensland but were still unavailable on 13 Jan in many areas.
Evacuation and communications Firefighters had just finished evacuating one area ahead of a huge fire front and were setting up to contain the fire as best they could when the evacuees started to trickle back into the danger zone. When the firies asked why they hadn’t stayed away as instructed the residents replied…“We heard on the ABC radio that it was safe to return…”
Various political visits were made while important messages that could be construed as critical were held up by staff afraid to expose themselves to management action. The entire public sector and much of the private sector professed fear of repercussions from politicians and bureaucrats and were unwilling to speak out even within their own organisations.
TV news reports, in this order and in the same bulletin…
1) The Tasman Peninsula is now cut off by fires, roads may not open for weeks
2) There is no power to the Tasman peninsula
3) Anyone needing information should log onto the TFS or Police websites
Query. How do we access the websites when we have no power?
If government used the common military concept of C4I (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C4ISTAR ) it would focus on command, control, communications, co-ordination and intelligence. In the case of Tasman fires, all of these functions were compromised by lack of communications capability, lack of power, lack of trained personnel , lack of priority and lack of any coherent strategy by the State government. Command also failed to co-ordinate available information sources (e.g. radio) to be consistent with information available on the ground.
The local Council advert in the latest Peninsula Gazette (http://www.tasmangazette.com.au/online-newspapers/tasman-gazette/ ) that “Council has a current Municipal Emergency Management Plan which provides a consistent state-wide framework for communication and co-ordination between the various state emergency agencies and key organisations in the area i.e. PAHSMA, THCS etc. A key component of the Plan is recovery …”.
While the Council carried out some functions their phone lines were only manned 9-5 (unfortunately not hours recognised by the fires), their staff did not receive any emergency management training. neither were they provided with the tools or information to cope with the emergency -although it was clearly possible for helicopters to fly politicians around. From a residents point-of-view, there was no information available, and any that did exist was frequently contradicted by another information source.
Emergency evacuation centres On TV news I see a family I know at an evac centre. To contact them, I call Sorell Police - no answer (it’s 5:15pm).
I then call the Hobart Police HQ - no answer (it’s still after 5:00 pm!). I call the Police Emergency line (131444) and am told that its a Red Cross function. I call the Red Cross and tell them what I’m trying to do. The operator says “Yes, we keep everyone’s name and contact numbers in our system. We can’t help you now however because our computer isn’t working”
A couple of days later, when the Red Cross computer centre was working, I found that the people I was trying to contact were recorded as being at Nubeena. I went to that centre where I was told “Yes we know who arrived here, but we have no system to record who has left or when, so we really don’t know where those people are”
Some potential lessons from the emergency
Response times are being slowed down by call centres based overseas (e.g. 000) where operators have no local knowledge and patchy english skills and take extra time to try to understand caller’s requirements. It can take a long time to explain to someone overseas with often patchy English skills, where an emergency is and where the caller is, what the risks are and so on. Local operators do not have those problems so responses can be a lot quicker.
Other delays are caused because local emergency responders have to get many of their emergency actions approved by bureaucrats in Hobart before they are allowed to act. Lack of necessary resources, delays in information and dubious telecommunications systems all contribute to increasing severity of any emergency.
Here’s how New Matilda (http://newmatilda.com/2013/01/17/wheres-our-australian-climate-plan ) sees it…”Another cause for concern is the state of our emergency services, nationally. Extreme weather and natural disaster preparedness inherently involves public sector emergency services, such as fire-fighters, ambulance, police and SES. Most of these services are delivered by the states. That’s a problem, because the states have long term financial problems caused by their eroding tax base, particularly the slowly growing GST.”
And…“Australia’s emergency response effort is still heavily reliant on volunteer labour. But volunteers fit enough to fight bushfires or rescue flood victims will become more difficult to find as our society ages. Nor have our emergency services solved all their information and communication issues. During Black Saturday, breakdowns in internal communications in the Victorian fire control system meant that crucial warnings to residents in Marysville and Kinglake never went out.”
Insurance losses due to extreme weather events over last 40 years.Source: Insurance Council of Australia
A look at the graph of costs to insurers of extreme weather events indicates that costs are increasing exponentially and are being incurred far more frequently. Clearly that trend is not sustainable.
It was, and still is, clear that the community largely helped itself. Australians cannot rely upon, nor need, the current poor service from our 3 tiers of overpriced government. When the community really needs help, it has to help itself (which works)…because the 3 tiers of government appear far too ;interested in ‘world stages’, ‘balanced budgets’ and the like to actually provide assistance to millions of Australian taxpayers. Indeed they like to represent themselves as ‘cash strapped’ when in fact they are spending large amounts of money on things that Australians simply don’t need (wars, ponderous bureaucracies, opulent benefits, high salaries, favours for ailing businesses, 3 levels of government when 2 would suffice, distorting the free marketetc).
