Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Country Fire Authority Wangaratta brigades

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (11:58): My question is for the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, you have been invited to meet with CFA district 23, as well as the Wangaratta CFA group, to discuss ongoing issues in locating the group office, yet you have not even had the respect to respond to them. As their local member, why do you refuse to meet with district 23 and the Wangaratta group to discuss their concerns?

Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (11:58): Ms Lovell, Ms Maxwell has previously raised the exact same issue with me, and I have responded to it. I have spoken directly to Lachie. I have spoken directly to Jason. They are meeting with the CFA in relation to these issues. We have not resolved the issue, but I am aware of it and they are meeting directly with the CFA. It would be appropriate for me to get advice from the CFA about the options before I come back to, as you have identified, members that I know well, members that are in my electorate. I will give them an update when I have got more to say about the options.

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (11:59): Minister, they are still talking to local members because they do not feel they have been heard by you. Minister, the Andrews Labor government have failed to deliver the required infrastructure for regional Victoria, and this example in district 23 is one of many where staff and volunteers are being ignored by your government. We still have weeks to go in the 2021–22 fire season, and the government have failed to commit to having an incident control centre available in Wangaratta and district 23 have no permanent facilities to operate from. Minister, how can you have failed to deliver essential services for regional Victoria, and more so in the electorate you claim to represent?

Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:00): Ms Lovell, in relation to Wangaratta’s issues with the district headquarters, I acknowledge that they are inappropriate, and we want to work through those issues. But it is only in recent months that I was there opening a brand new SES facility, so to suggest that there is no capacity to create a control centre in the case of an emergency fails to understand that when we have an emergency all our agencies work together and respond as one.