House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-18 Daily Xml

Contents

Emergency Services

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:06): Second supplementary, sir, for the minister. Will retained MFS and paid CFS personnel have prior learning recognised to allow them to qualify for rank in the minister’s new model or will they have to be put through an MFS recruit course as insisted on by the firefighters' union?

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:06): The question is not actually correct, because—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: I will explain, because we actually have a number of awards and the CFS people, the volunteers, are not on an award, for example. SES people are not on an award. The CFS people are on a PSA award. There is a whole range of awards and what this workplace flexibility agreement is designed to do is to work through all those issues to make sure there is fairness. One thing I have said very publicly at the forums is that, from my point of view, if we have one organisation, then it does not matter which part of the organisation you are in, you should have equal opportunity to apply for positions based on merit.