The federal government clearly needs to define telecommunications as an essential service(how could they govern without them? How could the economy operate?)Some say that the government has an arrangement with Telstra not to define telecommunications as essential because it would cost Telstra too much to make their services more robust and reliable.
The level of government waste in Australia is alarming and cannot continue, particularly when governments cannot be relied upon to help Australians when they need it. Now that we can Google information in moments and inform ourselves about almost anything, and we can vote by mobile phone (e.g. GetUp) why do we need self-promoting ‘representatives’ who cannot be relied upon, even in an emergency?
Researcher at the University of Melbourne, Allan Patience recently asked in The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/state-governments-are-a-waste-of-money-get-rid-of-them-20121219-2bn67.html )…
“Are state governments, with their bureaucracies of declining quality and capacity, their armies of consultants and their legions of spin doctors really giving us value for our money? Can we really afford them?
More importantly, do we really need them?”
Our State government is helping us by providing a clear answer that question and it is a resounding ‘NO!’
Without them we’d have the resources to buy maps for our emergency services, assure that staff are properly trained to deal with emergencies, and provide fire shelters and adequate information to residents threatened by fire.
In fact that may be the only way to really deal with the high cost future implied by the Insurance Council’s graphic.
1A culture of bullying has long been associated with the highest levels of leadership in Tasmania (e.g. The Monthly article by Flanagan http://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-richard-flanagan-out-control-tragedy-tasmania-s-forests-512 ) resulting in a culture of fear throughout the public sector and others reliant upon government (e.g. NGOs).
Download the full analysis:
*A Tas Times Reporter is known to the Editor, describing herself thus: The author is a free-lance philosopher who has focussed on assuring that she’s eaten enough iodine in her life to retain something resembling a functioning adult brain. She has tried for many years to find evidence that the various governments and other ‘authorities’ are delivering value for money, but has signally failed. She has been pressed to the view that institutions set up a hundred and more years ago, are just not able to deal with the problems of the 21st century and therefore there’s little point bothering them with our problems because they don’t do anything except make a lot of noise, pay themselves more of our money and keep charging us for the privilege of being told what to do.
• Questions over bushfire response
ABC Online
Posted Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:36pm AEDT
Criticism is mounting over the Tasmanian Government’s response to the state’s bushfire crisis.
The co-ordinator of a bushfire relief page on social networking site Facebook is questioning whether the Government prepared enough for an incident which stranded thousands of people on the Tasman Peninsula.
Mel Irons from the We Can Help Tasmania page says a similar situation happened during the Port Arthur massacre.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-21/questions-over-bushfire-response/4475930?section=tas
Show Comments
Comments (46)
There certainly ar some lessons here that will be resisted to the last by the State. The 9 to 5 and third world approach to map availability, the rleiance on a vulnerable energy andunhardened telecommunications system and the lack of co-ordination all stand out as lessons that have been learnt elesewhere but seem unable to cross Bass Stait without great difficulty.
Perhaps it is the ferry fare?.
Preparing for worse to come will be constrained by no experience of such events.
The people of northern Japan were ready for a tsunami, just not one that big. In a hotter world much must be rethought but when it is not yet seen as necessary that thinking will only be by the foresighted in every endeavour.
And why are we not having a public inquiry so tasmania can learn its own lessons. Not enough death and destruction leading to a lazy complacency?.
Generators were flown in from Queensland? Because Tasmania didn’t have any or because they couldn’t find them? Maybe Lara should organise a crack team of spin doctors to manage natural disasters in future.
phill Parsons: You are connecting the tsunami with global warming?!?!?
Now i have heard everything…
Hey heres a question. Why in all the videos of the tsunami is there no earthquake damage on ANY building? Even the old wooden and concrete ones… it was only an 8.9 i guess, y’know 1000km radius of utter destruction right…?
We are stuck in a political system where the party interest has replaced the public interest as the main focus of political activity.
All political activity is directed towards gaining office and maintaining office for its own sake, which is to say for personal position within the party system. No matter what happens, the party interest takes centre stage.
It is no longer remarkable to read things such as the following statement by a Tasmanian senator: “The Australian Greens have always supported the principle of selective fuel reduction burns. Any misconceptions regarding this fact are due to the fact that the Greens don’t support forest industry production “re-generation burns”, which are quite different to – but frequently mistaken for - selective “fuel reduction” burns.”
The total focus on party as above any other consideration has progressively skewed all decisions in relation to policy development and the use of public funds into areas which politicians believe will achieve the objectives of getting into “power” and staying there.
