Thursday, 22 February 2024

State Emergency Service Glen Eira unit

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (17:17): (543) My adjournment tonight is to the Premier, and the action that I seek is for the Premier to assist our SES in Glen Eira to finally access a new home. I just want to give my thanks to all emergency services workers, who have done a wonderful job keeping us safe. I know with the fires happening in our state at the moment that our hearts and thoughts are with all emergency services workers as they wrestle with getting the fires under control and protecting many of those that are experiencing them in the regions.

Our SES do a wonderful job, and I have spoken many times about the work that they do. Last week, as many of us have raised in this Parliament, with the issues of power, floods and storms, Glen Eira SES received 190 requests for assistance. It was one of the busiest times they have seen, and they certainly were well and truly extended in terms of what they were able to do. But I cannot believe that I am actually raising this, because at the time when they were trying to assist others they were dealing with their own floods and their own power issues in their facility itself. They lost power, and their facility was flooded. So before they could actually help others they had to try to help themselves to get the unit into some kind of state so they could get out to help others who desperately needed assistance.

I raised this back in November with the Minister for Emergency Services and asked for a new unit because the current unit is not fit for purpose. It is in Bentleigh; it is not fit for purpose. Although it is in Bentleigh, the Glen Eira unit services my area of Caulfield and surrounds. Again, after raising this issue in November we have not even had any kind of response at all from the government about this – not a response, not a letter, not a call, nothing. So I ask and I plead with the Premier to at least meet with the SES Glen Eira unit to look at options. I know I put the Katandra school in Ormond as an option. That is a vacant site now that would be perfect and fit for purpose for the unit to move straight into and get operational straightaway.

If that is not sufficient, let us find a facility that is. We cannot have a volunteer emergency service unit like the SES, which does a wonderful job, that cannot help others because they do not have a facility to even run out of properly and that is fit for purpose. It is appalling, and I think it was evident from the storms that have just gone. When you lose power and when you are flooded within your own facilities, how can you expect to help others when you do not have a facility fit for purpose?