Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2024‒25 Budget Estimates

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (10:14): I am going to make some comments today on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on the 2024–25 budget estimates, which was tabled in October 2024. Chapter 5 in particular covers off on the Department of Justice and Community Safety, and the initiatives in this include the support of emergency services, on page 71. First of all, with the emergency services and the SES, I do want to note that this is 50 years this month of the SES, and I think that is a fabulous achievement. It was established in 1975, but prior to that it operated as civil defence and it rolled into the SES – but congratulations to the SES on that milestone.

The report refers to the role of the SES in disaster relief and recovery and covers off on flood events, which had an enormous impact in my electorate, particularly in October 2022. Within that enormous event the Alexandra SES played a very significant role, taking control and having to deal with the emergency that it was. At the helm was Peter Weeks OAM, who has since received in the Australia Day honours the Emergency Services Medal, along with a couple of other SES members, for his work over a significant period of time. Peter himself was in the civil defence in Alexandra before the SES. He started in 1972, three years before the SES was convened. Alexandra in fact was the second unit in Victoria to be part of the SES, so that is a feather in their cap.

The Alexandra SES, as with the Mansfield SES and the Marysville SES, have to deal with something really quite different. The terrain means the nature of the work they do and the gear they need are very unique and specific, because we have mountains, lakes and rivers. There is Lake Mountain and there is Mount Buller. We have got Lake Eildon in the centre, which covers many communities, and many rivers, but the Goulburn River is particularly large and can be quite treacherous. Alexandra have a boat, which is something that most SES units do not have, and they certainly need it, but they do not have an inflatable rescue boat. They are very keen to have an inflatable rescue boat. I think the government has said that it is something that is certainly on the cards, and I would like to see that that gets delivered to the Alexandra SES.

The Mansfield SES do have an inflatable rescue boat and a regular boat, but they actually need a lot more. They need a new station. The crew at the Mansfield SES have been waiting for years for a new station and they want to know what the go is and where they are at at the moment. They have many questions for the government. Will there be funding for their new unit in the current budget? Are they still one of the top five priorities in the SES for a rebuild? Will the government work with them to help establish not just their unit but also the emergency services precinct that the Mansfield council have planned in the area where the SES is currently located? As I have mentioned, the SES in Mansfield have different gear than others do, with the boat and the inflatable plus the regular trucks. They are out all the time fundraising, but the premises that they have are not fit for purpose. They need to be upgraded, and the government know this. I have raised this in this chamber since 2015. That is a decade. I was told many years ago that they were on the priority list, towards the top, but nothing has happened. The community and Mansfield are right behind the SES. They value them highly, they know the work that they do and they support the need for an emergency services precinct, which would have not just the SES located there but also the ambulance service and in future probably the CFA as well. It is near the police station, so we would have that entire precinct. The council have worked hard and put the land aside, and they have done the preliminary works that they need to do. We really need that emergency services precinct. The SES absolutely need their unit to be rebuilt. It has currently got stairs and their offices are upstairs. It is not disability inclusive, and it needs to be rebuilt now.