Question On Notice No. 215 asked in the Legislative Council on 5 August 2021 by Hon Martin Aldridge
Question Directed to the: Leader of the House representing the Minister for Emergency Services
Parliament: 41 Session: 1
Question
I refer to question without notice No. 164 asked in the Legislative Council on 26 May 2021, regarding the emergency situation declarations under section 50 of the Emergency Management Act 2005 in relation to the Wooroloo bushfire and tropical cyclone Seroja, and I ask, have impact statement's been prepared and provided to affected local government authorities and, if so, can the Minister please table each impact statement?
Answered on 2 September 2021
Yes. Impact statements have been prepared and provided to the affected local governments.
Recovery impact statements, by their very nature, contain extensive detail that may identify individual and business interests. The statements are developed in close collaboration with affected parties, including the 18 local governments concerned, and release in any form will require their agreement.
The release of impact statements would require considerable time to present in an appropriate format, which would divert staff away from their current emergency management and recovery duties.
The impact statements are a ‘snapshot in time’ and used to inform recovery planning at a local level. The information contained can easily be misinterpreted, and potentially identify individuals, and business details. In addition, the work required to gain stakeholder agreement for release will be extraordinarily time consuming, divert recovery resources from their community support roles and render the statements largely meaningless.
It is not considered to be a reasonable or appropriate use of government resources at this difficult time when the State Government’s priority is supporting the affected communities.
If the member has a more specific query, our office will endeavour to provide a reply.