HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-02 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Bills

Fire and Emergency Services (Governance) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading (resumed on motion).

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (16:17): I rise to resume my contribution to the Fire and Emergency Services (Governance) Amendment Bill. Previously, I was quoting the vital assistance of CFS volunteers and people with private units in combatting bushfires, and I now want to go to more detail on the bill.

Following the devastation of 2019-20 bushfire season in this state, our state government commissioned an independent review to identify how South Australia's response to bushfires can be improved. The independent review found that the response from our emergency services sector was remarkable. However, 68 findings and 15 recommendations were made as to how South Australia's emergency services capabilities could be improved.

To align the SAFECOM board operations with accepted governance standards, the independent review recommended that the state government consider amending the Fire and Emergency Services Act 2005 to enable the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services to appoint an independent chair to the SAFECOM board. Pursuant to section 11 of the act, the presiding member of the SAFECOM board is currently the Chief Executive of SAFECOM.

In its response to the independent review, our government accepted this recommendation and there was also broad stakeholder and sector support to appoint an independent chair, including from the current SAFECOM board, the CFS Volunteer Association, the SES Volunteer Association and the United Firefighters Union. Funding of $60,000 per annum indexed was included in the 2020-21 state budget for the appointment of an independent chair. In line with the government response to the independent review, this bill also proposes to enable the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services to table reports from the State Bushfire Coordination Committee in the state parliament.

In relation to the independent review, building on our $48.5 million package released earlier, the Marshall Liberal government has delivered a further $49 million package to ensure that South Australia is as prepared as possible for bushfire emergencies. We only have to look at the last two summers to see the terrible havoc wreaked across this state from one end to the other.

The conditions that gripped the state in the 2019-20 bushfire season were some of the worst on record. The government has responded with a $97.5 million package to keep South Australians safe. We are investing nearly $100 million so that our emergency services staff and volunteers have the resources and support they need to protect lives and property. Importantly, we are boosting support for CFS volunteers by employing nine additional regional staff to reduce the administrative burden on volunteers. I think this is vital for volunteers throughout the community.

I know for a fact that administrative work can be an issue for some volunteers, and even some captains of brigades, who are just keen to fight the fires and not deal with the administrative burden. It all has to be done. There is a certain amount of administration, obviously, that has to be done: who is on the truck, who attends the scene, etc. However, it does put extra strain on volunteers who are making valiant efforts to serve and save their communities.

We know that emergency services staff and volunteers experience some of the most extreme and distressing circumstances, so we are increasing mental health support by employing an additional professionally qualified counsellor. This is vitally important, especially for brigades in my area—Tailem Bend or Coonalpyn, just down the road from Hammond—and road crash rescue on the Dukes Highway. They see some horrific scenes of carnage when severe accidents happen. I know for a fact that some members have had to take a year off just to rest their mind and get away from the terrible devastation they witness on our roads.

Key elements of our response include $5 million for automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology, which has been successfully trialled this summer; $7.2 million for new CFS appliances, including 25 new trucks for the 2020-21 bushfire season; and $2.7 million to retrofit 49 CFS vehicles with burnover protection. Burnover protection is absolutely vital in fighting fires and it is part of our training every year. Before you get on a truck you need to do your burnover drill so that you can survive a burnover; they can happen at any time. The trucks are fitted with Halo sprinkler systems, blinds on the inside and oxygen tanks and masks to keep you going in the event of a burnover, which would be one of the most horrifying things that firefighters can face.

There is also a rollout of thermal imaging cameras to all 55 CFS groups and $11.5 million for new Metropolitan Fire Service heavy appliances. There is $4.7 million for nine additional regional full-time equivalents, including the first permanent CFS staffing presence on Kangaroo Island. There is also $4 million to upgrade state incident management facilities and continue Project Renew, which is the upgrading of CFS stations so that CFS volunteers have modern and functional facilities. I note that Tailem Bend is up and going; it is a new facility in my electorate.

There is also $2.1 million allocated for four extra FTEs to provide more support to the State Bushfire Coordination Committee and funding for an additional counsellor to support the mental health and wellbeing of volunteers. Vitally important in regard to our preparedness for fighting fires is $37 million for increased hazard reduction, including prescribed burns on public and private land. We have had both a federal review and a state review into firefighting in this state, and there have been some excellent recommendations in terms of moving forward.

I would like to acknowledge Moore Engineering and their work in my electorate. They are based in Murray Bridge and have about 25 employees. Whether it is CFS or MFS trucks or forest firefighting trucks, they either build or repair the trucks, and obviously there has been a lot of repair work having to be done with the amount of fire work that has happened in recent times—

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

Mr PEDERICK: Or modify, absolutely; modify trucks—and some trucks come in heavily modified, and they have to be modified back to something resembling a firefighting unit when their mirrors have all melted and other carnage has happened to them.

