House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-29 Daily Xml

Contents

Country Fire Service

1461 Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (25 September 2019). Will the minister tell the house who ordered the ban on the CFS Volunteers Association from using the government volunteers portal to communicate with volunteers in August of this year?

1. Why was the ban on the CFS Volunteers Association from using the government volunteers portal to communicate with volunteers put in place?

2. Has the minister asked his chief officer to investigate the reasons for volunteer portal ban, and has that investigation taken place? Will that report be made public? If not, why not?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing):

1. There is no ban on the CFS Volunteers Association accessing the volunteer portal to communicate with volunteers.

2. The information the CFS Volunteers Association intended to distribute was deemed to be not in line with the emergency services sector internet and email use policy. All members of the CFS, staff and volunteers must adhere to this policy when using the volunteer portal which includes the use of CFS email accounts.

3. There is no ongoing ban on the CFS Volunteers Association utilising the distribution list to email CFS volunteers or using the volunteer portal. If at any time a member of the CFS uses these communication channels and the moderator deems the content inappropriate for distribution, the information will not be approved and reasons why will be provided to the author. Since this time, correspondence from the CFS Volunteers Association has been distributed to volunteers through the volunteer portal.