Grievance Debate

Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (15:20): I rise to speak about the Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation and their charity ball that I was delighted to attend last Friday. The new rooms at the Convention Centre—which I have never visited before—are incredible, overlooking the River Torrens. It was the 19^th year celebration of the Professional Firefighters Foundation. Next year is the 20^th anniversary, of course. Maths is my strong point, unlike the Minister for Transport. I look forward to the 20^th anniversary. They will have fireworks over the River Torrens and they assure me it is going to be a razzle-dazzle affair.

As I said, the firefighters foundation is 19 years old. All money raised goes to charity. The foundation has about 700 members, mostly firefighters, but they are drawn from other members of the community as well. The firefighters who are members donate directly from their pay packets each week and so far they have raised over $3 million, which has been spent in various ways around the state and the country.

I was invited by Greg Howard, who is a great bloke. He is the founding President of the Professional Firefighters Foundation. I was really happy to be sat at a table with the Deputy Chief Officer of the MFS, Michael Morgan; his wife, Colleen; and also Assistant Commissioner Noel Bamford and his partner, Margriet. Colleen Morgan and my wife, Anne, hit it off. Colleen was an expert on the fire service and waxed lyrical about women in firefighting and about the need for the MFS and fire services around the world—not just nationally—to increase their gender equity.

There are very low levels of women firefighters, not just in South Australia but as a pattern repeated across the world. I am pleased that under the leadership of people like Michael Morgan and, I think, under the direction of his wife, Colleen, they are taking very serious steps to address this matter. It was run admirably by Cathy Hann, the foundation administrator, who ran around all night making sure that everything ran very smoothly.

It was particularly pleasing to at last meet someone I had heard a lot about, a bloke called Billy Boyle, a 29-year veteran firefighter from Elizabeth. He brought along the whole Elizabeth group. In fact, Elizabeth was very well represented at the balI (I think they had two or three tables) and they are a great crew of people. Billy himself, as I said, is a 29-year veteran. He was saying that next year will probably be his last, or he is heading into his last year. He is an absolutely key member of the foundation and delivered quite a moving speech about Barry Luke later in the evening, who was made a life member of the organisation.

As I said, many MFS people, lots of people from Elizabeth and Adelaide Airport firefighters were there and I was really pleased to see Squad 52, fresh to firefighting. I think it was their first week of training, and they were dragged along to usher us all in. They were a fine body of people. As I said, they were mostly men, but they are working towards gender equity.

Over the years, the foundation has raised $3 million, which they have donated to various places around the state and country, but they have a special interest in the Women's and Children's Hospital: $55,000 went to the Women's and Children's Hospital to upgrade the parents' room in the Newland Ward, $55,000 to upgrade children's bathrooms and $30,000 for a kitchen upgrade.

There are lots of other things they contributed to: the Victorian bushfires in 2009, the foundation donated $200,000 to that effort; the Wangary fires $130,000; the Kangaroo Island fire (it does not say what year that was, but I assume it was a big one), $100,000—

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: How much?

Mr ODENWALDER: It was $100,000 from the foundation. They also do lots of—

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: The whole fire cost $20 million.

Mr ODENWALDER: Indeed, but this is a charitable organisation and I think the $100,000 was probably money well spent. Of course, they also donate to foundation members themselves in their times of need or illness; obviously, firefighters go through a lot during their work. They also fund and support many other fundraisers, such as Shake the Boot, the Bupa Challenge, and they are even part of supporting the Christmas pageant.

I am running out of time to say all the things I want to say, but I want to quickly mention the life membership given to Barry Luke, who has been a key member of the Firefighters Foundation and who is brother-in-law of the president, Greg Crossman. Barry Luke, a great man.

Time expired.