Country Fire Authority
Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:18): (59) My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Morale in the CFA is at an all-time low. The number of operational volunteers has shrunk from 38,335 to 28,936 since 2014. At the same time, the percentage of operational volunteers has decreased as a percentage of the total workforce from 64 to 55 per cent. Given the CFA cannot decide its own organisational leadership without union sign-off due to the Andrews government’s merger legislation, will the minister review organisational arrangements to give the CFA autonomy over management selection?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:19): I thank the member for her question. Whilst I do not agree with the statements that you have made, I am certainly not in this place to talk down our CFA or our volunteers. I think it was only last sitting week that we were talking about how amazing this cohort of people were in responding to the Flowerdale fire and protecting their community proudly. Every CFA volunteer that I speak to on the ground regularly across Northern Victoria and across the rest of the state is very proud of and dedicated to the service that they provide to our community.
CFA have already welcomed 2200 new members this year, and 3000 applications are in process. CFA have constantly maintained a pool of over 50,000 dedicated people who day in, day out are on call to respond to people in need. I will not question the dedication of these people. The variation in volunteer numbers over time has been for a range of reasons but has not affected operational capacity for CFA to respond to incidents and major emergencies. You would have seen responses of CFA in relation to some of the outrageous comments from the opposition, who again and again want to cause division and talk about issues that just are not true. There is no attack on our volunteer firefighters. Everyone on this side of the chamber respects our volunteer firefighters and will stand by them in relation to –
Nicholas McGowan: On a point of order, President, the minister is now clearly debating the question. I ask you to bring the minister back to the question at hand, which was in respect to the review of organisational arrangements.
The PRESIDENT: I think the minister was being relevant to the question.
Jaclyn SYMES: Thank you, President. I certainly back the leadership at CFA. They do a fantastic job, as do all of the volunteers and paid staff at CFA. Becoming a CFA volunteer is an incredibly rewarding opportunity. I will take the opportunity right now to encourage anybody who might be watching out there, if you are considering participating in a volunteer organisation, to join the CFA. They are amazing.
Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:21): Given that CFA insiders and former Bracks government adviser Garth Head have acknowledged the role the merger has played in collapsing volunteer numbers, does the Andrews government accept responsibility for the loss of almost 10,000 CFA volunteers since 2014?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:21): I have never met Garth Head, but given that you have made reference to comments in relation to individuals that I cannot verify, I will just repeat the answer that I gave previously. This government supports CFA. We have funded them. We have not threatened to take away their funding. We have not taken away their funding. We have increased their funding, unlike previous governments of other colours. We will continue to stand by them. We will continue to respond to their needs and continue to encourage more and more people to join this amazing organisation.