Wednesday, 1 November 2023

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (19:14): (417) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Emergency Services, and the action that I seek is for the minister to do whatever is possible in terms of advocating for the surplus land at Katandra special school in Ormond to be allocated to our Glen Eira SES unit. Our Glen Eira SES unit, which is currently located in Bentleigh, is literally out of space. It is a fantastic unit. Danielle Eyssens, who is the unit controller, has been the unit controller there for five years and has done an amazing job growing these volunteers. I was there only last week, and the trucks do not even fit in the shed. They are unable to even clean the leaves off the roof because of occupational health and safety issues within the building. We all know what a fantastic job the SES does in our community. They are a great organisation made up of volunteers. You do not know until you really need them. When they are called out in the middle of the night for floods, for damage, for storms or for wind, they are there to help you, and we want to make sure that they have got a facility to grow into.

The Katandra special school was closed just before the last election. The site has been sitting idle now for a fair time, and I invite the Minister for Emergency Services to come down to visit Danielle Eyssens. Nathan Jones is the section leader. I met with him the other day as well. They are a great team. Come down, meet our Glen Eira SES, have a look at the plans in terms of what we would like to do, have a look at the Katandra land, which would be a perfect site for this, and let us get this done. Rather than having a site that is vacant, let us ensure that our SES have the land that they can grow into and continue to do the great work that they do.