Mr STIRLING - 2001-03-01
May I congratulate you, Mr Speaker, and those other members of the House on achieving 500 sitting days, I believe. I am not sure if congratulations are in order; I think you have done well.
On 13 June last year, during the Appropriation debate, the minister proudly stated that Power and Water Authority had a tree clearance and audit team responsible for identifying trees causing interference to power lines, and that regular trimming would occur. Residents in the McHenry Road area allege a fire started on 16 July last year from trees brushing on power lines. One hundred and twenty properties sustained damage from that fire, including loss of sheds, machinery, irrigation equipment, and mango trees.
Power and Water Authority, through its lawyers, have denied they have any responsibility, despite strong evidence to the contrary under the Access Code arrangements and the Local Government Act.
Territorians want a government that will stick up for the battler, not the big end of town. Is this the way the CLP now believes it can treat ordinary Territorians - with contempt?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, in the way we have come to expect, the Labor Party have cobbled together a couple of programs. In the first, the matters relating to tree clearance away from overhead power lines is largely an urban activity and the fire he refers to happened in the rural area. However, I think it gives us an opportunity, with the Wet season on us, to talk about the good work that is being done by the Power and Water Authority in reducing outages to Territorians who are highly dependent on power for their essential services, air-conditioning and, in fact, their daily lives.
We, like the emergency department of Royal Darwin Hospital, don’t just stand up and say this blindly. We make sure we benchmark. We benchmark against jurisdictions, and we compare our system average outage duration with jurisdictions that compare.
Our tree lopping program goes ahead. We have had some high winds recently that have brought down trees and I think it’s ...
Mr Stirling: So you cause the fire and you walk away?
Mr DUNHAM: We are currently in the Wet season; he is talking about the Dry season. I will go back the six months necessary to canvass particularly his question but I would prefer to be a little more contemporaneous for those people listening to this program.
People in Darwin would see some of the strong winds which accompany the low-pressure systems that have crossed the Territory and have brought down some trees around the suburbs.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order Mr Speaker! The question went to a fire on 16 July last year, McHenry Road, and he is walking from any responsibility to the people who lost property.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order the minister has the opportunity to answer the question as he chooses.
Mr DUNHAM: In relation to the first part of his question, he has acknowledged that there are two different portions to his question. In relation to the first part of the question about tree lopping, Territorians would know that as the ground becomes waterlogged when some of these big winds come through off these lows, there is the potential for some of the larger trees to fall over. I take the opportunity to pay tribute to those members of the Power and Water Authority who are out there in these winds, with the lightning strikes, in the storms, restoring power, chopping down trees and making sure that they are replaced with more appropriate species to keep the town beautiful but to make sure that our power is not interrupted.
We go to the rural area, and we have been running power reticulation out into the rural area for some time and we have been doing it on the basis of contributions that are made by landholders. It is unfortunate that some of those subdivisions date back even prior to self-government where the accesses were fairly informal. You would know that well from your own electorate, Mr Speaker, where there were big, long battle-axe blocks that all had access to major roads including, for instance, the Arnhem Highway. Those informal accesses over latter years have been formalised. It is down these informal easements that we run our power lines and there is difficulty sometimes in accessing those lines because, as I said, they run down an informal easement.
From time to time, acts of God and other circumstances mean that they receive lightning strikes, and there are sparks that cause small brush fires in this easement. I mention the easement also on the logic of how blocks are set up should be not only a road, not only a power easement, but also a firebreak. Therefore, it is our intention that we would adhere to the normal precautions relating to safety of overhead lines in those circumstances. Yes, there were fires at McHenry Road, and, yes, there is some dispute about whether the Northern Territory’s instrumentality, the Power and Water Authority, should pay for that.
I would say that these matters are best held by courts and by lawyers, and it is not for me to venture an opinion in this place.
Ms Martin: Oh, you gutless wonder, you gutless wonder!
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr DUNHAM: While I am on my feet, I would refer members to the interjection ‘you gutless wonder’. The Leader of the Opposition spoke the other day and was mightily offended and took great umbrage at some much less strident interjections, and I would say that if she is so fragile as to be able to withstand interjections when she speaks, she should desist from it.