The evidence provided by the author of this article about the lack of leadership displayed by politicians – or simply the inability to lead – in the circumstances of the disastrous bushfires, is indicative of a problem now inherent within the political system. The evidence is indicative of a palpable dislocation between the “political bubble and babble” and the general public, the community at large.
It’s not a matter of cynicism to believe that the leadership required is very unlikely to come from within the political system as it currently operates. The harsh reality is that the current stupid party system, with its internal rigidities of caucus conformity and power for its own sake, is not just widening the gap between the “political classes” and the rest of us, but also wrecking the parliamentary system as well from within.
That is now also part of the problem we all face.
saw dick adams pop up for another photo shoot at dunally,did dick roll his sleeves up and get stuck in to help,no he pissed off as soon as his mug was on telly.
I don’t recall any politicians touring fire ravaged areas in the Tasman Peninsula?
Yet some geese thought it was appropriate to call up 936 and berate them for ‘worrying people unnecessarily’ because they weren’t giving exact locations (street names instead of whole suburbs/towns) of areas that were currently under threat.
Right, but if they had no power then they wouldn’t have been watching TV NEWS?
Unfortunately ABC radio were just as silly though.
Really? You thought it appropriate to bother the police while they were very busy dealing with a major disaster, just because you saw someone you know on TV? What were you thinking you could do for them?
Re. 2.They would not want a public inquiry because of the cut backs to health , fire services ,police and education
It galls the writer they can throw another $30. million at forestry and deny essential services.
Forestry is a failed model even the Auditor General has advised them it requires an injection of $200 million.
David O,Byrne should be held accountable.
It comes down to community expectations, if the PM and Premier didn’t attend Dunalley, they they woudlbe condemned like George W Bush was rightly so after Hurricane Katrina. They’ve learnt that and the media grabbed the visits.
I have no problem with that.
But emergency response and then recovery need to be a priorities.
Note the folloowing wheich needs to be remembered and followed through:
1. PM Gillard’s undertaking (8th Jan 2013)
Prime Minister Julia Gillard threw the federal government’s support behind the firefighting and support efforts in Tasmania and said disaster assistance would start flowing in coming days.
2. Tasmanian Premier’s undertakeing (10th Jan 2013):
“The Tasmanian Premier wants an independent inquiry into the state’s bushfires once the crisis is over.
Lara Giddings says fire-affected communities are seeking answers on what led to the catastrophic fires and she is looking to set up an inquiry that is independent from State Parliament.
She has sought advice on the Government’s options from the Attorney-General, Brian Wightman, and says the inquiry may consider issues like fuel reduction burning.
“I would say to Tasmanians, I understand they want answers and we ask them to bear with us as we continue to deal with two elements now, firstly fighting the fires that are still uncontrolled and also looking at what the immediate recovery needs are of communities,” Ms Giddings said.
The Premier has also unveiled a taskforce to oversee the long-term bushfire recovery, led by the former Tasmanian and Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Damien Bugg…”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-10/road-opens-to-fire-ravaged-peninsulas/4459802
A key lesson out of this fire emergency is that Tasmanian state resources and capability to deal with such a scale of crisis/disaster are insufficient to community expectations in 2013.
Such an emergency should be a national responsibility, BEFORE the risk arrives.
@#3 Karl; if Tasmania did have the sort of large generators that were brought in then there would be outcry on these pages about government wasting money on something that goes unused most of the time. http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/01/12/370199_tasmania-news.html
@#6; Too much Dick, thanks.
I wonder if anyone of you lost a home, a farm or did anyone of the 10 corespondents spend any time fighting the fires, of course not. I would be amazed if you had, what right do these self serving sanctimonious know all have to tell anyone about bush fires. When you list the politicians who as you said did nothing don’t forget your Green mates there were no where to be seen. But nor should they be if you are not trained you are of no use on the day.
Bush fires are about loss, tragedy, bravery and care not about political retribution and sniping from the sidelines. This string made me feel sick.
#2 Tas pollies learn from experience? Someone else’s at that? Oh sorry, you were joking, right!
#4 with global warming, a tsunami will be even more destructive because of higher sea levels.
#4, Please stop wasting our time with stupid conspiracy theories.
Those who deny and reject public criticism, come across as having something to hide because they may be somehow complicit.
My family lost their home in the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfire along the Victorian Great Ocean Road.
Does that make me any more deserving, credible or experienced to be allowed to comment on a current fire in Tasmanian in 2013?
In Australia, nuh!
Do I have to have been SAS and have shot a dozen Taliban on three tours of duty to have a right to be critical of Australia’s involvement in the current war in Afghanistan?
In Australia, nuh!
Bazzabee, politely reflect on this and pull your comments in.
Re-read the above comments and explain how each self serves their commenter.
