Wednesday, 13 November 2024

Statements on tabled papers and petitions

Victoria State Emergency Service

Report 2023–24

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (17:16): I rise today to deliver a statement on the Victoria State Emergency Service Authority report 2023–24. VICSES is at the front of my mind, as I recently visited their Fawkner brigade to inspect their new next-gen heavy rescue truck, which is one of 35 heavy rescue trucks being rolled out across the state, thanks to $15.1 million in funding from the Allan Labor government, and it is very much supported by the Minister for Emergency Services. This is in addition to 21 heavy rescue trucks, which were secured with another round of government funding in the last budget. It was an eye-opening experience for me to be present at the Fawkner brigade, as my local SES, and to thank the volunteers, who really are experts in what they do. I had the chance to inspect a new truck and hear how some of the volunteers had provided feedback on all of its specifications. It was quite extraordinary.

I also am looking forward to visiting their VICSES unit in Yackandandah. In addition to providing invaluable emergency support services to the Yackandandah community, their SES unit is in fact playing its part in reducing its emissions as part of the Totally Renewable Yackandandah initiative. I look forward to meeting Jackie, the unit controller, and hearing about how her unit are taking advantage of solar power generation and a renewable battery to drive down their emissions and save money on their energy bills. I am also looking forward to meeting some of the volunteers who work with Jackie.

Emergency services volunteers truly are the lifeblood of any community in Victoria, and I am so encouraged to see in this report that VICSES retains a statewide volunteer pool of 5002 members – there you go. I have a huge amount of respect for our emergency services volunteers. I always love to see that respect mirrored by emergency services agencies, and that is why I was very pleased to see that a number of pastoral care and further training services are being made available by VICSES to their volunteers, including proactive mental health care and leadership courses. I was also proud to see in this report that VICSES has been the recipient of an additional $2.45 million in volunteer emergency services equipment program funding from the government and Minister Symes, and I look forward to visiting some other VESEP grant recipients as I travel around north-east Victoria in the coming months and visit other regional areas of our state.

Can I also note with some concern the large number of extreme weather events to which VICSES responded over the last 12 months, and in fact VICSES volunteer hours attributed to storm incidents have increased by 107 per cent in the past year. While this report is clearly a testament to the tireless efforts of these volunteers, it is also a reminder that without bold action today, climate change will have severe consequences for generations to come. That is why I am so passionate about this government’s bold climate change agenda – climate action agenda, in fact, is the best way to phrase it – led by Minister D’Ambrosio in the other place. Our ambitious emissions reduction targets are key to combating climate change and ensuring extreme weather events do not become catastrophically common in the future. Just last week I received some briefings from academic experts at Monash University and Victoria University about, amongst other things, the importance of effective communication between emergency services bodies and multicultural communities. I am very glad to see that in this report VICSES have been translating their materials for linguistically diverse communities, which were identified as the materials most needing translation during VICSES’s community engagement.

I will end by briefly reflecting on VICSES’s vision statement at the very beginning of their report: ‘Safer communities – together’. All of us have come to work in this place because we care about our communities and want to see them thrive. Throughout this report that was so evident, and what gets me excited about emergency services is that shared passion for community. I look forward to talking to VICSES members directly over the coming days, weeks and months ahead as we discuss this government’s commitment to growing safer communities together with emergency services like VICSES.