I commend this legislation. It is definitely a step in the right direction. Let's see it roll out and let's hope we have no fires next fire season.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (16:26): I rise to speak in support of the Fire and Emergency Services (Governance) Amendment Bill 2020. As members have outlined, this is a recommendation that came from the independent review into the 2019-20 South Australian bushfire season, known as the Keelty review. It was designed to identify how South Australia could better respond to bushfires, and came in the wake of some absolute shockers during that summer.

I am pleased to say that this last summer, whilst we have had a very distressing time for people up in Cherry Gardens and many, many fires, they have had a much less critical impact on those affected. We have now got through February which, certainly in my lifetime, has usually been the worst month for risk, damage and destruction by bushfires. As we now clean up and prepare for the inevitable autumn burns and the like, in our regional areas particularly, we need to have in place, as best we can, the recommendations from the Keelty review.

This bill specifically addresses the alignment of the SAFECOM board operations with accepted governance standards. When the Fire and Emergency Services Act was debated back in the early 2000s, new structures were developed and there was an allowance for the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services to appoint an independent chair to the SAFECOM board.

That was an amendment recommended; from the establishment under the act the chief executive of SAFECOM is the presiding member, and it was the clear recommendation of Mr Keelty that this should change. I cannot quite understand why it was ever allowed that a chief executive would be chair of the board, but I understand that the structure of SAFECOM, when it was established, was designed to have an overarching area of responsibility. It is fair to say that the histories of our Metropolitan Fire Service, our Country Fire Service and our State Emergency Service are quite interesting.

Today is not the time to go into that, but they have developed different areas of speciality and have come from very uncommon backgrounds. The population of those who work either in a paid or volunteer position in those agencies is also very different, but what is important is that there be a level of independence for the chair of that body, and I wholeheartedly commend the minister for recommending the government's acceptance of this, and indeed we are here as a result of that.

There are a lot of other things that need to be done, and Mr Keelty obviously outlined 68 findings and 15 recommendations, and as a government we are working through them. I am very pleased that our government has responded with a near $100 million on the table to directly benefit the emergency services staff and the volunteer and, as a consequence, provide the resources to help support other people's lives and their property, pets, stock and the like. I am very proud to be part of a government that has made that commitment and that is now rolling it out.

There is also support for CFS volunteers by employing nine additional regional staff. That has been certainly greatly received on Kangaroo Island from where I come. There has been an additional professionally qualified counsellor to assist with mental health support. There is $7.2 million for new CFS appliances, including 25 new trucks for the 2021 bushfire season, $2.7 million to retrofit 49 CFS vehicles with burnover protection and $37 million for increased hazard reduction, including prescribed burns on public and private land.

These are all important initiatives. They will all assist, I am sure, and I am immensely pleased that, in addition to these matters, there has also been an extraordinary amount of effort post the fires, in the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island in particular, not only to address the upskilling and upgrading of those who are living in regional areas and how they themselves can best protect their property, loved ones and their families, but also to have the equipment on their own properties—to have mobile units, for example—to provide those protections.

It has been a very difficult time for the people on Kangaroo Island, no question. There was a massive loss of 211,000 hectares. I am still involved in family property that has a lot of fencing to go. We had a representative from BlazeAid here today, who I think was a guest of the member for MacKillop. She just demonstrated to me an enormous army of volunteers who came from all over Australia, lived on Kangaroo Island for nine months some of them and just worked every day. It was unbelievable, and I have to say that there is enormous appreciation over there.

There is still the legacy of losing two lives in this fire, and I think in the many times we have had big bushfires over there that has been a tragic circumstance. The last large one we had, over 10 years ago now, saw the loss of a young man's life in a jack-knifed semitrailer. Reading the coronial reports on these is just really very, very difficult.

However, the local community is responding. There is recovery for not only themselves but also the natural environment, and the stock numbers are back up. Fortunately, prices are reasonable and it was a really great season last winter, so there is an opportunity to come together for that. As a government we have put in about $79 million, or more than that, in funding across the state.

The Parndana Recovery Centre will close later this month when the local recovery coordinator finishes up. That has been Mr Rob Manton, who has put in a stellar performance in keeping the services available and able to provide support to the community as they were healing through this. In addition, $33 million has been committed to Kangaroo Island for a desalination plant at Penneshaw, which will be fantastic in its rollout not just for the employment of those 500-odd jobs with such a huge project over the next 15 years but also, of course, direct benefits to the communities in American River, Baudin Beach, Island Beach and Sapphiretown townships and, of course, all the places in between where they will have the benefit from reticulated services.

