Country Fire Authority Wangaratta brigades
Ms MAXWELL (Northern Victoria) (12:10): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, there is currently no dedicated CFA incident control centre within the city boundary of Wangaratta. The CFA district 23 headquarters building, which also hosts the Emergency Management Victoria Wangaratta incident control centre, had to be evacuated late last year due to damp and mould, and the district 23 leadership team needs a new premises to meet their needs. You have correspondence from them and me in this regard. Senior CFA volunteers have raised with me their significant concerns that the Wangaratta incident control centre has been offline for the 2021–22 fire danger period. The 16 CFA brigades of the Wangaratta group have no permanent facility in Wangaratta at all to date. What assurances can you provide, Minister, to the Wangaratta district 23 area that these issues will be urgently addressed?
Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:11): I thank Ms Maxwell for her question, something that I am very much across. I know a lot of the volunteers in Wangaratta, obviously, having worked with them for more than seven years. I recently had the pleasure of opening the brand new SES facility in Wangaratta, which was a fantastic investment from the Andrews Labor government following some floods and the identification of inadequate services there for those volunteers to operate, so I am very aware of the issues in relation to Wangaratta. We have some meetings just this week to further discuss these matters. As you have indicated, you have written to me, and so have many of the brigades. I have met with them in person. Most of them, as I said, I have a longstanding relationship with, so this is ongoing work. But I am not in a position to give you any further information in relation to funding or the like. It is an ongoing matter that I am very well across.
Ms Maxwell: I have no supplementary at this time. My question was going to be about meeting with those members themselves.