Wednesday, 30 August 2023

Ministers statements: Country Fire Authority

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:11): I would like to update the house today on the government’s delivery of new fire trucks for CFA brigades, which is always great but particularly important ahead of this upcoming fire season.

Georgie Crozier: How many?

Jaclyn SYMES: I am getting to that, Ms Crozier. Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of visiting Buninyong fire station with our three Ballarat-based regional MPs from the other place to hand over eight new heavy tankers to brigades across CFA district 15. This would be a record for me, to hand over so many vehicles at the same time, and it was quite an impressive sight because they were all lined up at the station when I arrived – impressive, gleaming trucks ready to be utilised if required by our CFA crews across the Ballarat region. The trucks were proudly adorned with the names of the brigades: Ballan, Buninyong, Mount Helen, Creswick, Daylesford, Miners Rest, Napoleons and Wendouree. The heavy tankers feature a 4000-litre water tank with front-controlled water cannon – they can be operated from inside the cabin – and improved burnover protection to ensure our firefighters are kept safe while they are out protecting the community.

I also got to view the new ultraheavy tanker that will be based at Ballarat City fire brigade. It is one of a fleet of 29 of these new vehicles that are being deployed to brigades across the state. They are extraordinary vehicles. They can carry 10,000 litres of water. They significantly boost firefighting capacity and are particularly useful for grassland areas because they enable you to put a lot of wet stuff on a lot of the areas that grassland fires do often involve.

Handing over new state-of-the-art equipment is an honour, but more importantly it gives me another opportunity to visit, thank and acknowledge our brilliant volunteers, and I particularly thank all of the brigade members that turned up, particularly Buninyong for hosting the event.