On 13 June last year, during the Appropriation debate, the minister proudly stated that Power and Water Authority had a tree clearance and audit team responsible for identifying trees causing interference to power lines, and that regular trimming would occur. Residents in the McHenry Road area allege a fire started on 16 July last year from trees brushing on power lines. One hundred and twenty properties sustained damage from that fire, including loss of sheds, machinery, irrigation equipment, and mango trees.
Power and Water Authority, through its lawyers, have denied they have any responsibility, despite strong evidence to the contrary under the Access Code arrangements and the Local Government Act.
Territorians want a government that will stick up for the battler, not the big end of town. Is this the way the CLP now believes it can treat ordinary Territorians - with contempt?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, in the way we have come to expect, the Labor Party have cobbled together a couple of programs. In the first, the matters relating to tree clearance away from overhead power lines is largely an urban activity and the fire he refers to happened in the rural area. However, I think it gives us an opportunity, with the Wet season on us, to talk about the good work that is being done by the Power and Water Authority in reducing outages to Territorians who are highly dependent on power for their essential services, air-conditioning and, in fact, their daily lives.
We, like the emergency department of Royal Darwin Hospital, don’t just stand up and say this blindly. We make sure we benchmark. We benchmark against jurisdictions, and we compare our system average outage duration with jurisdictions that compare.
Our tree lopping program goes ahead. We have had some high winds recently that have brought down trees and I think it’s ...
Mr Stirling: So you cause the fire and you walk away?
Mr DUNHAM: We are currently in the Wet season; he is talking about the Dry season. I will go back the six months necessary to canvass particularly his question but I would prefer to be a little more contemporaneous for those people listening to this program.
People in Darwin would see some of the strong winds which accompany the low-pressure systems that have crossed the Territory and have brought down some trees around the suburbs.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order Mr Speaker! The question went to a fire on 16 July last year, McHenry Road, and he is walking from any responsibility to the people who lost property.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order the minister has the opportunity to answer the question as he chooses.
Mr DUNHAM: In relation to the first part of his question, he has acknowledged that there are two different portions to his question. In relation to the first part of the question about tree lopping, Territorians would know that as the ground becomes waterlogged when some of these big winds come through off these lows, there is the potential for some of the larger trees to fall over. I take the opportunity to pay tribute to those members of the Power and Water Authority who are out there in these winds, with the lightning strikes, in the storms, restoring power, chopping down trees and making sure that they are replaced with more appropriate species to keep the town beautiful but to make sure that our power is not interrupted.
We go to the rural area, and we have been running power reticulation out into the rural area for some time and we have been doing it on the basis of contributions that are made by landholders. It is unfortunate that some of those subdivisions date back even prior to self-government where the accesses were fairly informal. You would know that well from your own electorate, Mr Speaker, where there were big, long battle-axe blocks that all had access to major roads including, for instance, the Arnhem Highway. Those informal accesses over latter years have been formalised. It is down these informal easements that we run our power lines and there is difficulty sometimes in accessing those lines because, as I said, they run down an informal easement.
From time to time, acts of God and other circumstances mean that they receive lightning strikes, and there are sparks that cause small brush fires in this easement. I mention the easement also on the logic of how blocks are set up should be not only a road, not only a power easement, but also a firebreak. Therefore, it is our intention that we would adhere to the normal precautions relating to safety of overhead lines in those circumstances. Yes, there were fires at McHenry Road, and, yes, there is some dispute about whether the Northern Territory’s instrumentality, the Power and Water Authority, should pay for that.
I would say that these matters are best held by courts and by lawyers, and it is not for me to venture an opinion in this place.
Ms Martin: Oh, you gutless wonder, you gutless wonder!
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr DUNHAM: While I am on my feet, I would refer members to the interjection ‘you gutless wonder’. The Leader of the Opposition spoke the other day and was mightily offended and took great umbrage at some much less strident interjections, and I would say that if she is so fragile as to be able to withstand interjections when she speaks, she should desist from it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016