Tuesday, 5 March 2024

State Emergency Service volunteers

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:36): (443) My question is for the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, the February storms highlighted the vital importance of our incredible volunteer emergency services workers. Despite this, three regional Victorian SES units were inactive and towns such as Wedderburn were left vulnerable with no volunteers to help during the storms. Can the minister explain why the State Emergency Service continues to bleed volunteers from vulnerable regional communities that need them most?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:37): I thank the member for her question. I am sorry, I might have to follow up with you offline. You have listed three stations or units that you are concerned about, but I think you only named one. So in terms of me being able to provide information about the specifics in response to your particular concerns, I was a little unclear about the locations that you raised concerns about.

I will just take the opportunity to thank our amazing volunteers, who continue to go over and beyond in response to any emergency, whether it is storm, flood or fire, as we have seen in escalating issues over the past three weeks. I have been out and met with lots of SES people on the ground, and a little bit like in my ministers statement in relation to CFA and the amount of applications coming in, there is a lot of demand for SES volunteers. My local SES unit in Kilmore has a waiting list, so it is good that we are building them a new station so they can fit more of their volunteers in. There is a lot of interest in SES. Unfortunately, we have more and more emergencies, but the fortunate part of that is that people go, ‘I really should stand up and put my hand up for my community’ – as we have demonstrated in the past.

I have just received a bit of an update concerning your Wedderburn question. The information I have is that the dates you have provided are actually incorrect. Again, I was a bit confused by your question because you were referencing now and apparently there was an issue in December, so perhaps you and I can have a fact-check about that. I am more than happy to follow that up, but my information is that perhaps your question contains errors. But again, you have asked a great question about how we can all encourage more people to put their hand up for emergency services volunteering. There are a lot of people in the SES. It is a really diverse organisation. We are seeing more and more people from different backgrounds interested in the SES. I think we are going to build and build that amazing organisation, because as a community we rely on them.

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:40): I thank the minister for her response. Minister, in 2022 the SES reported a 4905-strong base of volunteers. In 2023 36 fewer volunteers were available to put the orange uniform on and help Victorians in storms or flood crises. Why has the minister failed to stop the crisis of emergency services volunteers?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:40): I think I have answered your question. I think it is incumbent upon all of us to continue to pay our respects and thanks to volunteers. I know that a lot of our organisations are hoping to recruit and attract more and more volunteers to their local units, and some are having fantastic success. For those that are not, I work hard with the management in terms of ideas about how we can attract a broader range of audience. That is where I come back to my reflections on the fact that we are seeing more and more interest from diverse communities. We really want our volunteer organisations to reflect the communities that they serve, and we are seeing that time and time again. I think all of us can play a part in ensuring that when we come across people in the community that perhaps might have some spare time, acknowledging that volunteerism across the board is struggling – people are busier and busier – whether it is community sport or whether it is emergency services. Connecting people to our emergency services is a role that we should all consider playing.