Wednesday, 11 September 2024

State Emergency Service funding

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (19:01): (1149) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Emergency Services, and the action I seek from the minister is to adequately fund Victoria’s volunteer SES units and fast-track the sentiments contained within recommendations 54 and 55 of the Environment and Planning Committee’s July report into the 2022 flood event in Victoria. The critical lack of government support for the Victorian State Emergency Service is remarkable, astonishing and devastating for the volunteers, who I have been speaking with in recent times. VICSES has almost 5000 volunteers and is vital for our state’s emergency response. From July 2022 to June 2023 volunteers contributed over 285,000 hours, valued at almost half a billion dollars in terms of work. Dedication absolutely underpins the importance of VICSES to our communities. Their services are invaluable, and I have had dozens of people write to me in recent weeks, including eight from my local SES units, expressing their concern.

This year’s state budget is an insult to volunteers, providing nothing to sustain or improve this critical service. Units depend heavily on volunteer-led fundraising for vital equipment and maintenance. I note in the Weekly Times today an example, where the Colac SES unit controller said:

When I first started, after major weather events resupply for oils, chainsaws, fuel, we’d be reimbursed within four to six weeks. Now it’s six to eight months.

That is unacceptable. We also see that in the next four years – so by 2028 – 50 per cent of the fleet will be at its end of life, or its end of time on the road, and escalating to 88 per cent by 2036. The two recommendations that I am alluding to are recommendation 54, which calls for the VICSES to conduct a strategic review into its resources, leadership and personnel, and focus on improving communication systems, resource availability and volunteer management; and recommendation 55, which urges the Victorian government, the minister, to increase VICSES funding to upgrade emergency communication technologies, ensure adequate critical resources and enhance volunteer programs, thereby improving overall emergency response capabilities. I might add that all of the EPC members actually agreed to this, both government and non-government. So I reiterate: fund this fantastic organisation adequately and fast-track the implementation of those recommendations 54 and 55 as a priority for this community.