Metropolitan Fire Service Fire Trucks

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (15:15): Unfortunately, the members opposite—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer please update the house on the delays in the purchase by the MFS of urgently needed fire trucks and maybe share the reasons why we have such delays?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:15): I thank the honourable member for his question. As Treasurer and as Minister for Industrial Relations, members will be aware that there has been a very long campaign being run by the United Firefighters Union in South Australia complaining about the lack of resources and the fact that very old fire trucks and fire tankers, which I must admit we inherited after 20 years of neglect from the former Labor government, had not been replaced quickly enough to ensure a safe and effective MFS.

I know in all the discussions that I have been having with the MFS and indeed with the two ministers responsible for the MFS over the last 12 months, I have increasingly become concerned about the delays in the purchase of new fire trucks. The government had budgeted in the last year and this year for 12 new fire trucks to be employed or to be paid for and therefore to be utilised by the MFS.

The first four of those, which were ordered early last year, were arriving in and around about this month and next month, March and April. But the other eight, the best I could get after numerous requests was that we wouldn't be able to get those eight, even though we had provided funding for them last year, until at the very earliest late this year and extending into 2022. So let's be clear on that: eight fire trucks, where the funding had been provided, had been delayed and we weren't going to receive the first of them until late this year and the remainder until early next year.

I was therefore very intrigued to see in the media reports of the transcript of a conversation between senior MFS officers in the state. I just refer to a couple of paragraphs from, I think, about a four-minute conversation. One senior officer said, and I quote:

Between you and I, I spoke to Max about this, I was dead keen to go out buy some tankers…and she said 'You're actually going to undermine the union if you just go out and help the government solve their problem.'

The second senior officer laughing about that particular statement. The first senior officer then said:

And I went: 'Yep, I can see that.'

The senior representative of the United Firefighters Union in South Australia is a person by the name of Max Adlam. It is clear that these two officers were talking about a conversation they claimed that they had had with Max Adlam. That has been clearly, as it should be, the subject of a very serious and urgent investigation by the senior officer of the Metropolitan Fire Service. The weekend media reported that one of those officers has been suspended:

…has suspended one of the senior firefighters who was recorded talking about intentionally delaying the purchase of trucks so he would not 'undermine' a union campaign for more resources.

The Advertiser understands the high-ranking officer was given an 'exclusion' letter on Friday morning.

I, on behalf of all South Australians, accept the fact that unions on occasion will campaign against the government of the day, whether it is Labor or Liberal. I think they probably relish it more when it is a Liberal government, but put that to the side for the moment. But when union bosses—for example, as claimed in this particular conversation by two senior firefighters in the MFS who are members of the UFU (that has been acknowledged and reported)—report conversations in relation to an issue like this, as I said in the media and I say again in this house, I am frankly appalled.

Subject of course to confirmation by an investigation, and I respect the fact that the senior officer of the MFS and someone else he may well utilise will conduct that investigation, if it is shown that there has been any delay along the lines that these senior firefighters have talked about, then I think all South Australians would join me in their abhorrence at the prospect that much-needed fire resources for our MFS have been delayed as a result of conscious decisions by senior firefighters within the MFS.

I do look forward to the results or outcomes of the investigation that has been instituted. I would hope that I would have the support of all members in this chamber, even members of the Australian Labor Party—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —that they would not defend the substance of what has been claimed in these particular allegations—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: All the statements I have made here I have already made outside. The transcript is up on various media outlet websites, so I am not sure what the Hon. Mr Hunter is going on about—

The PRESIDENT: The Treasurer should bring his answer to a conclusion.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —and I won't respond to the honourable member's interjections out of order. I look forward to the results of the internal investigation, as I am sure will all South Australians.