Personal Explanation

Emergency Services

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (17:09): I seek leave to make a personal explanation.

Leave granted.

Dr McFETRIDGE: Today, in the other place, in response to a question from the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars, the Minister for Emergency Services, the Hon. Peter Malinauskas was speaking about the role of emergency service volunteers during extreme weather. He read into Hansard some—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Morphett, I just need to establish whether you feel you have been misrepresented.

Dr McFETRIDGE: I certainly have, ma'am. I have been well and truly misrepresented on a number of points by the minister in the other place. The minister said, 'I have an obligation to make evidence-based, well thought-through responses to information.' Well, I have reams of evidence from the SES, CFS and MFS on this particular matter, and I have years of evidence as a volunteer.

The minister then went on to say that he had received a Facebook post from volunteers that said, 'McFetridge chose to attack [some] volunteers.' That is completely untrue and he did not provide any evidence of that whatsoever, or bring it forward, or say it outside this place. He then went on to quote from the Facebook post that, 'McFetridge's uneducated and bias comments in the media' were affecting volunteers. I have three science degrees, so I do not think I am uneducated, but as a 30-year veteran of the CFS and a life member of the CFS, and having worked with the SES and MFS on many, many occasions, I know exactly how the system works.

The minister went on to say, again, that he had some more information from a number of SES volunteer leaders and they were critical of me. What he did not do then is read an email—and whether he has this email, I do not know—from another volunteer, praising me for my openness and my direct and honest feedback, and that they appreciated what I was doing for the volunteers.