State Government slams Opposition over Toodyay fire investigation

Emergency Services Minister Rob Johnson today slammed the Opposition's misleading claims about an external review of the way authorities managed last December's Toodyay fire.

Mr Johnson said it was standard practice for the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) to review its operational performance and the effectiveness of arrangements following a major incident such as the Toodyay fire.

He said claims by the Opposition Emergency Services spokesperson that the process was flawed and her calls for the report's public release only highlighted her ignorance of FESA's processes and procedures for conducting such a major review.

"Once again the Opposition are content to take the lazy way out and peddle lies and inaccuracies when they have no idea of the facts," Mr Johnson said.

"Ms Quirk has publicly condemned FESA by alleging they did not seek a submission to the review from the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association.

"That is simply wrong. The company engaged to carry out the review for FESA wrote to the association inviting them to make a submission. FESA followed up with an email to the secretary of the association on March 30.

"Ms Quirk is in such a haste to condemn not only the Government but also the hard-working men and women of our emergency services, that she doesn't check basic facts."

The Minister said the Toodyay fire was one of the most damaging bushfires in the State's history and the review would give FESA a comprehensive and balanced assessment on its response to the fire, which included input from 25 key groups.

Mr Johnson said the review was 'open and accountable' and the final report would be released on FESA's website when it was completed.

"It's standard practice for FESA to provide these reports on its website and if the Opposition had bothered to check properly they could view previous major reviews into Karijini and tropical cyclones George and Jacob - all available for public scrutiny," he said.

In addition to the major review of its operations at Toodyay, the Minister said FESA was also finalising its own investigation into the cause of the fire.

He said FESA had engaged two interstate investigation specialists to conduct a 'peer review' of its investigation to ensure every avenue of inquiry had been thoroughly exhausted.

"Emergency services staff did a remarkable job at Toodyay ensuring no lives were lost and there were no serious injuries," Mr Johnson said.

"FESA did a great job co-ordinating the response.

"All Ms Quirk's badly-aimed, politically-motivated jibes do is undermine public confidence in our emergency services teams and detract from the work that was carried out.

"If she can't get such basic facts right then heaven help us if the Opposition was ever entrusted with emergency services."