Thursday, 18 August 2022

COVID-19 vaccination

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:28): My question is for the Minister for Emergency Services. How many firefighters, both volunteer and career, are still unavailable for work due to the COVID-19 vaccine mandates?

Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:28): I thank Ms Lovell for her question. Ms Lovell, I do not have those figures at hand. They are also not necessarily verifiable in that they rely on individual branches being advised by particular members without self-identifying whether they are available for their volunteer duties or not for a variety of reasons. In terms of the numbers, I am unlikely to be able to provide them for you. In relation to career, the numbers are very small and I have been reassured by both agencies, FRV and CFA, that the operational impact of any absences has not been a factor in their ability to respond to community safety concerns.

As you know, under the pandemic orders emergency service agencies are obliged to ensure that all employees are vaccinated, and that extends to our volunteers. There have been a lot of conversations that I have had with career and volunteer firefighters. They are required to go into a lot of vulnerable settings—for example, in country areas. Those of us who represent country areas would be aware that if the fire alarm goes off in an aged care facility, for example, it is the CFA that would respond. Picking up on those issues, picking up on the concerns of the risk of COVID-19 to particularly vulnerable cohorts, the current requirement is that those people that would respond in those circumstances should be vaccinated.

In relation to training, we understand that, in line with updated health advice, critical training requirements for CFA, FRV and SES have been updated, so volunteers who are yet to be fully vaccinated are now able to undertake critical training to maintain their core skills. That is a direct response in relation to feedback, in relation to the high levels of vaccination, in relation to the availability of treatment for COVID and the like. As the risk changes, so does the advice, and we continue to have ongoing conversations with our emergency services providers to make sure that we are providing them with the best health and safety advice for their own protection and also for the cohorts that they come into contact with.

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:31): Minister, what is the cost of overtime to replace these firefighters in FRV, who can attend the MCG unvaccinated, can attend a cafe unvaccinated and can even continue to work in other roles in the community yet cannot attend a fire station or fight a fire to protect lives?

Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:31): Ms Lovell, the advice that I have is that the mandatory vaccination requirements were well promoted within Fire Rescue Victoria and overwhelmingly the workforce were fully supportive of that and have complied. I am advised that less than 2 per cent of staff at FRV have not complied with vaccination requirements, which is a relatively small number of a workforce of 4000 people. So in relation to the advice that I have been given from FRV, there has been no impact on their ability to respond operationally to any of the emergencies that they have needed to do so for.