Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Victorian emergency services equipment program

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (18:55): (1305) My adjournment matter tonight is for the Minister for Emergency Services, and the action I seek is for her to organise another visit to a VICSES unit or CFA brigade which has received a VESEP grant. VESEP grants, which stands for the Victorian emergency services equipment program grants, support emergency services organisations like the CFA to protect their communities during bushfires and other emergencies. The minister already regularly visits emergency services units – I acknowledge that – but VESEP recipients are at the front of my mind this week after seeing firsthand the positive impacts that these grants have on individual units and brigades.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the town of Stanley in the state’s north-east, and while I was there I was welcomed by Chris and the team at the local CFA brigade. It was the CFA brigade’s open day when I visited in fact, and Chris was keen to tell me about the team’s successful VESEP grant application. I was very encouraged to see just how many upgrades the Stanley brigade could make to their workspaces and equipment thanks to their VESEP grant, and this was only compounded when I later visited the Yackandandah CFA as part of the 10-year anniversary of the Totally Renewable Yackandandah initiative.

Totally Renewable Yackandandah are organising their community to make it 100 per cent renewables powered by late 2026, and I was proud to speak at their 10th birthday party as a representative of Minister D’Ambrosio, the Minister for Climate Action, in the other place. As I said on the night, I think initiatives like Totally Renewable Yackandandah are a shining example for other communities around the state to follow, and I look forward to hearing updates as they work towards their renewable energy goals. As part of that event I visited a number of community groups who are embracing rooftop solar power in their buildings. Among those was the Yackandandah CFA, where another Chris in fact welcomed me and showed me some of their equipment, which the brigade had purchased with their VESEP grant. In the days and weeks before these visits I had also been representing the minister on other CFA and VICSES station visits. Generally these visits are to commemorate other forms of funding secured by the minister, but on almost every visit I have been told by volunteers about the positive impact of the VESEP grant and what effect it has had on their unit or brigade. Tonight I am asking the minister to visit another VESEP grant recipient to see more of the positive community outcomes that she has created through her work.