Kangaroo Island Bushfire Response

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:28): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Further to my yet unanswered letter to you on 11 January, can you tell the house if an investigation into the entrapment of a crew defending the Flinders Chase Visitor Centre on 3 January 2020 was ever undertaken, and is the agreement between SAFECOM and SafeWork SA negating any legislative requirements still in force in spite of current legislation which does say it should be?

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (15:29): I thank the honourable member for the question. It is a very important question. What I will do is take that on notice because it was about a specific piece of correspondence about a very, very serious issue.

I might take this opportunity to thank our very hardworking volunteers and our emergency services, who once again have done a sterling job navigating through what have been some very dangerous situations this bushfire season, whether it be in the South-East, in the member for MacKillop's electorate, or in your own electorate, sir. I certainly was very privileged to go along with the Premier ever so recently to thank those volunteers for the hard work they do.

Can I say that we as a government take these sorts of things very seriously. That's why we were the first jurisdiction in all of Australia to commission an independent bushfire review. We have got on with the job of making sure we invest in our emergency services. Obviously, we inherited a long list of issues that needed to be resolved, but we are investing in our emergency services like never before, whether it's over 25 CFS trucks we have delivered this bushfire season, or whether it's the improved PPE, whether it's making sure they have thermal imaging cameras in each one of those groups—whatever it is, we are doing everything that we can as a government to make sure that we can protect lives and protect property.

In relation to the specific request the member had, I will certainly take that on notice and I will endeavour to get back to the member as soon as I am able.