ALBANY, Denmark and Plantagenet are collaborating to secure a State bushfire centre of excellence for the Lower Great Southern amid hot competition and condemnation by Opposition MPs that the selection process is “shambolic” and biased toward Perth.
After hearing about a request for proposals process for the centre from The Weekender in September, Denmark shire CEO Bill Parker this week said his organisation, the City of Albany and the Shire of Plantagenet had teamed up.
He, Plantagenet CEO Rob Stewart and Albany’s development services director Paul Camins said they had no complaints about the State’s selection process.
But they all said the four weeks given by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services to lodge submissions was “short notice”.
After it was revealed here that a submission process had been activated (‘Fire centre boost’, 27 September), Nationals emergency services spokesman Colin de Grussa dubbed the process “shambolic”.
He lamented that local governments had just a month to prepare submissions and there had been no official statement.
South West Liberal MLC Steve Thomas, who has done more than any other MP to see the centre gets located in either the Great Southern or Southwest, was just as candid.
After The Weekender on October 10 alerted him to a formal statement on the process issued by DFES that day, he asked Emergency Services Minister Fran Logan in Parliament if the Government had tried to minimise awareness to reduce the chances of regional areas applying.
In the shortest possible response, Mr Logan answered: “No”.
Before that, Mr Logan confirmed that no media statement had been released to signal the opening of the process.
He said all eligible local governments had been advised via the WA Local Government Association, and advertisements placed in a metropolitan newspaper on September 29 and October 3.
WALGA President Lynne Craigie confirmed that on September 25 her organisation sent an email to the CEOs of all local governments in the South West Land Division.
Both Mr Stewart and Mr Camins said they had learned of the process from WALGA.
The Weekender asked Mr Logan’s office why DFES used WALGA as an intermediary, and was referred to Department media officials who failed to meet our deadline.
Dr Thomas said WALGA was an important group, but not a government organisation.
“To suggest that WALGA is the distribution point is a complete abrogation of government responsibility,” he said.
“In September when the process went up, that was a major Government policy and that should have been a major Government media statement followed up by a major DFES statement.
“There needs to be a truly open and competitive process.”
Also unanswered were Weekender questions about Mr de Grussa’s “shambolic” charge, whether the RFP process would result in a recommended location or locations, and if results of the process will be publicly advertised and incorporated into a Cabinet submission.
The Nationals’ Member for Agricultural Region Martin Aldridge this week said the centre should be located at the Muresk Institute near Northam.
Dr Thomas said Northam was the “wrong place”.
“Apart from the fact it is in a Nationals electorate, Northam in my view is not close enough to a population within a forest,” he said.
He said Pinjarra and Waroona, or a combination of both, intended to apply.
“I know Collie is interested, Bunbury is interested, possibly piggy-backed with Dardanup or Collie or both,” he added.
“Busselton has a couple of good possible locations as well, and there’s a fair amount of State forest there.
“Manjimup is a fairly obvious regional central point in the middle of the heartland of the forest territory, and it will submit.”
Dr Thomas also said the Lower Great Southern would lodge a competitive bid.
“To me, those are the five strong options, on the assumption you don’t just stick it in Perth,” he said.