I want to recognise the $2.62 million that has gone into the Bushfire Mental Health and Resilience Package, co-designed community mental health, wellbeing and resilience programs for bushfire-affected communities. There has been a high demand for mental health services, and I am really pleased that that has occurred.

Just over a week ago, I went with the Premier to Kangaroo Island to announce a very significant package of support for local economic recovery projects. These included the establishment of a small-scale fibre mill for $900,000. It was designated 'From fleece to woollen garment'. It will be able to process raw fibre, mostly wool, to quality yarn and some finished garments. It is a great initiative. The industry rebuilding and resilience project is to strengthen the industry associations plus the Kangaroo Island brand initiatives that have been there. It is an approximately half a million dollar project, with some co-contribution of nearly $200,000 and just over $300,000 from the government.

There is workers accommodation at the Western KI Caravan Park. Obviously, when we have to rebuild sheds, support buildings, houses, you name it—all the rebuilding on properties where over 100 or so had lost homes—we need to locate people in the region to be able to do that work, so this is a great initiative. There is a co-contribution total of nearly $2 million. The agriculture and land management package is to be a partnership between PIRSA, a number of other local agencies on the island and some other state instrumentalities. That is a nearly $11 million package to be able to provide that support.

There is an SA apiary industry project of $680,000, which is to help some of the short-term needs in relation to those who are in love with bees and produce honey for our state and across the country and also to support the massive industry that requires bees for cross-fertilisation in our horticulture industries. There are some rebuilding initiatives of close to another $6 million to deal with grapevines, cherry orchards, olive groves and the like, some of which are on Kangaroo Island. Large numbers are in the Adelaide Hills.

For Kangaroo Island open access telecommunication $2.6 million is being put in to increase the internet coverage and capacity on Kangaroo Island. I can tell you that it is loved, that project. There is Parndana workers accommodation to put up to 20 occupants in an existing caravan park footprint at Parndana, which will give $800,000 of relief.

I think the star stand-out is the close to $2 million that is going towards building the Parndana Early Childhood Education and Care Centre. It will be a childcare centre in the middle of the island to provide for the families in need of this service, and I cannot tell you what a joy it is to be able to speak to young families who have been waiting for this service. When the big fire went through in 2019-20 on Kangaroo Island, there was a need for emergency care. Children were dislocated. They could not get back to school and were living off bus routes.

The school assisted the community in setting up a temporary facility. It was soon found that there were about 40 children just in that western district who could access this service if it were there on a regular basis, and their parents, who are working on properties and in the towns, could then facilitate some work either at home or in other services and could provide for just such an enormous community benefit. As I have often said, it is very difficult for families to live in remoter parts of the state if they do not have basic services to go with it.

It is terribly important that health and education services are obvious. People in the country have always had to learn to live with not having tertiary or very specialised services. On Kangaroo Island, I cannot remember our ever having any languages available, for example. Over the years they have become available by Open Access education.

In a modern circumstance, where families want to have a new chance in a regional community, be productive, provide for the benefit of the community and have a family, they need to have basic services, and child care is something that really makes a huge difference to those communities. This will make a service available for some 25 children, from six months of age up to school age. As most of the members here from country regions will appreciate, you often do not have primary schools and high schools, but you might have R-12 schools that are area schools.

To have this service co-located with the school is another huge advantage. I want to personally thank the Minister for Education for working hard with his department to facilitate this. This is a school—the Parndana Area School is what it was known as when I was there for 11 years—that catered for close to 500 students and it now has fewer than 200, so there is plenty of room to provide this service where parents can drop off their children to go to school or perhaps for a half day or full day of child care.

It is so important to be able to listen to the community, to find out what they want and what suits them and to appreciate that distance is a challenge in the country. You cannot simply make it acceptable by saying, 'We will just add another facility over here,' because you make people have to drive a further distance if you do not have a co-location that can provide for a shared use of facilities. Country people generally, in my experience, are very practical, and they understand the benefit of being able to have access to facilities that are multi-use.

I think it is a great credit to those in the community who have worked hard to bring this about. Stephanie Wurst, for example, is someone who has been very active in this area. I also think of young Ella Riggs. These are young women who are pioneering in motherhood and in the provision of service to their community, and I really do applaud them for the contribution that they have made. I am proud to be part of a government that has listened to those communities, understood the benefit of what they can have and ensured that we are not imposing things on them but asking them what they need, and we are now providing it.

