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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-19 Daily Xml
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COUNTRY FIRE SERVICE

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (16:17): I would like to make a few comments today in relation to Country Fire Service activity in my electorate. Just recently we had a couple of fires which could have had disastrous consequences if they had not been attended to so quickly. Last week, I had a fire in the Myponga forest, which potentially could have done devastating damage to the Southern Fleurieu. I place on record my appreciation to the volunteers of the CFS who attended that fire, and also to the air support wing, particularly the helicopter which proved to be critical. It was an enormous effort.

Only today I had a volunteer in for lunch, who was at the fire—and I will come to that issue in a minute. This fire occurred with a north-north easterly wind on a fairly warm day and could have been catastrophic if it had not been brought under control. It was an enormous effort by firefighters down there, so I pay tribute to the Southern Fleurieu group for the work they did.

The other fire that I have had in the last couple of weeks, indeed the last sitting week, was at Cygnet River on Kangaroo Island. That potentially was a disastrous fire also. It kicked off from a vehicle accident on the Saturday night, an act of madness by the person involved, I might add. The wind picked it up, a very, very strong south-westerly change, and it went into the hamlet of Cygnet River into high gum country.

Once again, if it had not been for the outstanding effort of the local volunteers it could have had absolute tragic consequences. I would say that I was concerned. My property is nearby, and I actually rang my wife and told her, 'Load the dogs up and get out of it and go out and come back when it's safe,' but as it turned out, the wind did not go around in our direction, but it made me feel more comfortable.

What I really want to add about this is that I am very worried about where volunteering in the CFS is going. The average age of volunteers is increasing rapidly. The gentleman I had in today for lunch—he and his wife are both actively involved—was at the fire, and he is 70 in a few weeks. I know other 70 year olds who go to fires regularly. We are losing the young people from the bush, and those of us who have been volunteers forever and a day have to give up eventually.

I actually did the roster on Sunday myself—as I normally do when I happen to be on the island on a Sunday—and it worries me where the volunteers are going to come from. More to the point, what worries me is the overbearing bureaucracy that has crept into the CFS. Let me say that I think this will spell the end for volunteerism in the CFS if we are not very careful. There is no common sense or reasoning about what is taking place.

I can tell the house that at the Signet River fire volunteers spoke to me afterwards and said, 'This is crazy.' They were told to put GPS coordinates on every tree they put water on, and they were told to put GPS coordinates on when they left to go to fill up for water—note everything. These people are volunteers; they are not paid personnel. In my view, people up the hierarchy are just trying to create protection for their collective backsides by crossing every t and dotting every i in an effort to ensure that in the future they are not held responsible for something that may or may not happen.

Many of the people who volunteer in the CFS are farmers or come from farming communities, and they are over all this; they are completely over it. They want to go to a fire, they want to put the fire out, and they want to go home. They do not want all this nonsense that is taking place. They do not need it, and if the government does not take some notice of this it will be seriously held to account when there are few, if any, volunteers left in the service of the CFS.

They are struggling. It is difficult, and I bring it to the attention of the house probably not for the first time or the last time. However, I do pay tribute to the volunteers at those two particular fires, who did an outstanding job in protecting the community, buckshee.

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