A few annoyingly frustrating but reflective questions for you:
1. What is the core task of fire-fighting, volunteer comeraderie and social traditions aside?
2. How has the Tasmanian Government performed this month in executing its fire fighting emergency duties?
Volunteerism is a noble Australian cultural tradition. I have served in a capacity in a different field for 10 years.
But looking at the failures and the devastation and suffering caused by under-resourcing by government and abuse of volunteers makes me sick.
How dare governments hide behind volunteers they have encouraged when communities are let down?
We were fortunate there was not a great loss of life as was the case in 1967.
We remember of how generators were installed to provide power due to hydro crisis.
We remember a ship ie. George Evans purchased from New Zealand to provide power for Temco and Comalco at Bell Bay.
We remember the Thermal Power station being built at Bell Bay.
We remember Premier Eric Reece stating Tasmania will not be caught unaware again.
[He was like Drake playing bowls }
Premier Reece stated Southern Tasmania is like the South of France and California when it drys out and does not have the moisture levels the north has with Bass Strait.
Yet we were part of the emergency services in industry and are too old now.
Dust out the files in Hobart and give our emergency services Reece promised they would have.
Having back up gensets for phone towers and exchanges is the responsibility of the Telecom operators. Our governments job is to make sure they are keeping up with the task. Another agenda item for the regular emergency management meetings held between Police, Fire, DHHS, and others, if it is not there already.
One suspects all the gensets were still in Qland as a hang over from the floods 24 months ago.
There are, I respectfully submit, better pretexts for political debate than events causing great sadness and loss for so many people and ample opportunities elsewhere to run what can often be the same essential arguments in different guises.
Re #8, it galls this writer that that so many of the green persuasion have so attacked the forest industry that they have contributed to its reduction in capacity to generate wealth and turnover and contribute to community protection. This is the basis behind the forestry sector being unable to contibute what it used to. Any analysis will show the extent to which the attack on Gunn’s led to it making decisions on certification (in order to appease) which caused it to sell product on the spot market that ultimately drew it into conflict with its traditional customers. The GFC contributed, as did other factors, but the bullying of Gunn’s into moving out of native forest was entirely the work of the green movement. It is not many years ago that FT was contributing around $40 million into state coffers, and paying the entire cost of its fire management activities, including fighting wildfires and helping Parks to boot. The fact that the state now has to bail out FT is an indictment on the green movement, but none of you would see it that way, and now some of you are even blaming them!
The main reason I am increasingly ignoring this site is that it is full of misguided people who cause and then perpetrate such nonsense. As far as I am concerned you can stew in your own juice, and if any of you have any fire damage, don’t expect any sympathy from me, you can get on with it yourselves.
It also amazes me that so many of the green grizzlers in the list of comments to this thread are bagging the state Labor government. What does this mean? Are they all waiting for the next election to be rid of Labor and eagerly awaiting the installation of a Hodgman Liberal government?
The Hobart City Council has how many snow ploughs?
We could do with them here right now.If it ain’t one thing it’s another isn’t it?
The comments on this article show why this little island finds itself in the state it is in and for that matter, the entire planet. Typically it is being turned into and war, between ideological clones intend on demanding their fantasy land delusions are superior to others deluded denial of reality.
It matters not what you dribble out, nor the excuses you use to promote and support your unsupportable ideological insanity, which is way past it’s evolutionary use by date. The problem is all who are in power, have no idea, understanding, knowledge or experience to deal with the realties of the 21st century. All they can deal with is the centuries old day dreams and deceptions they utilise to keep the people suppressed uninformed and deceived, The facts are undeniable, unless you are one of those programmed clones, who refuse to see anything but their ignorance and that seems to be the majority.
I wonder how many realise that Nubeena was less than one hour away from being over run by two fire fronts, it was only a wind change and efforts by helicopter pilots that saved everyone here. Nor would those not here realise that where the majority sheltered, was ringed by a pine plantation and unburnt fuel loaded bush.
Keep arguing and desperately supporting your brain dead ideological masters, it’s all you have in your lives, not reality, just primitive minded idiotic denial.
This is the 21 st century, nothing like it has been before and the approach to it by ideological humanity is locked in the past, centuries ago. So nothing will change because you refuse to take responsibility for your lives and force the introduction of a decent political system which gives the power and money to where it really belongs, the people so they can decide and not greedy ideological elites. Currently te power is in the hands of empty headed programmed clones whose only experience is life comes from a classroom or office and not reality. They only listen to those who give them money to use in deceptive advertising and future positions on their boards or other hand outs, the results are in the state of our island and the viewable and verifiable future these fools are taking us to.