I also want to acknowledge the work of the Burnside CFS, which has some 40 volunteers. It operates from Glen Street in Burnside and is one of the very few Adelaide-based CFSs. It has been operating since 1934 and has a rural and urban fire response and a hazmat and a road crash rescue, because obviously we do a lot of work from that area to support the freeway, in terms of not just fire hazards but also motor vehicle accidents and the like. They have been extremely active in helping with other fires. I know most CFSs do step up to the mark when it is required for them to support this activity, and I would like to acknowledge those who are working in this area. The brigade is currently chaired by the Burnside CFS Captain, Mr Grant Davis. I thank all the volunteers who work there.

I want to say a special thank you to the Greenhill CFS, which is in a little settlement up on Yarrabee Road. Michael Blanksby is the head of that unit. It is really tiny and represents an area of probably the most fierce fires coming up from both sides of the hill. It is a little settlement along the top of probably about 100 dwellings. John and Trish Good have a water reserve there that they pump up. They get themselves ready—they have their own fire truck and they really are fantastic. In their way, they keep their people safe from what is a ferocious circumstance. In historical times, they have had fires up both sides of that cliff area that they sit on. They have been badly scorched, but they have worked hard to make sure that they get through that.

I thank all the volunteers, with a special thanks to all of the members here who are active in the area of the protection of our communities during fires and bushfires. Some have MFS connections. Some of course, such as the member for Hammond, who we have just heard from, are CFS volunteers. I have seen him in all sorts of situations. He usually has a very dirty face and dusty clothes. In different ways, that contribution has been made and we really do appreciate that.

I think it is important for the general community to know that members of our parliament, whether they are on our staff, whether they are working for us, whether they are here in the parliament or are elected members, are able to make that contribution. For those of you who have not, please get ready for next year's bushfire. Clean up all your rubbish and make sure that you have your fire equipment ready.

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (16:45): Today, I rise in support of the Fire and Emergency Services (Governance) Amendment Bill 2020. The work of our emergency services has never had such a high profile, with the fires in our state and across the nation in 2019, 2020 and now January 2021 still front of mind.

In the MacKillop electorate, we remain grateful to the CFS and volunteers who fought our local fires bravely during some of our largest fires during this period. I reflect on the latest fire in our region of MacKillop at Blackford on Monday 11 January this year when a dormant fire that was maybe lit weeks, if not months, prior was still smouldering underground and reignited. It was very interesting to note that that fire was investigated and there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding that fire and the way it was still going or found it could have been going.

Another interesting impact was that when I was in the region only recently, at least a month after the fire and after 40 or 50 millimetres of rainfall in our region, which has really greened up that burnt section now so you can barely see the charred scar left by this fire, hotspots were still being found from the fire burning underground in native vegetation that needed to be put out. This is four to six weeks later and after nearly two inches of rain, so it is very interesting that that is still occurring. Probably one of those things we are going to be very much aware of in the future in any burning or burnoffs in what we consider our cold, wet months of the year is to make sure that there are no impacts of those smouldering remnants of fire that can come back to haunt us on days like Monday 11 January.

Impacted by this Blackford fire was a lot of primary production. Obviously, it is a grazing area, with livestock production and mainly pastures. A little bit of cropping country was affected and also some forestry included. When we talk about grazing country and obviously livestock, it is interesting to note that this fire was nearly 14,000 hectares compared with the fire the year before at Keilira at 25,000 hectares, but the number of animals lost in the Blackford fire was greater than that of Keilira's. Why? I think the paddocks, for one, were smaller. I think the properties were also a lot smaller. From memory, I think the Keilira fire affected nearly 20 landowners. The Avenue, Blackford and Lucindale fire affected nearly 70 landowners. I repeat: it was a smaller fire.

Total direct agricultural production losses to industry as a result of the Blackford fire to date are estimated at $3.1 million. In those sorts of losses, we are talking about fencing, outbuildings and sheds, the old Avenue Store, machinery and farm equipment. What is also interesting is that 70 primary production businesses were impacted and nearly 7,000 sheep in the Blackford fire, with an estimated value of $1.25 million.

I believe that 532 cattle had to be euthanased on the spot, but that does not count the cattle that had and could be sold into the market and went straight to abattoirs before they suffered any more ill effects. This can be anything from a lot of intake of ash and smoke, which can damage their lungs, to having their udders slightly singed, which means the teats are sealed up and they are never to rear a calf again and cannot allow a calf to suckle. Those cows were damaged, and I believe those numbers nearly doubled those that were lost, so if you double the 532, over 1,000 head of cattle were affected.

