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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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COUNTRY FIRE SERVICE

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:33): I rise today to speak about the CFS, but before I do that I would like to support the member for Davenport in his comments about our health minister saying that the Liberal government hates hospitals. I think that is outrageous because I, too, had a daughter in the Women's and Children's Hospital in the SCBU unit, which is the intensive care unit for the young, and the nurses and doctors did an amazing job to keep my daughter alive. Today, she is nearly 12 years old and the youngest of my three, and I am very proud that she was taken to the Women's and Children's Hospital. I think it is a slur on this party for the minister to say that we hate hospitals. Outrageous!

I digress, but I return now to the topic of my grieve, that is, firefighters in the electorate of Chaffey. The fire danger season in the Riverland, beginning on Friday, will be approached with caution, with dry and windy conditions. Obviously, this is a very windy time of the year, and there are high fuel loads right across the region. We had extreme weather events last year that, potentially, have accelerated the growth of fuel on the roadsides. We have had a good grain harvest that has left stubble and, particularly with today's practice of minimal till, it raises a significant fire risk.

Over the last couple of months, CFS and MFS firefighters have been very busy, particularly in the Riverland region, and we need to remember that our volunteer firefighters are small business owners who give up their time to assist battling bushfires. I thank John Foody, the commander at Renmark MFS, and his firefighting staff for taking me under their wing, and for showing me some of their procedures, practices and training drills. It really has been an eye opener for me to see how they train and what they go through to fight fires.

With some of the fires that we have had in the region, particularly at Loxton (and I was just talking about broadacre), a 55-acre paddock caught fire recently as a result of a simple accident. The farmer was out slashing his paddock and a bearing overheated, and that put the farming community at risk. Again, I ask all of the farming community to make sure that their equipment is safe and worthy of taking out into the paddock, particularly at this time of the year.

Another fire that threatened the township of Renmark was at Bangalore, a state heritage property owned by DEWNR, and it has been under its care for nearly 10 years. I have raised concerns with the minister; I have raised concerns with the department CEO; and I have raised concerns with the department staff about the fire risk that this property poses to the town of Renmark and to the people of the Riverland.

Sadly, the property caught fire last month, and it threatened properties and homes, and it was all about not having that property in a safe state, particularly coming into the fire season. Again, well done to the MFS firefighters and some of the CFS crew who went there and extinguished the fire.

Some CFS firefighters were not there to help, because 19 of the brave Riverland CFS firefighters were over in New South Wales helping as part of the South Australian contingent fighting those devastating fires in the mountain country of New South Wales. Again, I commend the firefighters from the Riverland and the Mallee who have travelled to New South Wales to fight those devastating fires.

Again, I call on landowners and householders to be vigilant and careful in this coming fire season. With grain harvest in full swing, I was lucky enough to go out and spend a day visiting Mallee farms in the grain growing area and sit in some of their new machinery. It was quite a thrill to sit in almost a lounge chair and look at the technology and the fire systems that are installed on these big pieces of equipment. It really is something to behold.

A simple fire in a paddock full of grain can travel very quickly, particularly in windy conditions, and not only take out a person's livelihood but threaten their neighbours and then threaten the towns. Again, well done to the CFS volunteers representing South Australia in New South Wales, and well done to all the emergency service departments that look after our communities.

The SPEAKER: There is one more—the member for Taylor—who would not want to miss out on her contribution.

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