Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:41): My question is to the Minister for Environment. How many of the 290 forest fire management G-Wagon firefighting appliances recently taken offline due to a fault cannot be repaired and will be written off?

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for South-West Coast is warned.

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (14:41): I thank the member for his question. He tried this last time, and my answer to his question is that Forest Fire Management Victoria have all the resources they need. It is our priority to keep them safe, and we keep them safe by making sure that their fleet is safe. That happens every year, all year round, and there is no difference this year.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:42): Tony is a CFA captain in eastern Victoria who is fighting to keep all of his brigade’s appliances in his town rather than having to loan them to forest fire management. Given the need for the CFA to maintain surge capacity and the requirement to properly resource forest fire management with appliances, when will the FFM have its fleet fully replaced and operational?

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (14:43): There are two things on this. The first is that forest fire management have the resources they need right now to tackle bushfires, and they will be absolutely prepared for fire season.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, on the question of relevance – I am jumping in early so that the minister does not sit down and not answer the question again – the question is: when will they be fully operational?

The SPEAKER: The minister has only been on his feet for 20 seconds. The minister to come back to the question.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: I said that Forest Fire Management Victoria will be fully prepared for bushfire season. I would have thought that would be an answer for the member. Point number 1: fully prepared. Point number 2 is that we have invested in forest fire management. I have enormous respect for their work every single day of the year, not just in bushfire season. Like I said last sitting week, 1000 kilometres of strategic fuel breaks they have maintained just this year – all the preparatory work. To draw some correlation of CFA and FFMVic – in other words, one depending on the other – they do that every day of the year too. They depend on each other.