Fourteen hectares of pine forests valued at a bit over $300,000 and 1,700 tonnes of hay were also affected. I remember that on the Avenue Plains there is a bit of cropping taking place. A lot of the stubbles were baled up into straw for fodder purposes. All those smouldering mounds burnt for two or three days and were a constant glow on the night horizon as they burnt away for a good three days until they were put out or burnt out. Some 330 kilometres of fencing was destroyed and replacing that is now in play. That is just the Blackford fire.

Coming back to the Keilira fire, the Keilira fire started on 30 December 2020—very much a different year in 2020. The spring was not as good. We certainly had a hot, dry November in 2020. When lightning did strike there was not a lot of moisture around, and pastures were very dry and dead. There probably was not as much fuel as with the Avenue fire, but that did not mean that the fire was any less difficult to manage. I just think the year we have just been through has been greater for a bigger fire, and probably the Avenue fire might have been harder.

I can remember some intel talked about the way some fences were lost in some of the heat that was coming off the fire, and how high the Blackford fire was. The flames were running and twirling up nearly six to 12 feet. That is all to do with fuel loads. I know it possibly occurred at the Keilira fire but not as much as the Avenue fire.

The Keilira fire covered 25,000 hectares and one house was lost in the fire. We did lose a house in the Avenue fire. That was a really unfortunate story: CFS utilities saved the house, stopped the fire from burning down through to the front but, because no-one was home to put out the embers, embers got into the house after it had been saved and then burnt it down later. The house was actually lost at the front of the Keilira fire, and it was abandoned early by the owners because they thought they could not defend it.

Even in the one year from the Keilira fire to the Lucindale fire, efforts were huge and still great around the Keilira fire. I think that the management and the saving of the houses on the Lucindale fire was even better. Two things played a part in that: maybe there was a little bit more time to get ourselves organised with the Lucindale fire, which had a really interesting aspect to it.

The Jackie White drain actually restricted the fire in its path by at least half of what it could have been. If you think about a 14,000 hectare fire, it could have been a 28,000 to 30,000 hectare fire had it not been for the Jackie White drain. That enabled us to look after resources in a better time frame. I know that all houses were saved other than the one that was lost after the fire front had gone through.

One house that was saved in a huge effort was surrounded by a lot of trees. It had its own watering system on one side. I know that if it was not for the resources of the firefighting planes and the CFS units we would have lost a lot more homes were it not for those resources. The real problem for the victims and the people who suffered the Keilira fire was that we had two other major fires in the state on the same day.

We had the major fire on Kangaroo Island and we had the major fire up in the Adelaide Hills, so resources were stretched. I remember that with the Keilira fire they lost their planes at about 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning. We did not have that problem at Lucindale. They did over 100 water drops on the Lucindale fire, and that included saving those houses with aerial bombings. No doubt that would have played an integral role of having a better outcome at Lucindale this year than the one we had at Keilira.

This gives me an opportunity to then speak on both fires in regard to the BlazeAid volunteers. I know the BlazeAid volunteers were well taken up at Keilira a year ago; they had a large crowd there. There were a lot of BlazeAid volunteers in general right around the nation with all the fires that took place. Mary Howarth, who was here in this parliament today as a guest, looked after the camp in Kingston. I think there were at least 20 to 30 volunteers there most of the time after the fire for possibly six months after the Keilira fire last year. I know she has a good crew in there this year at Lucindale, but it is not as big or as strong.

The difficulty of getting around Australia at the moment with the COVID lockdowns is making people wary about going out and travelling interstate. Secondly, there has not been a massive catastrophe of fires as there was last year around Australia, particularly in the eastern states as well as in South Australia and Victoria; it just does not seem to be on the radar as much.

The point I want to make is that the BlazeAid volunteers have absolutely done a wonderful job. Last year, without doubt, a lot of landowners in the Keilira fire were wary of what they would get and how the help would work for them. By the time the BlazeAid volunteers had left, they were well appreciated. They had carried more than their weight, they were well respected, and I know that the Keilira farmers and landowners were very sorry to see them go.

One of the things I did point out to the Keilira landowners was that the Keilira fire was considered the forgotten fire. I continually said to the Keilira landowners that what matters most of all is that you get back on your feet as fast as you can. You get your fences back up, you get your pastures back up and going, and you put your livestock back in your paddocks and you get back to normality as fast as you can. I think they have done that. I think that Keilira has recovered faster than both Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills, and that is what is most important. I know that the BlazeAid volunteers played an integral part in that.

It is happening in Lucindale right now. They have a BlazeAid headquarters at Yakka Park, which is known as the Lucindale Field Days site. I know that the volunteers are a massive help to the landowners in the region. I had the privilege of spending one day at an Avenue farm with four or five BlazeAid volunteers. It was great working with them. They bring great morale to the work area and to the farmer they are trying to help.