The only worthwhile lessons to be learnt from this is, we have the wrong people running the show and it will not change until we get rid of them and the destructive control and influence their ideologies have over our lives. I bet there are very few who can see that this situation is not unique or a one off, but a small dramatic sign of what the future holds under the direction of the current primitive, elitist and delusional ideological clones.
We need a political party that will get rid of political parties, put the power in the hands of real people and introduce referendum style voting in local and state elections and operations. We need people running portfolios who have real experience and knowledge of the subjects, not elitist fools. We have the technology and the people are more informed on life than all the senior bureaucrats, politicians and greed filled corporate elites. Doesn’t anyone realise the majority of these senior bureaucrats in local or state government know nothing about anything, but their power hungry psychopathic ego’s and their desperation to cover up and deny their uselessness.
What makes it worse is these fools destroy the state, then take even more of our money to live on during the supposed retirement, when they deserve less than the dole. Their party machines and major donators should be forced to refund the billions they waste on themselves, propping up their vested interests and their stupid useless policies of destruction and deceit.
#14 “Bazzabee, politely reflect on this and pull your comments in”. NO WAY MATE. I refuse to join the 1984 correct speak that has become the environmentalist mantra of Tas Times - Where I agree I will agree, where I don’t agree I won’t not for you not or for any of your politically correct friends. I hope that the message is clear enough.
By the way I wonder where were you when the fires were dropping embers on my mates home at Eagle Hawk Neck? Had I been able to get down there I would have been helping him fight the fire and neither he nor I need any advice from autodidact fire scientists.
james 10. Great the see Laras media unit is back from holidays. Re the generators. You are right. The government-owned power companies can’t even supply electricity to the government so how can they be expected to supply generators?
Right on A.K.
Too many people on this thread don’t want to learn anything to improve our situation. Any argument will do to keep everything the same.
The people who we are paying to represent us, spend all of their time defending the ‘service providers’ and tell us we’re wrong to complain.
Still having problems? Wait a few months for an inquiry that we have to pay extra for.
The state government ‘leaders’ cannot cause a change in the bureaucracy because they don’t have the ability to do so. If they had, they might actually be able to represent the people who pay them…we taxpayers.
I’m an adult and I don’t need the likes of our politicians and bureaucrats to make my decisions for me. Nor do I need to pay for flawed ‘services’ and generous benefits to representatives who don’t even listen to us.
We need our own ‘Arab spring’ to get rid of this outmoded ‘system’ with it’s brain dead sycophants and mirror-gazing ‘representatives’.
Going by the bushfire ‘response’, we’re better off looking after ourselves. That’s what the volo’s are doing after all.
We need to be able to ‘opt out’ of having someone else make our life decisions (e.g. how we should die and how we should live) if we’re to survive the rigours of the 21st century.
George Harris, Gunns went bankrupt for a simple reason and it goes something like this. Gunns sold woodchips to Japanese companies who turned the product into pulp. Gunns announced that they would be building there own pulp mill to turn their own wood chips into pulp. Their Japanese customers realised that this would mean there would not be the supply available for them in the future so they turned to other suppliers. Gunns’ income reduced accordingly and they were unable to furnish their debts due to this loss of income. They were warned about this at the time by the guy they flew in and paid a lot of money to advise them. They ignored him and the rest as they say is history. History that you seem determined to rewrite to suit your agenda.
RE #18 It is many many many years ago that FT contributed anything like ‘$40m to state coffers’. According to FT financial statements back to 2000-01, now 13 years ago, [which is more than ‘not many years ago’ on most people’s reckoning] the maximum dividend paid by FT to the state government was $5.7m, in that year. Since then the dividend dwindled rapidly to zero, in 2007-08, and has remained at that level ever since. Can #18 please tell me when, if ever, FT’s dividend to the government was $40m?
#21 It is refreshing to read the comments of one who is most assuredly neither a propaganda voice from the GMU (Government Media Unit) nor a party political lickspittle. In no particular order AK here are a few more meditations:
1. The culture of self congratulation in the three political parties in Tasmania is odious beyond measure.
2. Dealing with the mafia is more rational than dealing with government: at least in dealing with the mafia you pay your money and you get protection. Here you pay your money and you get screwed and then you see it line the pockets of government bureaucrats, mates, cronies, favoured business buddies or wasted on idiot organizations like FT or promoting cretinous fantasies like pulp mills and elitist forest ‘peace negotiations’.
3. There is much to be learnt from the self reliance of the people of Catalonia in the 1930’s and earlier. Anarcho-syndicalism is the fall back position for the populace in an emergency, and the way the communities on the Tasman peninsula and elsewhere in Tas organized themselves, without government or bureaucracy, in the recent bushfires, was a fine example of just that.
