Clyde North fire services
Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:46): (476) My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, in relation to the response time to the fire at Spartan Avenue, Clyde North, you assured the house on 5 March that the first fire emergency services vehicle ‘arrived within the service delivery standards time frame’. You then repeated this assurance on 7 March. Minister, do you stand by the absolute accuracy of your answers?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:47): I thank Mrs Hermans for her question. Again, everybody acknowledges the information and great work of our emergency responders in relation to that fire, particularly the CFA, who were first on the scene, and they arrived at the scene in 7.27 minutes – 33 seconds ahead of the 8-minute benchmark. That is the advice I have received from the chief officer, so I do stand by my answer.
Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:47): Thank you, Minister, for your response. Minister, I actually have an extract from Triple Zero in my possession, which I can make available to the house. It discloses that the proposed time to the fire at Clyde North was in fact 8 minutes and 48 seconds. Minister, unless the response times have changed, you have misled the house and potentially have misled the house again and have changed the documents. Minister, have the response times changed, have the documents been changed or have you misled the house?
The PRESIDENT: Three questions, but pick one.
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:48): The answer to all of those questions is no. CFA and Triple Zero Victoria use CAD, and obviously that is the document that you have seen, and that reports the time it takes for a crew to arrive at an incident. Firefighters manually radio in to Triple Zero Victoria to report when they have arrived on scene. Due to radio traffic at the time, acknowledgement that went to Triple Zero Victoria happened later than when the first crew arrived. The CFA Clyde tanker arrived first on scene from the nearby satellite station. FRV crews arrived later. The response from crews was well coordinated and quick, and I confirm that 7.27 minutes – so 7 minutes and 27 seconds – was the time it took for CFA to arrive, and that is below the benchmark. I congratulate them on their efforts in responding to that fire and can confirm no misleading of the house and no doctoring of documents. My information, which I am providing to you, I will confirm again and again, because that is what I have been advised.