Tuesday, 9 September 2025

Fire services

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (19:02): (1935) My adjournment is to the Minister for Emergency Services, and I raise serious concerns about the ageing fire truck fleets across Victoria, both in our CFA volunteer brigades and in our Fire Rescue Victoria stations, especially in regional centres like Bendigo. Last year documents confirmed that 429 CFA trucks are more than 25 years old and 193 have passed 30 years of age. Some brigades are still operating trucks built in the 1980s, and that is not good enough in 2025. These vehicles are well past their safe and effective working life, putting both volunteers and the public at risk. Fire Rescue Victoria is in no better shape: more than 40 per cent of FRV’s fleet is older than 15 years, and by next year over 60 per cent will have passed that mark. According to union reports, 25 trucks are off the road at any given time awaiting repairs.

Recently I was advised that on Sunday 24 August one of Bendigo’s primary urban firefighting appliances, pumper 73B, had a fault that put the truck out of commission. A pipe going to the water tank had corroded and broken, causing it to drop its entire 2000-litre water tank. Due to the truck crisis that FRV is experiencing, and despite assertions from management to the contrary, there was not one spare truck in the entire state. The only truck Bendigo crews were able to access was Mildura’s pumper 72C. It is not a spare truck but a reserve appliance stationed in Mildura due to the remote location. It is for use when both trucks are committed and local staff can be recalled to maintain coverage in Mildura. As there were no spares, the decision was made by superiors that a crew from Bendigo was to drive their truck to Mildura, pick up P72C and drive both trucks back to Bendigo, so that was a 9- to 10-hour round trip after they had already been on shift for six hours. When the crew was 20 minutes from Mildura, Mildura’s pumper suffered an alternator failure and was put out of commission until the following Wednesday. To cover this, P72C was placed into commission in Mildura just minutes before the Bendigo crew arrived to pick up this truck. The Bendigo crew then drove the return trip to Bendigo without an operational vehicle. After that, Bendigo firefighters were again asked to drive, this time to Sunshine, to pick up a very old spare truck that had become available. The spare truck was completely empty and required the crews to go to the mechanics and move all the gear across to the spare truck, which was a long process. Think about moving 750 metres of hose as well as all the other tools and equipment.

In a regional city like Bendigo, where both CFA and FRV protect lives and property, these failures and the shortfall in operational trucks across the state are putting lives at risk. The action I seek is for the minister to outline what the government is doing to urgently replace CFA and FRV appliances, to expedite maintenance to minimise downtime and to implement a transparent fleet renewal plan with clear timelines to guide future investment and restore public confidence.