Wednesday, 18 June 2025

 Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:14): (1725) The action I seek is from Minister Ward in the other place. Minister Ward unfortunately has a track record when it comes to her new portfolio. We all know in this place that she is wholly incompetent; that is not news to anyone. In fact she was so incompetent at the estimates process she was unable to tell every Victorian where any one of the number of new vehicles or appliances – or as the previous minister called them ‘the big red trucks’ – might go. The existing minister cannot tell a single Victorian where any of the new appliances – we will call them the big red trucks for the sake of the minister’s ease of understanding – will go. Well, there is something we can tell the minister tonight, and that is in a ballot of the firies in this state and their support staff, and it is an important ballot of that critical first responders workforce, no less than 2631 – that is, thousands of firies across this state – have all said in one solitary loud voice that they have no confidence whatsoever in the top brass of Fire Rescue Victoria. As I stand here in 2025, the firefighters of this state, the men and women who we rely upon increasingly not only to put out fires, to keep themselves safe, to keep our property safe but in addition to that to be the very people who on 60 per cent of occasions will be the first responders onsite, whether you are suffering from a cardiac arrest or you are the victim in a car accident and for no fault of your own you found yourself in that situation – these critical workers – have spoken with one voice and said they have no confidence whatsoever in the leadership of Fire Rescue Victoria. It is a historic vote. What it tells us, very sadly, is they have absolutely lost confidence, and they will very quickly lose confidence in this minister too and the Premier and the government if this shambles of an operation continues.

We know that firefighters are already having to use equipment that is outdated. We know that up to three-quarters of the fleet is outdated and is unreliable. We know that Ambulance Victoria back in July 2024 had a similar vote, and since then there has been a complete clean-out of that shambles of an organisation – another emergency service that absolutely suffered under the administration of this government. We know about Victoria Police in February of 2025, this year – again, a shambles of an operation. Minister, I hate to say this in front of you, but it is a shambles. To this day Victoria does not even have a police commissioner in tenure, in situ. We actually do not have a police commissioner. It is an embarrassment to say. You had to go through all these hurdles to get this overseas police commissioner, who still has not taken his seat. It a further embarrassment. What I can tell you is this: the firefighters of this state deserve to be listened to, and they have said in one loud voice, ‘Get rid of the top brass.’ Start again in the interests of every firefighter and every Victorian.