Thursday, 18 April 2024

Country Fire Authority funding

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (17:15): (827) My adjournment is for the Minister for Emergency Services. Last year I attended the handover of a new fire tanker at the Sedgwick CFA, and captain Brendan Drechsler summed up the appreciation felt by the local community. A new heavy tanker was officially handed to the Tatura fire brigade this week, providing new safety features including rollover and burnover protection to help protect members of the brigade and providing an extra 1000 litres of water to fight fires.

CFA volunteers invest so much in our local community, and they are very grateful for the public investment in these heavy tankers. For many CFA brigades across northern Victoria, the age, suitability and safety of their vehicles is one of their biggest concerns. Documents made public last year revealed that 193 vehicles in the CFA’s fleet are over 30 years old and 429 are more than 25 years old. In June 2020 the Labor government committed to delivering a new fleet of 48 heavy tankers to replace ageing single-cab tankers by late 2023. To date less than half of these new tankers have been delivered. As natural disasters become more frequent, we cannot afford to go slow. In 2022 the government collected $800 million from the fees Victorians pay to the fire services property levy, but according to the state budget papers only $7.6 million was to be spent on new asset infrastructure.

CFA volunteers in northern Victoria have raised concerns over the standard of their facilities, the allocation of funding and declining volunteer numbers. We have seen the important role of the CFA in not only protecting but also preparing local communities for bushfires and flooding. With the state budget fast approaching, the action I seek is for the state government to prioritise investment in the CFA and to step up the pace for delivering new heavy tankers.