Ivan Dean, Speeches Index

Wednesday 6 June 2007

CONSOLIDATED FUND APPROPRIATION
(SUPPLEMENTARY APPROPRIATION FOR 2006-2007) BILL 2007

Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - Mr President, I rise to give my support to this bill and in doing so I commend the Treasurer and the other people within the Government who have negotiated the positions that are outlined in this bill. The levee, of course, was a critical one to the area of Launceston and it has already been mentioned that a damage bill in that instance could well exceed $100 million, which I think would be conservative. The position reached there is a good one for Tasmania, not just Launceston. There have been developments of course in relation to the Australian Government funding and the Launceston City Council funding, I understand, is certainly there or will be made available. It looks as if it is all go ahead in that regard and certainly things are being done there now in relation to getting the levees prepared for rebuilding in some instances and moving in other instances. It is a good outcome.

The other one I will mention very briefly is the support in relation to the police radio network and the moneys that will be provided to Ericsson, as I understand it, of $9.5 million. The police radio network has been a source of concern ever since the department went down the track of the new system, and I refer to the EDAC system which I think is commonly known to people here. It is a system that has caused some problems. It has caused problems to coalface policing now for a long time and it does not seem to have sorted itself out so I think that with the position that they are now going to go down we will see some vast improvements in that area.

Communications is vital to Tasmania Police, it really is what makes Tasmania Police work and it must be a very effective and efficient system. So it is very pleasing to see the funding made available there to move this matter forward as well.

The other one I will briefly comment on is the funding to the Department of Tourism, Arts and the Environment and the identifying of another six heritage-listed sites which are all very important sites. If we look at the Female Factory Historic Site at South Hobart, the Port Arthur Historic Site, the Tasman Peninsula coalmines, Woolmers and Brickendon sites at Longford and the Darlington Probation Station on Maria Island, all are very prominent, very important sites in Tasmania and it is good to see extra funding made available in those areas.

The other one of course is the forensic operations area of Tasmania Police. It needs to be state-of-the-art at all times. There are advancements being made in this area every other week, I would suspect, and it is important that Tasmania Police have the most up-to-date scientific equipment available to try to keep up with criminal activity and the way crime is going. Unfortunately, probably you can never be in front in that area but at least you need to keep up with it and this is what this does. I guess we can get a lot of ideas from the Crime Scene Investigators and all of those other shows on television, Mr President, which indicate that perhaps we have some areas that we can look at and we can take something from some of shows, perhaps.

I certainly support this and commend the Government and the staff on the way that they have been able to proceed and move these matters forward.

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