Tuesday, 28 May 2024

State Emergency Service funding

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:31): (539) My question is for the Minister for Emergency Services. Minister, the dedicated SES volunteers across Victoria, particularly the 25 SES units in Western Victoria Region, have reacted strongly to the lack of financial support shown by the Allan government for the basic costs of running an SES unit. Minister, in PAEC your department refused to provide to the committee a list of the ages of the SES trucks. Why is your department refusing to provide such basic information to a parliamentary inquiry?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:32): I again raise a concern with the frame of the question. Mrs McArthur has passionately put forward a question, and I support and concur with her passion and support for our hardworking VICSES volunteers, but the way she has framed her question contains incorrect information. There has been no refusal, as she has painted it. I am finding it quite difficult. It is happening time and time again. For what it is worth, I try and answer the questions that are posed to me, but when the question that is put to me is false, it puts me in a difficult position, because in responding to it I feel as though I am affirming the accuracy of the question that was put, and that is not true.

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:32): Surely it is pretty basic, but Minister, with no knowledge of truck ages, no capital funding and with SES units rattling tins to raise money to put petrol in emergency vehicles, can you assure SES volunteers that they are not missing out on vital funding because your government’s priority is building a train tunnel in Melbourne?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:33): Mrs McArthur, I wish you had given me a bit longer with your first question to answer this question. Again, it does contain inaccuracies. To say that there is no capital funding – I am not quite sure how we funded all those SES buildings that I have been opening for the last 12 months, and I have got further ones in my diary coming up. I know a lot of members have been involved in opening them on my behalf, because there are so many to open I cannot possibly get to them all.

In this year’s budget there has been $7 million to deliver volunteer training. Particularly important is training volunteers in incident management team training, which ensures that they are well placed to step up into those positions when they are required in extreme emergencies. There is also funding for volunteer support programs. Last year’s budget, 2023–24, included $15.1 million for 35 heavy rescue trucks for the VICSES. VICSES volunteers are integral to the design of those vehicles. They have been involved and talked to about what they need, how we can best support them in the equipment that we provide. There are so many – (Time expired)