One of the rules that BlazeAid has is that the farmer is the boss, it is his way or the highway, and we follow his instructions and then we try to make it enjoyable so that everyone is trying to work with him and for him. We are trying to get his job done as easily and as fast as we can so that he can get back on his feet and get back to business. That has played a really important role in mental wellness, looking out for people in the sense that it is not all a defeatist-type attitude. Again, I say this to the Lucindale fire victims, the number one medicine for this is to be back operational as fast as we can.

I note that, with the Keilira fire, the fencing damage was less than in the Avenue fire because the Avenue fire involved a lot of smaller farms and smaller paddocks. I think it was about 400 kilometres of fencing. Just to give a little bit of insight into that, it is hard rocky ground with a layer of limestone to get through. Most post holes have to have a percussion drilling rig. For those who do not know what that is, the old drilling mechanism of a post-hole borer drill is too slow for the hard rock, so they use a massive air compressor commonly used in machines which drill for water.

Basically, it has a blunt end and it wields its way with vibration and air through the limestone, which is effective. I heard a statistic that one of these drilling machines was doing about 700 metres a day because the going was quite slow. If you had a rock-boring machine with a drill, you would probably do only about 100 metres, so it is probably seven times faster than the old way of doing it. They used to blast a lot of holes in that area as well with gelignite back in the old days because it was so hard.

With all the fencing contractors down there, only putting in fence posts and drilling holes, it means that BlazeAid comes along with the landowners and helps run wires, if the landowner wishes, or at least comes and ties the poly battens on. It is a menial task, it is an easy task, it is an onerous task, but it is an important task to finish off the fencing to get these farms back to having livestock in them.

Following the devastation of the 2019-20 South Australian bushfires, the state government commissioned an independent review to identify how South Australia's response to bushfires can be improved. I appreciate the fact that we do have the tenacity to go out there and question how things have worked, how we have responded. There were 68 findings with 15 recommendations of how facilities and capabilities could be improved.

Just on that, I want to talk about two issues from the Lucindale fires. I heard there were five burnovers where the fire had gone over a CFS unit. All occupants in the CFS unit were safe and well for it, so this is the sort of technology that our CFS volunteers appreciate and need. It is a wonderful thing to see. The other thing I note is about the CFS volunteer units. We have spent a large amount of money, which I will come to in a minute, on replacing our old units which means the old units can go into the public auction system.

I give the example of an old CFS unit on the fireground at Lucindale that protected another house our CFS units could not cover. A landowner had his own ex-CFS unit that was part of our emergency services. It was bought up and was there as firefighting capability for a farmer protecting a house. He was only about five kilometres away. He could not even go to defend his own farm, but it did not matter much, because it only touched the boundary basically, and the locals recognised by how lucky they were that a larger landowner purchased one of these old units.

It is my understanding that the government has a replacement policy of 20 years or around that 20-year period, and I think it is great that these old fire units do see the auction system. It allows farmers to come along and pick them up and then they can be used in preventing further damage by fire and protecting houses when we do not have enough units on the ground.

The independent review also recommended that the state government consider amending the Fire and Emergency Services Act to enable the Minister for Police and Emergency Services to appoint an independent chair to the SAFECOM board. This was recommended to align with SAFECOM board operations and statutory governance standards. In its response to the independent review, the state government accepted the recommendation, which I think is great for ensuring that we have good leaders of volunteers in this area, that they have ownership of the volunteer organisation and that they feel they can work with a volunteer organisation.

One thing that came up is $5 million for automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology. That is going to be wonderful for trying to get all the trucks and units into the right spaces and where we want them. One thing I noted about the fires at both Keilira and Avenue was that we had intel in the air: we had helicopters and aeroplanes and a CFS helicopter that could guide our units to where they were most needed. That was also a massive help.

Two things that provided a better outcome for Lucindale were that, firstly, we had more units on board at Lucindale because there were no other fires around and, secondly, we had intel in the air telling units where to go and be at the right places to protect assets. It was a really good fit.

In picking up on this, one of the opportunities in the future—and I have said this already, and it is really obvious to the wise old farmers like my father, who is now 70 plus and I took to the Blackford fire—is that when the fire front was coming across the Avenue Flats there was not a fire unit to be seen. He said, 'Where are all the CFS units?' I said, 'They will be into asset protection. They will be protecting the homesteads. They will be protecting the yards, the houses and the sheds.'