4. Not only can we do without them we have to tell them so.
@#23 Karl; I’m guessing you’re referring to the spin in the article I posted (to show the size of the gen’s), but if you’re trying to say I’m part of “Lara’s media unit” then you couldn’t be more wrong.
I note that you do not deny that there would be outcry on these pages if we did have generators of that size lying around all year doing nothing.
@#21 AK; well said
What astounds me is the selfishness of some people in an emergency. Calling the Sorell police station because you saw someone you knew on TV? Upset because the Red Cross did not personally know where people were? They were safe - wasn’t that enough!? Surely if you were important enough to them at that time they would have contacted you.
I do agree however that the use of overseas based call centres for 000 is ridiculous, I do question what relevance that is in the current situation?
IMO the lessons here are what can be done to lessen risks for the future - is some form of increased fuel reduction burning appropriate for instance. I also think there should be a better system of regulating where people can/should construct and maintain homes and shacks. A home amongst the gum trees sounds lovely in theory, but in reality it is a distaster waiting to happen.
#26 Imxly
I think your missing the point by focussing on FT’s dividend. Their day to day expenditure went on employing people and running vehicles and equipment that were used (amongst other things) to maintain forest roads, tracks and bridges, and undertake fire prevention works and bushfire suppression when required.
Even if FT failed to deliver a profit to the Govt coffers or broke even, their very existence was providing substantial positive fire management benefits, that I presume are now substantially gone.
Ditto for the forest industries whose planners, supervisors and contractors and their equipment were formerly available in far greater numbers for fire-fighting if required. As I understand that over 3,000 industry jobs have gone in the past few years, this represents a tremendous loss of the former fire-fighting capability.
I find it truly bizarre that people will so readily acccept a ‘news article’ that carries no information on its author, no sources of anecdotal information and no information on how to verify the quite serious claims its making.
It may well be that this topic is coming up too close to the fires, that the pain in the aftermath is too fresh for fruitful discussion.
But discussion about our disaster preparedness we must have, and as much as possible it needs to be non-partisan and focussed on looking at what skills and resources we need to protect communities from natural disasters, and what implications that has for planning as well as resourcing.
Climate science is telling us unequivocally that we must expect more such heat-waves and catastrophic fires, and other extreme weather events. Catastrophic fires are new to Australia. That classification was only created in the response to the 2009 Victorian fires.
These fires exceed our experience and skills in dealing with bushfire, which is saying something in a country that has had fire as part of the landscape to deal with for so long. It is little wonder then that as they occur around the country, our emergency and other government response services are not ‘getting it right’. Increasing settlement in peri-urban areas also throws up new and significant challenges.
Despite the warnings and findings for example from the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission, I doubt any state government has invested or responded sufficiently or responded to the findings.
Some of it will be poor political decision-making in order to chase the holy grail of little or no government debt, with essential services such as these sacrificed at the altar. Another part of it will be the simple truth that humans, including those in government, sometimes have to live through things to fully appreciate what they need to do next time.
We are going to experience more of this. We must respond on that basis. It will involve difficult trade-offs and decisions, and most certainly requires a fresh and comprehensive review of government - federal, state, local - preparedness and funding of emergency services - and I include telecommunications in that.
In November last year the Greens got a federal inquiry into our preparedness for extreme weather events - the submissions are instructive - http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=ec_ctte/extreme_weather/index.htm
It is a deeply concerning sign that it took the smallest party in Australian politics to get an inquiry into this essential topic, but what matters now is that the information it generates moves beyond politics into serious government response.
Similarly, lessons need to be learnt from how well our state services responded to the recent fires here in Tasmania. To be effective such review needs to minimise recriminations (unless there is evidence of downright neglect or maladministration) and focus on what we can learn, for next time. And we are not through this fire season yet.
I will finish by saying that Tasmania has just experienced it’s first catastrophic fires, and no doubt some of the response particularly after the initial emergency was lacking going by these accounts. But we made it through a terrifying two fires without any deaths or serious injury. Clearly, some lessons have been learnt. This is heartening. Now lets fix the rest.
#11,22 Bazzabee:
Why does one have to be a bushfire victim, or be a TFS volunteer or paid government employee to have a right to criticise bushfire management for letting Dunalley and Boomer Bay et al burn?
I read that this was your presumption @ #11.
That is why I politely had a go at your comment, because everyone has a right to question government emergency response, because we pay them our taxes.
I donlt see how the Greens, Labor or Liberals have anything to do with this bushfire. It was a TFS public service operational emergency. It is not sniping, it is empathy for those Tasmanians who have avoidably lost their homes and who may not have insurance.
Related less direct issues like funding, resourcing may be party political, but there is a suggested enquiry looming according to Lala isn’t there? - hopefully in 2013 and within weeks.
I don’t know what “the 1984 correct speak” is.
