Tuesday, 4 February 2025

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (16:12): It was a great pleasure to join the Minister for Emergency Services to catch up with the St Kilda coastguard unit and see how they are benefiting – and I should say Marine Search and Rescue units and volunteers across the state are benefiting – from the rollout of new digital radios. We have invested more than $1.3 million to deliver 130 portable radios for volunteers and to install radios on 22 vessels and in eight vehicles. The radios are connected to the Victorian radio network, giving MSAR units real-time communication. We heard it live, I must say, with the water police – we got to catch up with them as well – through the rescue coordination centre. This is a step up in connectivity when responding to rescue operations, and I should say it is incredible the work they do. They must have really tough stomachs but also really strong hearts, because they have to see some pretty delicate scenes at times. But what inspires them to keep going – and I do not want to speak for them, but what they reflected to the minister and me – was the amount of people they do save who get into dire straits in our beautiful but nevertheless dangerous oceans, as they can be at times. So it was really inspiring to catch up with these amazing people.