Tuesday, 3 October 2023

Country Fire Authority assets

Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (19:10): (345) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Emergency Services, and the action I seek is that the minister direct the department to urgently undertake a review of all CFA assets and their readiness for the upcoming fire season. I bring this to the adjournment this evening because, as everyone in this chamber knows, we had fires in Gippsland early this year, and my electorate of Narracan and the town of Rawson were within these fire areas. After meeting with the region 9 representatives of the CFA, they informed me that out of the 30 trucks that turned up at Rawson, three of the trucks were damaged in the fire operations up there. So I am asking that the department undertake an urgent assessment of all CFA assets. Obviously the fire season is early this year, earlier than normal, but it is imperative that our CFA volunteers have the right equipment – the functioning equipment – to protect our rural communities.

I will take this opportunity just to shout out to all those CFA volunteers that got out of bed at a quarter to 5 on Sunday morning to race up to protect the tiny township of Walhalla – everyone knows I have spoken about Walhalla a lot in this house – and the township of Rawson. They need the support to make sure that these assets are going to be fire ready again. I have had numerous local CFA stations in my region constantly complaining about ‘We can’t get this fixed’ or ‘We can’t get that fixed.’ I think what we need to do is support the CFA so they can support our local communities and so they can protect our local communities, houses, lives and livestock.