Tuesday, 9 September 2025

Fire services

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:59): (1934) For five long years not a single female firefighter in our state has received a pay rise. For five long years not a single male firefighter has received a pay rise. That is longer than the entire First World War; it is also longer than the Civil War. Five long years and not an extra cent for any of our male or female firefighters. I would call upon the Premier to rapidly intervene in the current negotiation of the EBA and make sure that those who protect us, the first responders, our firefighters – those who not only fight fires and not only protect life but also property – receive a pay rise. We know that in 70 per cent of cases they are the first on scene when it comes to being first responders in emergency response cases. For five long years – and I will repeat that: longer than the entire length of the Civil War in America and longer than the entire length of the First World War – here in Victoria we have not properly paid our firefighters, our men and women, and given them the urgently needed pay rise they are entitled to and absolutely, thoroughly deserve.

I had the pleasure on Friday night of joining in a shift with our firefighters at fire station 38 down at South Melbourne. They are an exceptional bunch of men in that case, but there are women fire officers too, right across Victoria. In this case there were 18 firefighters, and I had the privilege of accompanying them for the evening from 6 pm until 8 am. Throughout that shift I think I had a cumulative total of 1½°hours – that is 90 minutes – sleep. Those firefighters were called out on no less than 11 separate occasions – 11 separate call-outs – for all kinds of issues, including overdoses of our young and overdoses of people in the city of Melbourne, fires in two instances, emergency alarms that had gone off, the shorting of switchboards and a number of car accidents. Indeed there were three vehicles that had a multi-car pile-up in a critical area. Time and again these dedicated professional firefighters, within 90 seconds of an alarm having gone off, got into their appliance. In my case, I spent the evening with platoon B from fire station 38, and I also had the privilege to spend some time with the ladder platform platoon from fire station 35. I had the privilege of seeing the work these dedicated lifesavers do day in, day out. They are deserving of our appreciation. They are deserving of every cent they are paid. The fact they have not had a single rise in five years is a travesty, and I would urge the Premier to step in to immediately rectify the situation.