One of the reasons for that is that, when it is coming across some of the higher fuel loads, it is running with speed, it is running with heat and there is not much these units can do. I think there is an opportunity there to look at larger firefighting machines—for example, those that Forestry has. Forestry has four-wheel drive machines that go anywhere and carry a lot of water with water cannons. I am sure if we had a couple of these types of devices out on the fire front they could be backed up by the CFS units and by the farm firefighting units as well, the volunteers—one, two, three in that order—and I am sure that we could have even better outcomes in the future.

I think this is a development in process in this regard—that is, we now have fire trucks that are more burnover proof and more protective of our volunteers than ever and have better firefighting capability. I think we now need to say, 'Right, they are great for asset protection and they are protecting the houses. Now how do we stop the fire in any circumstances in most types of fuel loads?'

This does not mean, though, that we should be sending them out into native forests—or any type of forest, be it native or pine or blue gum—but into grassland-type areas where there still could be high fuel loads, picking your places, picking the paddocks, picking the areas where the fuel load might be less than in other paddocks, I think there is an opportunity to see some firefighting technology in these areas that is not there not today. There was not any there earlier on in the fire at that stage, and this would have been at least one or two hours after this fire had started.

Some of the key elements of our response include $7.2 million for new appliances—that is 25 new trucks, and I know that our volunteers really appreciate their infrastructure being modernised and that they are considered and looked after—and $2.7 million to refit 49 CFS vehicles for burnover protection. Any CFS truck that does not have burnover protection poses a risk to our volunteers, and I am sure they will appreciate knowing that they are in the best technology out there.

Rollout thermal imaging cameras can determine the ferocity of a fire, the heat of the fire. For example, should a firefighting unit be in front of that or should it not—I think that is great intelligence. Bringing into that is something I have raised with the chief of the CFS, Dom Lane. They are talking about satellite imagery coming into this as well to help out. This can also come back and talk about fuel loads, where we are burning, where we can fight a fire, help out and start fighting a fire on the fire front.

In summing up, I think our government is paying its dues in all that is required in the CFS emergency area. It does very much value our CFS volunteers. I commend the changes to the Fire and Emergency Services (Governance) Amendment Bill to this house.

Mr DULUK (Waite) (17:05): I will be quite brief in my remarks. I just put on the record that I will be supporting the Fire and Emergency Services (Governance) Amendment Bill 2020. I note that some of the changes in this bill come from the many recommendations made in the Keelty review prepared in the wake of last year's devastating bushfires, commonly known as the Cudlee Creek fires. The member for MacKillop has been discussing at length some of the issues across his electorate. I know, sir, that through your electorate and my electorate these are significant issues that play on the mind of our communities.

One of the important recommendations in the Keelty review was the need for reporting to parliament and tabling reports. I think it is really important that parliament also has the opportunity to review, to scrutinise and to be involved in bushfire management and prevention. One of the really big aspects from of the Keelty review was what are we are doing to prevent and reduce bushfire risk. We all know that when a fire strikes the service of volunteers, especially our CFS and SES, obviously well supported by the MFS, in the battle to beat a fire goes above and beyond, and they do that all the time.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about appropriate resourcing for our CFS volunteers. It is good to see the government is moving in that direction, with investments in automatic vehicle location devices. That is something I talked about and I asked the minister questions about it. It is good to see it slowly starting to roll out across South Australia. Another issue is ensuring that our volunteers have the best equipment. Rollover protection for their vehicles is so important.

A lot of the Keelty review talks about prevention before bushfires start and how we deal with fuel load management. I am heartened that, in the lead-up to this year's bushfire season, there has been an increase in burning and fuel load reduction strategies in my community and across the Adelaide Hills. It is so important around reporting mechanisms and the ability for parliament to have a role. This is an issue that my predecessors have discussed in committees.

A former committee looked into bushfire preparedness. It was chaired by the former member for Ashford, the Hon. Steph Key, and the former member for Enfield, the Hon. John Rau. These are issues that the parliament has ventilated for over a decade now. I would like to commend the government for bringing forward some of the measures. I think they will go some way to ensuring that there is responsibility. Information flow is so important, as is people having a say.

One of the big issues from the Cherry Gardens bushfires last month is how the community prepare themselves and deal with the information before them. There have always been teething issues with CFS bushfire apps. We know the former government experienced a huge number of issues with this and, I think, dropped the ball in this regard. During the Cudlee Creek fire, a lot of South Australians were left vulnerable because the CFS app was not working. It was a poor rollout by the former government.

We have seen improvements in the last year or two in the use of those apps. Holistic long-term thinking on how we prepare our communities, especially our peri-urban communities that are built up, right from the member for Light's electorate across the peri-urban landscape and all the way to mine, is how we move thousands of residents if they need to evacuate their homes. Where do they go?

