Tuesday, 1 April 2025

Fire services

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (03:49): (1555) Recently the Herald Sun reported on the lack of aerial fire trucks available to fight towering infernos across the state, including in my electorate, in Ringwood. The report outlined that in early March Telebooms should be located at Sunshine, Oakleigh and Ringwood, all of which are more than 20 years old and all of which were offline due to faults and maintenance. Another, a 27-year-old truck based at East Melbourne, was unavailable, as was one at Dandenong. This meant that right across the Melbourne metropolitan area there was a lack of critical rescue and firefighting capabilities. In the article a firefighter at Ringwood noted that:

We are in a situation that is leaving us and the public at risk.

The firefighter noted that at a recent Forty Winks fire at Nunawading crews were waiting for a teleboom to travel from Richmond due to there being no coverage locally. It is a demonstration of how this government continues to chronically underfund fire services in Victoria. Hardworking ratepayers across this state contributing towards the fire services levy via the fire services property levy should expect world-class protection when it matters most. This government chooses to leave ratepayers with fire trucks that are out of date, broken down and not fit for purpose.

And what is the response? The government is proposing to cut back on fire services through some underhanded word changes. In relation to funding, the word in the Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958 is exact at 87.5 per cent, whereas the new Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025 specifies ‘up to’ 87.5 per cent of FRV’s budget. This is a change aimed at legislating a funding cut for Fire Rescue Victoria, leaving firefighters and the public at greater risk. At the same time, the government is aiming to slug ratepayers even more for less fire services, increasing the tax burden on hardworking Victorians during a cost-of-living crisis via the proposed bill. It is duplicitous in every sense of the word. It is dismissive too and disrespectful of the findings from the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, in that it aims to fundamentally alter the reason it came into existence. Firefighters, ratepayers and councils are expressing their concern at the proposed bill, and it needs to be rejected by this Parliament. Today concerned firefighters travelled from across the state to this Parliament House to let the government know for themselves what they think of this. The action I seek from the Premier is to guarantee that no cuts in funding will affect the firefighters of Victoria.