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This report has been compiled as a joint effort by the Australian Catholic University, the University of Canberra and ACT Health to examine the recovery process after the 2003 Canberra fire disaster.

The report was funded by the federal agency, Emergency Management Australia, and has been posted on its website. If you wish to read it then go to this website.

http://www.ema.gov.au

But I am afraid it is one more in a growing list of uncritical reports that serve to bolster the ACT Government perspectives - no-one in the Government or any senior officer did anything wrong, don't blame me, we did the best we could, it was an act of God, it was a bad summer and so on ad infinitum.

The ACT Health Department is hardly going to support any criticism of any ACT agency, and this has been achieved by this report. There is not a word of criticism, not a single note of analysis, not a breath about the lack of information.

Instead, the report applauds ACT communications during and after the fires.

I can only gag on this allegation - as most of my colleagues in the media would.

ACT Government communications were atrocious - before, during and after the fires. Any adverse comment was met with vitriol and vengefulness.

The ACT Administration's so-called Road to Recovery campaign served to take the attention away from its own poor performance that contributed to so much terrible loss and grief.

This report does very little but give the Government a big pat on the back.

Let me know what you think.

Comments

The worst part is I don't feel surprised at this at all. I think the only way any form of politician or bureaucrat could surprise anyone these days is if they told the truth or did something selfeless.