State Emergency Service

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (17:02): I would like to take a moment to speak to this adjournment debate and take the opportunity to acknowledge and thank the work done by a group of volunteers, particularly over the last few days, but also over a longer time. I would like to thank SES volunteers and staff for their work over the last few days since we have had quite severe weather.

Having said that, I am really pleased that we had the rain. It is certainly helping people in my electorate and also in the agricultural areas, but some of the rain has actually caused some difficulties in the urban and other built-up areas. Up to 2pm today, SES volunteers have responded to 280 requests for assistance from the South Australian public since 5pm yesterday, and those requests for assistance continued to come in this afternoon. SES management expects that the tempo of operations will slow down later this afternoon and early evening as conditions improve.

I am advised that most of the requests have come from Adelaide's southern suburbs, particularly along the coast. In addition, there have been a number of callouts in the Mount Lofty Ranges and the Fleurieu Peninsula, as well as in the Port Adelaide area. A lot of the difficulties that have been experienced have been as a result of a number of fallen trees, storm damage and minor flood damage. There have also been a number of incidents when trees have brought down powerlines.

To date, over 150 SES volunteers have been involved in the response to this weather event. Many of these have worked overnight, with replacement crews taking over this morning. While many of us were last night tucked up in bed, many of our volunteers were out there keeping the community safe. The cold front brought considerable rain to the Adelaide metropolitan area yesterday evening. To date, rainfall was 37.6 millimetres in Adelaide, with much higher totals at a number of locations in the Mount Lofty Ranges.

SES volunteers have received considerable support from their sister agencies; that is, the volunteers at the CFS and also support from the Metropolitan Fire Service. I would just like to put on record the wonderful job that these SES volunteers do, and also put on record how I disagree quite strongly with the unfair criticism they received recently about the work they perform, particularly the criticism they received from the opposition which was very unhelpful and also lacked an appreciation of the wonderful job this group of SES volunteers does.

One thing of concern to the SES is that there are still people refusing to heed the safety message about not driving through floodwater. There have been a number of incidents over the last few days where people have tried to drive through floodwaters and got themselves into all sorts of strife, which means that they not only put their own life at risk but, more importantly, they also put at risk the lives of volunteers and divert important resources from the clean-up effort to helping people get out of the creeks, etc.

I would again like to acknowledge the contribution made by this group of volunteers and also, as I said, the CFS volunteers with the support of the MFS personnel. It is during these times when things go wrong when we perhaps appreciate the most the work the volunteers do in our community. I am also looking forward to the arrival of the day when the SES are able to establish a unit in Gawler. The closest SES units include one at Edinburgh, which is now moving adjacent to the new CFS command centre, joining with the Metropolitan Fire Service on Main North Road. The other SES unit is at Kapunda, which also has other capabilities for country areas.

I am looking forward to the SES having the ability and the capacity to set up a unit close to my town of Gawler. Their presence in Gawler would also help with recruiting volunteers because a physical presence makes the service seem much more visible and also important. With those few comments, I support the volunteers.