SA Water Funded Season Fire Crews

125 Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (9 September 2015).

1. What is the cost to the taxpayer of a SA Water funded season fire crew?

2. How many SA Water funded season fire crews do we have, what are their bushfire response activities, how many volunteers and staff are utilised in operating these crews and what budget line will they be funded from in the future?

3. Are DENWR fire crews now required to be funded because of the position that volunteer CFS personnel have taken in some instances not to respond to bushfires on public lands?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills):

1. To assist with implementing its land and fire management programs, SA Water funds seasonal fire crews. In 2015-16, this is budgeted to cost approximately $1.516 million.

It is SA Water revenue that provides this funding. As well as presenting a direct risk to the community, bushfires present a significant risk to water quality and SA Water's water and wastewater assets.

2. SA Water funds 23 seasonal fire fighters which are based in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Northern and Yorke Peninsula and Eyre Peninsula. They are employed by DEWNR under an inter-agency agreement between the two agencies for DEWNR to undertake fire management activities on SA Water managed land. They are integrated within the DEWNR seasonal firefighting program to provide greater economies of scale and cross-tenure operational efficiency. SA Water also funds the administrative costs of supporting these crews.

While the crews work closely with CFS volunteers, and they will often come under CFS incident management leadership during incidents, no volunteers are used in operating them.

The seasonal firefighters are employed for a nine month period over the fire season and supplement existing resources to support the delivery of prescribed burning programs, bushfire response and fire prevention activities. When not engaged in these activities, the seasonal fire fighters deliver other on-ground fire and land management works programs.

This is a great example of agencies working collaboratively together to address bushfire threat.

The SA Water seasonal crews are funded from SA Water's operating budget. It is intended that this will continue in future, subject to approval from the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) who must approve

SA Water's Regulatory Business Plan.

3. The inter-agency arrangements between DEWNR and SA Water have been in place since 2005 with the combined resources available for bushfire response state-wide.