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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-08 Daily Xml
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River Murray Flood

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (15:09): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. Can the minister please inform the house about the emergency services response to the Murray River flood?

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS (Cheltenham—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (15:09): Thank you to the member for Elder for her question. The public emergency services' response to this flood, right from the outset, has not only been extraordinary but sustained and ongoing. Those members in this house who represent river communities would be more aware than anybody about the ongoing threat that natural disasters pose to their community and also the significant body of work that our emergency services and our entire public sector and council sector have been undertaking in response to these enormous water flows.

Today I am advised that the water flow across the border is just over 51 gigalitres a day. That is a huge reduction from the topping out at just over 190 gigalitres a day in very late 2022. With the fact that flows have reduced so much and the tempo of the operations has reduced for our emergency services, it is important as we return to parliament this year to take a moment and on behalf of the government and on behalf of all those in this place to be thankful for the work that our emergency services have been undertaking through this period.

Many here—well, some here and some a little bit more than others—had a break over Christmas. Most people in South Australia certainly had their public holidays off, but not our emergency services, not those contractors who have been engaged by council and not our public sector workforce who have given so much of themselves through this period.

I attended the State Control Centre on Christmas Day and thanked firsthand the couple of dozen people from right across multiple agencies who were there working hard to protect the community. This has been an emergency not just but importantly controlled and led by the SES and the rest of our sector have been doing an extraordinary job in stepping up and giving of themselves. The CFS of course, largely in our river and Murraylands regions, have been responding. They have been doing a huge amount of work side by side with their SES colleagues—workers from right across the public sector.

I will take this time to say that there is often an attempt from opponents of a well-resourced, well-equipped public sector to cut public sector workforces and malign those workers in our public sector. Well, let me just say and put firmly on the record my thanks for that public sector workforce who have stepped up and stood up throughout this entire crisis.

I also want to take a moment to note and acknowledge and thank those members in this place, particularly the member for Chaffey, the member for Hammond, the member for MacKillop and the member for Finniss, for the advocacy and representation they have been providing to their constituencies in impacted communities. Their advice has been fulsome, their support for their communities has been admirable and I do want to thank them for the work they have been undertaking. On behalf of everybody in this place, I thank those people who have been giving so much of themselves in support of and in service to our river communities.

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