Thursday, 15 May 2025

 Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (14:47): (1127) My question is for the Minister for Emergency Services. What infrastructure funding can the Allan Labor government deliver to ensure that the CFA brigades and SES units across the Dandenong Ranges are more resilient in times of power and communication outages? Across the beautiful Dandenong Ranges we have a high incidence of power and telecommunications outages, owing to the frequency and severity of storm events as well as our risk of bushfire and the safety switches in place to prevent fires starting on extreme or catastrophic days. We are considered the most fire-prone place in the country and the third most fire-prone place in the world. When days of extreme or catastrophic fire risk are declared the giant safety switches called rapid earth fault current limiters are dialled up to maximum sensitivity to avoid fires igniting, but this does make power outages more likely. It is critical for my CFA brigades and SES units that when the power and telecoms go out across the hills their lights remain on and their access to communications continues. I look forward to the minister’s response.