It was the year after the devastating Ash Wednesday Bushfires in Victoria - is that somehow related?
Let me inform you I have no politically correct friends. All you have to do is read any of my comments.
#31, Why if the information seems pertinent and criticism relevant?
TQ
This article has surely smoked out the government media unit types who will stop at nothing to disrupt or divert anything critical of the government. However attacking anyone with ideas or reasons why the current system may be inadequate is entirely unhelpful to prepare for a dangerous future.
It’s also worth noting that the police have a telephone number dedicated to non-emergency response enquiries. While posters might not think that contacting people in emergency evac centres is important, the people in those centres might feel otherwise, particularly if they’ve been burned out and left with nothing.
At last blush the GMU cost taxpayers around $9 million per year. Personally I’d rather that was spent on up-to-date maps and technologies for our emergency services.
In the future suggested by the graphic in the article, careful consideration of possibilities no matter how unpleasant, may be our best strategy to prepare for dangerous emergencies of various types (e.g. fires, floods, tempests).
It looks like budget cuts to emergency services were ill advised. Certainly we shouldn’t need an inquiry to decide to provide maps, better telecommunications and more resources to help community members in trouble. Nor should we need an inquiry to empower emergency services to make local decisions to speed up their responses.
(Comment 30) No mark Poynter your wrong. You say “Their day to day expenditure went on employing people and running vehicles and equipment that were used (amongst other things) to maintain forest roads, tracks and bridges, and undertake fire prevention works and bushfire suppression when required.” One can well see from all that, that you’re a bloke from the mainland who does not live next to Forestry Tasmania. Because whilst lmxly hasn’t been … what can I say, appreciate where I come from in the past, neither do you … I can prove you wrong Mark ! … in regards to roads, tracks and bridges, fire prevention. I’m really sick of people who have all this pretense but don’t live with and experience the reality.
(Comment 18) Oh dear, don’t let thee on any fire response committee or voluntary fire fighting program. It would appear some harriers would want to pick and choose who to have any humanity for. Go for Harriss Georgie boy, apparently your on the same team when it comes to truth and kindness. … Chose humanity for hew? Apparently.
Well the governments forestry media boys club do it all the time … feed crap to those in the know. But in this case I know the writer of the article … honest and true … not getting paid like those media boys – hmmm ! now let’s take a damn good hard look at what is going on to help this state rather than little boys club trying to scare off the truth … hmmm?
I want to know …
Why I or any emergency services can’t get telecommunications in an emergency. (Tho I do know when one has a potential, previous proven physical threat the police can supply a mobile phone for an emergency, one that seems to work in any area).
Why the state gov or indeed councils are claiming money off the feds for areas they haven’t properly serviced.
Why the state and feds use private resources to hold up the community when doing fuck all?
They have pushed it all right to the edge !
But those who know and have the gumption, integrity, we are going to push it right back … because truth prevails and the ‘devils’ have lost – we win – you guys lost again (as you always will) because you were wrong, you didn’t care, didn’t/don’t want to see the truth.
I challenge you again and again to come down from the mainland and see some truth Mark Poynter, come up Georgie boy … let go of the sweetheart deals you boys are trying to deliver for your clubs and let’s play on film.
#18 & # 19. What a joke. The policies you espouse and have always espoused are identical to those of Abetz. You have advocated everything for the corporate interest, whatever it is, whether it be the interests of Gunns or Ta Ann or any other ripoff merchant which commodifies the product and which guarantees a transfer of public funds from essential services into the pockets of the masters of your corporate world.
You have supported the exploitation of labour, the encouragement of massive investment by contractors in unsustainable arrangements with corporate profiteers, the destruction of huge swathes of forests for the lowest value in any marketplace anywhere, and you have the gall to say that you should have a voice in how special species timber should be harvested.
Get out of the way.
Join the Liberal Party.
James 28. So your saying Aurora Energy’s emergency backup policy is determined by what posters on Tasmanian Times think?
I’m supposed to take this seriously?
I don’t think the authors know anything about emergency response and no one put there name to the article so I supposed they even know what they said was bull. Pollies toured damaged areas as they do but unlike city people with your paid career blokes, retained brigades the more rural areas of the state make do with volunteers. You clearly know nothing about fire response if you think bureaucrats control emergency responses. It is handled on ground by a brigade chief, group officer or other senior officer. People who live in nice safe havens have to remember the world is deadly and we are merely just the survivors of natural selection. The firies did well and contrary to this article some pollies did lend a hand I believe Bec White was one who did it without calling out the media Abbott Style.
