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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-24 Daily Xml
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Bushfire Response

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services. Can the minister update the house on how the state government is responding to the independent review into the 2019-20 bushfire season?

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (14:54): I thank the member for Kavel and I congratulate him on his new appointment. I have no doubt that he will do an exceptional job, a man with great professionalism and empathy for his electorate. I congratulate him on that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: I have no doubt that he will do a great job in his new role.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: As we know, last bushfire season was arguably the worst on record whereby unfortunately we did lose three lives. It was a tragic summer.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for West Torrens will cease interjecting. The minister has the call.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your protection. Unfortunately, last summer we lost three lives, over 270,000 hectares of land and, of course, tens of thousands of livestock. Homes and businesses were lost, in some cases forever. Obviously, as a government we were determined to learn from the lessons that we could acquire from that devastation last bushfire season. We committed $20.3 million in an action plan, part of a $48.5 million boost to our emergency services, which also included $16.7 million from the South Australian Disaster Risk Reduction Grants Program and also $11½ million for new MFS urban appliances.

Mr Speaker, as you would know, following the devastation of last summer's bushfires, one of the worst seasons that we have seen, the Marshall government commissioned an independent review to determine what lessons could be learned from the response to the fires. It is important to note that the review found that the response from our emergency services personnel, our men and women across the state, was truly remarkable given the dire conditions that we experienced—especially considering those unprecedented conditions.

However, there certainly were areas of improvement, and we should not shy away from the fact that we should do everything we can to learn from the past. The Marshall government—and I note the work of my predecessor, now the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport—helped to develop a $20.3 million action plan to implement a number of the recommendations ahead of this year's bushfire season. There were 27 action items. One has been completed and 26 are underway and on track to be delivered by this coming bushfire season.

One action item that I know members on this side of the house are particularly interested in is the implementation of automatic vehicle location (AVL) capability for the CFS. Can I say, this is certainly going to be a game changer. It is going to be a great thing, and we are looking forward to rolling out a trial of this. Can you believe that with review after review and minister after minister in this area, since 2012, they knew about this. They knew about the demand, and every government before us during that time has failed to implement it.

But we are going to implement it. We have listened to the experts. We have listened to the volunteers. I want to thank the men and women who work tirelessly on the frontline, keeping us safe in these bushfires that hit us. I also want to thank the CFS, the MFS and the SES. I even thank the UFU and the CFSVA. I have met with all of them. I thank them for taking the time, and I have appreciated their thoughts and their teachings as well.

We have committed $5 million for the purchase of AVL technology. It will not only enhance that situational intelligence but also inform the tactical and the strategic response to the bushfires. I have heard stories of close calls. I have no doubt that this will help in those dangerous situations. We are on track to deliver an AVL technology trial this bushfire season in five locations, whether it be in the Mount Lofty Ranges in the member for Kavel's electorate, on Kangaroo Island in the member for Mawson's electorate, the West Coast in the great member for Flinders' electorate, Yorke Peninsula in the member for Narungga's electorate and also one location to be announced still.

We will be commencing those trials, and then we will be engaging with volunteers to update the business case before proceeding with the full rollout of AVL across the state. This government is investing in the resources, the systems and the technology that we need to protect lives and protect property.

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