The announcement by the Premier of a taskforce to look at the Government's response to the bushfires may bring some additional support to those who have suffered losses in the bushfires -- but money alone is not the answer in helping communities rebuild. Apart from any inquiry into the fire itself and the results of this new taskforce, we need to get rid of regulations that hinder communities and volunteers fighting fires and rebuilding.
The State Government could use this devastation to trial "community rebuilding zones". This is something that can be done right now. Exempt voluntary and not-for-profit groups from the myriad of regulations they need to comply with and offer State Government public liability insurance. Then people can more easily come together to help others.
As a start, the food-handling and registered kitchen rules should be abolished for volunteer groups such as the Red Cross. When I was helping the local Red Cross make lunches for the firefighters, it all had to be done in a registered kitchen and a person who had done the food-handling supervisor's course had to be there at all times. What that means in practice is nobody is allowed to make a slice or biscuits at home. Moreover, the only person with the food-handling certificate worked 18-hour days despite her own home being without power for much of that time. All the old hands told the stories from the Mallee fires of a few years ago, of food being thrown out because there was nobody with a food-handling certificate there when the health inspector came calling.
Allowing people to make a slice at home or abolishing the food-handling supervisor's role would share the load better. This would let more people be part of the community effort. After all, nobody has ever presented evidence that all these rules actually prevented food poisoning. Instead all they do is add hurdles to getting the job done. Similarly, when the time comes to run stalls for fund-raisers, it is ridiculous that every jar of jam or cake must have all the ingredients listed. We can't treat home bakers the same way as Kraft.
And it's not just food regulations. A neighbour told me she has a four-page form at home to create an emergency response plan for a community function she is organising -- and this is on top of other paperwork for insurance and funding. No wonder volunteers get tired of doing all this worthless paperwork just so some bureaucrat can point to it and say, "Look, I made sure all the procedures were followed".
Our district, like others, faces the massive task of cleaning up burnt fencing and buildings and feeding remaining stock whose pastures have been burnt out. In most cases blokes have just turned up with their tractor or bulldozer and got on with the job. But where community groups have wanted to help, they often run up against occupational health and safety regulations and public liability insurance problems. Common sense would say, if you're helping a neighbour recover from a bushfire, you should be covered by insurance provided by the State Government.
Communities like Willaura and district have the capacity and the will to rebuild and help each other out. Of course offers of financial assistance from the State Government are welcome. More importantly, we should be allowed to get on with it without all these counterproductive rules.
ADVERTISEMENT
No comments:
Post a Comment