Metropolitan Fire Service

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Why has the state government not approved the bilateral bid for funding of a minimum of six new replacement heavy-pumping firefighting appliances per year over the next five years? Can the minister confirm that over half the MFS firefighting appliances are between 10 and 20 years old, with some in excess of 20 years old?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:45): I thank the member for the question. I can't regurgitate the age of every truck that's in the MFS, but I know that we were handed trucks from the previous government, when we took over, that was an ageing fleet. We are doing a lot of work to rectify that. In fact, we have given money in the most recent budget for a number of turnkey trucks to roll out into the system. It's something that we are very conscious of. We are also doing an expenditure review on the MFS to find more funds to make sure we can keep re-injecting and fixing the mess we were left.