RE 30, Mark - it is you who are missing the point. #18 specifically stated “It is not many years ago that FT was contributing around $40 million into state coffers” and it was this point, and not anything else, to which my comment #26 was directed. Unless this phrase means anything other than the dividend paid by FT to the state government - which is clearly stated in all FT annual reports - then I challenge you, as well as #18, to show me when, if ever, this dividend was $40m. This is my point; and only this. It is you who have missed it.
Hmmm…this article pretty much confirms other stories such as http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-21/questions-over-bushfire-response/4475930?section=tas.
Our glorious leader is quoted as follows….
“If there are specific issues of concern, of course, we will have an inquiry and we would be very willing to look at anything we think we could do better and hear from people as to how we can improve,” she said.
“There will be that opportunity for that to occur.”
Ms Giddings says volunteers needing financial support should contact the Red Cross which has raised $4.5 million so far its bushfire appeal.
So if you need help, don’t contact the State government and if there were problems, don’t talk to your elected representatives…wait for an inquiry.
Karl 38, no, just an observation.
lmxly,
you have got is SO right, and Mark P and aka are just out there in Jurassicville!
Please read my commentary in the link below:-
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/tfa-a-small-window-of-opportunity/show_comments
or maybe Lindsay might post the article separately.
Says everything you need to know about FT economics! Non existent, in fact if the MLC and Local Govt want a socio/economic/environmental assessment of the TFA, I suspect I may have just done that over the past 36 months of postings.
Re:-#18 George Harris what a selfish , bitter comment ... which is full of untruths and spin (It appears to be George’s way!)
Facts: FT have cut millions of trees over last 30 yrs and sold to Gunns,
TaAnn, sawmillers, and furniture makers,all who have made $ millions
but FT are broke, having sold trees under cost. (George, please read 2010
AG Interim Report, 2011 and 2012 Full reports).
FT in last 18 yrs have paid dividends of $75.5million (one payment of $40million
-was paid to govt., proceeds from settlement of JV Partner, GMO Softwoods,
and surplus $11million into FT coffers (per AG report).
In this period FT and industry players have received $2billion, both directly
and indirectly from State and Federal govts. Yet you George, along with
Peter Gutwein, Will Hodgman, Senators Colbeck, Abetz and Bushby claim
FT is a viable industry.
The truth is, George, you and your forestry mates, have blood-sucked
successive Lib/Lab govts each to the point of bankruptcy. It started with
Robin Gray 30 yrs ago and isn’t finished under Giddings! During those 30 odd yrs
Tas. under Gray, Field, Groom, Rundle, Bacon, Lennon, Bartlett and Giddings
we have seen unemployment reach 12.5% and interest rates 18%!
Your obvious hatred of the Greens is showing, but the truth is, the 5 Green MHA’s
did not scuttle the Chandler-Gunn’s negotiations, it was Geoffrey Chandler himself
(refer ABC 7.30 interview)., nor did they scuttle overseas customers of TaAnn and
others. It was ‘Market for Change’, Eyes to Forests and other members of
Greenpeace. Your mantra appears to be, ‘don’t blame us for FT incompetence
blame the Greens’.
If the cat next door had kittens, the Greens would get the blame.
FT have not paid a dividend in years, and have lost $470million. Last 5 years assets
have fallen from $969 million to $379million and equity from $581million to $76million and
owe $160 million in unpaid super funds and $12 million for transformer to TaAnn
(Southwood, Huon). And George, FT have 2.4 million in shares in TaAnn but have
not received any dividends.
This iniquitous, incestuous GBE should be closed down immediately.
P.S. George, I suggest you don’t bother contributing to TT, whilst you write shat!
Basil Fitch, L’ton.
44.
Well said Basil it would appear that George is ignorant to the fact that you have been calling for a Royal Commission into Forestry and an independent judge from the mainland be appointed.,for many years
{What were both sides of politics and Legislative Council trying to hide from a Royal Commissioner ]
The integrity commission was framed so that it could not hold forestry and politicians involved to account.
I can recall the excellent export industry Tasmania had for its hardwoods.
The late Alan Bray a friend of mine marketed the product across the World.
It was one of my pleasures in life to lunch at our club with the personnel who would travel to Tasmania.
Likewise Alan would travel to their countries.
Why doesn’t TFS Chief Officer Mike Brown admit he has no idea?
If he was running the Tasmanian ambulance service equivalent, Tasmanian would be submitting plans for a new mass cemetery.
Government emergency services do not exist just for culturally historic comraderie. They are paid to protect community and valuable assets.
Lala abandonment Labor is complicit, just as austerity service cutting Liberals Will Hodgman has less care about non-economic matters.
And the Greens are dumbly silent, since Bob took up the Sea Shepherd helm.
Perhaps Tasmania should be administratively governed by the capable John Key, PM of New Zealand until Australians bring forth a competent Tasmanian/Australian leader to govern Tasmania?