Wednesday, 3 December 2025

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:48): My question is to the Minister for Environment. How many of the 290 forest fire management G-Wagon firefighting vehicles and 60 Unimogs are still offline due to a fault?

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (15:48): I thank the Leader of the Nationals for his question, and I appreciate his interest in this area. Can I just inform him and the house that the majority of the G-Wagons are back in service and the remainder will be very, very shortly, including the Unimogs. But the more important question for the community and for the house is that I continued to be assured by the chief fire officer again this week that we are fully prepared to fight fires in Victoria because of the investment this government has made and because of the extraordinary preparation of FFMVic throughout the year to get us ready for this fire season.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:49): When will all forest fire management vehicles be back online?

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (15:49): I thank the member for his supplementary question. The Premier announced $80 million in additional funding for FFMVic literally a few weeks ago to deploy the aerial fleet into Victoria, into the field, a month early, to employ another 133 ‍firefighters in addition to last year’s –

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, on the question of relevance, you cannot just talk about firefighting and say it is relevant to the question. When will they all be back online?

The SPEAKER: Minister, come back to the question.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: I answered that in the substantive answer. I said shortly. Can I just say – a material point for the house to know – that when I am talking to FFMVic staff around regional Victoria do you know what they tell me? They tell me that they remember a time over about 12 years ago when their funding was 30 per cent less than what it is today.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is now both debating and not being relevant to the question, quite clearly.

The SPEAKER: I ask the minister to come back to the answer.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: I did answer the question in the substantive, but I think it is important for the house to understand that the funding of FFMVic under those opposite was far lower and is at huge risk. They will gut FFMVic – that is what I worry about – to fund their $11 billion black hole. That is what they will do.