BEULAH PARK FIRE STATION

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (16:26): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Emergency Services a question in relation to the Beulah Park fire station.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: I refer to my question to the minister on 25 October last year regarding staffing of the Beulah Park MFS station, in response to which the minister indicated her full confidence in the chief officer of the fire service to staff all stations appropriately. Since the minister made this statement it has become clear that no new funds have been allocated to staff the new station at Beulah Park. I will quote an extract from a message to MFS firefighters from Greg Northcott, Secretary of the United Firefighters Union, on 30 January 2008, as follows:

Yes, Minister appears to be making its return episode here in Adelaide. In 2007 the chief officer announced that the new Beulah Park station would be occupied by the headquarters' 202 pump. In January 2008, two months before the scheduled opening, a letter from the chief officer then announced that the station would be occupied by existing appliances within the system, resulting in the fire coverage in the Oakden/Northfield area being halved. Yes, minister, you and your Rann Labor government have endorsed this process as your forward thinking strategic policy two months before its opening. This union has a clear message to the Rann Labor government: we will not allow this new $2 million state-of-the-art fire station, bordering the marginal Labor electorates of Hartley and Norwood, to be occupied by an appliance that reduces the fire coverage currently being provided to northern Adelaide. We hereby put this Labor government on notice that, until appropriate funding and resources are provided for the staffing at Beulah Park, it will remain embarrassingly empty.

My questions are:

1. What action has the minister taken, if any, to ensure that the crew at the Beulah Park station is fully funded in the 3½ months since my question to her in October?

2. Given that the UFU ban on staffing the Beulah Park station has not been lifted, what action has the minister taken to ensure that the Beulah Park station is operating as soon as possible and without impacting on other surrounding MFS stations?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (16:29): I thought the shadow minister for emergency services just asked that; clearly, the Hon. John Dawkins was not listening because I have just responded to the question.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: As I said, the shadow spokesperson for emergency services just asked that question, but I am happy to repeat exactly what I said.

The Hon. G.E. Gago: Slowly, Carmel.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Very slowly. I am not quite sure why the honourable member did not hear what I had to say. However, by him asking the question that was asked just a few minutes before by the shadow spokesperson the honourable member has confirmed what I had to say—that we should put this into context. It is really about heading into an enterprise bargaining agreement because, regrettably, this has been going on for several months. I am quite happy to repeat what I said, but this government is very sincere in asking the UFU to sit down with it and negotiate at the industrial level, rather than talking to the media.

As I said to the Hon. Steven Wade, I know that the opposition has very good reason to be embarrassed about the manner—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Ashamed is a good word—about the way it gutted the MFS during the eight years it was in government and about the fact that there were very few recruits. Since being elected this government has substantially increased funding for the MFS and has also put on 194 new recruits. The UFU has a process it can go through, and government is hoping it will undertake that process.