Bushfire refuges, engagement with the CFS, knowing what to do—with some of these changes, if the government is to roll out all of Keelty I think we will be going a long way to ensuring that our communities are safer each and every bushfire season.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (17:10): I indicate that the opposition will be supporting this bill, so I will be supporting the bill as well. I would like to make a few comments to indicate that this bill is worthy of our support.

Emergency services play an important role in the health and wellbeing of our communities, and it is appropriate that we have a legislative framework that supports all the people who work or volunteer in the sector to ensure they are able to do the best they can with the resources they have. This bill certainly does that.

In my own area, I have the Dalkeith CFS as well as the Gawler MFS located physically within my electorate, and they play a very important role in keeping my local community safe. The Dalkeith CFS, I have been told on a number of occasions, is probably the busiest CFS brigade in the state, and they do a really good job in keeping the community safe. They are only a kilometre from my house, so they have a very important role to make sure they do keep the community safe.

Having said that, though, there are a few boundary issues that the local CFS would like the government to resolve pretty quickly. They are an unnecessary distraction from the work they do. I know the volunteers are prepared to negotiate and come to a good arrangement, but that seems to be lost somewhere in the system. Perhaps the minister might make some inquiries to see if that could be sped up and put in place before our next bushfire season.

They are a highly committed bunch of volunteers at the Dalkeith CFS, well led by the current captain, Michael Mutch, and previously by their former captain Clint Marsh. If my memory serves me right, Justin Baxter was the previous captain. I have been very lucky to be able to work with these three gentlemen and all the volunteers at the brigade there.

In addition to the Dalkeith CFS, I also work closely with the Concordia CFS, which is just outside the other side of my boundary but which was previously in my electorate. They also do a really great job to support the rural areas around Gawler. Close by we also have the Roseworthy CFS, the Gawler River CFS, Shea-Oak Log CFS, Freeling CFS, and Wasleys CFS—which I was very fortunate to be the local MP for when I was first elected, but boundary changes put them in different electorates. It was Schubert and, after the next election, most of those will be in Frome.

As I said, we are well served by the Gawler MFS as well. One thing that the Gawler MFS members and the union have indicated to me is that they are looking forward to getting some burnover equipment retrofitted to their vehicles. They have indicated that is one of the things the union is really pushing for at the moment, to make sure their members are safe when they go into high-risk fire areas.

As has been mentioned, the MFS, CFS and SES work closely together. Whether it is an urban or rural setting, all the services out there are for the common good of the people, and that is why I support the MFS push to have burnover equipment for their vehicles as well.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Yes, I am hoping the minister might take that on board and make sure that the Gawler CFS brigade get their burnover equipment.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: You have made a note? Excellent, minister. I come now to the SES, the other important service in the minister's portfolio. They do not have a unit in Gawler yet—and I say 'yet', because there are a number of volunteers who have been agitating for a unit in Gawler to expand the coverage. At the moment Gawler is technically served by the Salisbury SES.

The volunteers do a really great job there and they are supported further by the Kapunda SES, which is the other one. As you can tell, they are quite a distance away. Gawler is a growing community, and I think it is right that Gawler has its own SES unit, and that is why I am proud to say that my party, if it wins government, has committed to building an SES unit in Gawler, which would boost not only the volunteers but also the response rates to various incidents. Given climate change, variability and now a number of crises, I think the more volunteers we have and the more services we have, the better it is for our community.

The Dalkeith CFS is also doing some fundraising at the moment to purchase a new thermal imagining camera—one that looks at structures. They are busy raising funds, and I am very keen to support them. Even though they are a country fire service, they still attend structural fires, and we need to give those volunteers the intelligence and the information they need to make sure that they can tackle the fire not only quickly but also safely for their members.

One of the things that has also been mentioned, and I think I would be remiss if I did not mention it because the previous government did support them, are the fire farm units, which are, if you like, our first responders in a lot of rural areas where the CFS may be some distance away, or sadly in some cases where there is not a CFS the farm fire unit plays a very important role.

It was very sad when in his first budget the previous minister—not the current minister but the previous minister—discontinued the program to financially support farm fire units. I think our party has a policy to support them. They play an important role. As I said, not only are they the first responders, but often they can get to a fire very quickly. Not only can they put the fire out before it becomes a major issue but also they are there to support the volunteers in the CFS.

When you hear reports about major fires, one of the things you always hear about is the enormous support provided by farm fire units on these occasions. I think it is important that we support those units and make sure that they also have the support of the volunteers and the CFS brigades. With those comments, I support the bill.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT