Northern Victoria Region
Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (14:06): My constituency question is for the Treasurer. Treasurer, will you give a guarantee that the Shepparton Search and Rescue Squad and the Echuca and Moama Search and Rescue Squad will receive ongoing annual funding from the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund and that their volunteers will benefit from the same benefits as other eligible entities? The Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025, recently introduced into the Legislative Assembly, lists many organisations that will receive funding from the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund and whose members will benefit from exemptions, but it fails to include the Shepparton or Echuca and Moama search and rescue squads, which are independent entities and not part of VICSES. During the bill briefing a ministerial adviser claimed that the two independent search and rescue squads in my electorate would receive funding auspiced through the Victorian SES. Can you confirm that this is correct and that the two squads will not have to rely solely on Volunteer Emergency Services Equipment Program grants for government funding, as was indicated in the government’s response to the flood inquiry?