Emergency Services Headquarters

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (15:39): My question is to the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services. Can the minister please update the house on the state government's new $80 million emergency services sector headquarters?

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (15:39): I thank the member for Kavel, who has a very keen interest in this particular topic. Once again, I do thank the member for Kavel, the member for Davenport and, indeed, yourself, Mr Speaker, for taking the time recently to join the Premier and me in having the privilege to go and visit some of the volunteers who worked in those fire-affected areas. I thank the member for the question, and I do acknowledge his longstanding interest.

I am very pleased to update the house on the progress of the new emergency services headquarters, which, indeed, is rapidly nearing completion. As members would know, construction of the new headquarters commenced in July last year, and despite the challenges that COVID-19 has presented, I am pleased to advise that it is on track to be delivered in time for the 2021-22 bushfire season.

The $80 million project will deliver what is a purpose-built facility, which will be earthquake resilient with backup power, water storage and, of course, technology redundancies accounted for as well. It will be the first time ever, indeed, that not only our South Australian executive but also senior management teams from the CFS, the SES, the MFS and also SAFECOM will be co-located. This will certainly boost our emergency control capability and coordination. Not only will the senior leadership of our emergency services agencies call the new headquarters home but also over 300 emergency services employees—men and women—will make the move to Keswick. They have been getting a taste of what their new workplace will be like.

Recently, I had the privilege of visiting SAFECOM's current office where I saw, if you like, what is an 'experience centre' that is being commenced. Here, what you could do is actually allow staff to get a sense of the type of environment they will be working in, and it is fair to say that plenty of excitement is building there.

The new headquarters are a prime example of how our government is certainly building what matters. We are creating jobs. In this particular project more than 500 jobs have actually been created during the construction phase, and it is safe to say that those workers are doing a stellar job. I would also like to thank members of the house for helping to keep a close watch on social media. They have seen a time-lapse video, which shows the progress that has been made during construction.

We are certainly blessed in this part of the world that construction hasn't been impacted like it has in other parts of the world. Of course, it is important also to talk about how important these investments in emergency services are. Once again, we have seen the incredible work that our emergency services staff—men and women and volunteers—have done to keep South Australians safe.

I visited the South-East in early January. Of course, there we saw the Blackford bushfire, which burnt more than 14,000 hectares. It came so close to the town centre of Lucindale, and I thank the member for MacKillop for hosting the Premier and me that day. We were able to thank the volunteers who went above and beyond to save much life and property. Over 500 CFS volunteers in fact answered the call to respond to the fire. They were supported by multiple CFS aircraft, and they completed over 100 airdrops as well. There were also many local firefighting units, which of course included our own member for MacKillop, and what a stellar job he did.

On 24 January, we also saw fires unfortunately that broke out in the Adelaide Hills at Cherry Gardens, Scott Creek and Mount Bold, and I reiterate my thanks to those members for taking the time to have the Premier and me visit some of those volunteers. I want to thank them for all they have done. This government's investment in projects like this means that we are delivering well-resourced buildings and resources to make sure that they can continue to protect lives and protect property. I want to take this opportunity to especially thank all those volunteers for the wonderful work they have done thus far.