TONGAN FIRE SERVICE PARTNERSHIP

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Finance as the Minister for Emergency Services. Can the minister inform the house about the partnership between the MFS and the Tongan Fire and Emergency Service?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Finance, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:49): I thank the member for Taylor for the question. As members may be aware, the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service recently hosted a three-week visit from firefighters of the Tonga Fire and Emergency Services. The visit was part of a special relationship which has been going on now for about 10 years. In 2003, the MFS responded to a request for humanitarian assistance for marginalised Pacific island nations. The request sought in-kind support, ranging from specific technical assistance, leadership and mentoring to long-term assistance such as training programs and specialised equipment.

Mr Grant Lupton, Chief Officer of the MFS, visited Tonga in 2003 to assess the need before formalising an offer of assistance. Subsequently, the MFS signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tongan Fire Service. Under the MOU, the two organisations agreed to a sustainable long-term development framework. Among other things, the MOU included the exchange of personnel, information and equipment that enables the Tongan Fire Service to reach and maintain a high standard in the provision of fire and other emergency services.

Between 2004 and 2012, the MFS provided Tonga with 16 fire appliances, including urban pumpers, tankers, and one international sky jet, as well as 60 breathing apparatus sets, personal protective clothing, and firefighting equipment such as ladders and hoses. The chief of the MFS told me how, on his first visit to Tonga, the Tongan Fire Service personnel were attending fires in workboots and overalls, and were fighting fires with little more than garden hoses.

From the photographs that I have seen of the various fire stations that have been built around the islands of Tonga, I think they are pretty well exclusively equipped with surplus MFS equipment. So, we have done a great deal for one of the more impoverished nations on the face of the earth, in that we have actually built from the ground up a fire service for these people; we have given them the training and we have given them the equipment.

As part of that, we are now in the process of preparing for the delivery of two additional fire appliances that are surplus to our equipment. We have just, as I said, completed the training of four Tongan firefighters, particularly in the use of breathing apparatus, and they are thrilled to bits with the level of expertise that they have been able to develop while in Adelaide.

The Tongan Commissioner for Fire and Emergency Services briefly visited Adelaide to thank me on behalf of the government of Tonga, and to convey the high regard the Tongan government and its citizens have for South Australia. What we have done for Tonga has not gone unnoticed. I was shown photographs of, unfortunately, a race riot that occurred some time back, when minister Rankine had responsibility for the portfolio and I think was actually going to visit Tonga. There was a race riot that, if it had not been for our equipment—

The SPEAKER: Minister, I am sure both sides of the house share my disappointment that your time has expired.