Red Balloon Day

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Can the minister update the council about Red Balloon Day 2017?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:04): I would love to take up the opportunity to answer this important question from the Hon. Ms Gago. Again, I thank her for her question. As members may be aware, yesterday was National Red Balloon Day 2017, a day on which we take the opportunity to say thank you to the extraordinary commitment and dedication of our firefighters, both volunteer firefighters and also professional firefighters. Marking the last official day of summer in Australia, which was yesterday, is a fitting opportunity to do this.

To be part of Red Balloon Day the public, businesses and organisations, were asked to fly a red balloon from their letterbox, fence or window to let our firefighters know just how much we appreciate their dedication, hard work and tireless efforts in protecting our lives, homes and communities all year round. Importantly, all money raised from this worthy initiative is donated back to the state's fire agency charities in South Australia. In the case of the Country Fire Service, that is the CFS Foundation, and in the case of the MFS, that is the Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation, which both deliver vital support to firefighters themselves, as well as the broader communities they are a part of.

Whether it is volunteers or paid professionals, the one thing that always strikes me about our men and women firefighters is how humble and hard working they are. They do incredible work, not out of a need for recognition or adulation, but simply out of a genuine motivation to be able to serve and protect the communities that they are a part of.

While Red Balloon Day marks the last day of summer in Australia, at least officially, it is important to note that we are still in the midst of fire danger season. During this time, our firefighters are on high alert, and despite a very wet summer to date—in fact the third wettest on record for our community—the risk of bushfire remains. In that sense, I remind members to help spread the word that we need to be prepared and plan to survive, instead of leaving it until it's too late.

Whether that is by using the CFS's new online tool 'My Plan to Survive' or by checking the bushfire danger rating through the CFS website or on Alert SA, we are all doing our part to make sure our firefighters are not placed in more risk than they need to be. That is why it is vital that the community, especially us as parliamentarians, get behind Red Balloon Day, when it rolls around next year, to honour the difficult and often dangerous work our firefighters undertake each and every day, as well as the enormous sacrifices they make to protect our lives and property.

Just before question time I had the opportunity to pop up to the Burnside CFS to get an important public message out that the Bureau of Meteorology has declared that they believe that this will be an Indian Summer, which essentially means that we are expecting the summer weather to be protracted into the autumn months. The bureau is predicting that we will have a hotter and drier autumn than what is traditionally the case, which means our firefighters, particularly our CFS firefighters, will be remaining vigilant over the coming months.

It is also really important that we continue to adhere to the various bans that could be issued during the course of the autumn months and we also make sure, as a community, that we have our bushfire action plans in place to ensure that we can keep loved ones safe in the event that there is a bushfire, without jeopardising the safety of our firefighters, particularly volunteer firefighters, who are working in regional areas keeping our community safe.