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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-17 Daily Xml
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State Emergency Service

Mrs PEARCE (King) (15:08): I rise to speak about our amazing emergency service volunteers. Whether it be in response to mini tornados, hailstorms or heavy rain, I can always count on the SES to be there doing their very best to keep my community safe and protected.

What is most special about our SES is that they are volunteers who give up their time, often during terrible weather events, doing their very best to keep everyone safe. My community in the north and the north-east know very well the incredibly valuable role that our emergency support volunteers play in our community. Over the last few years especially, as wild weather events are on the rise, they have been there in our time of need.

I have spoken previously in this place about the amazing work they did during one of the storms in recent years, taking over 750 calls for assistance of the 1,200 received in a 48-hour period. Then there was the weather event nearly a year ago today, when our emergency volunteers were back out there in the community, volunteering through another severe weather event where we faced extreme winds, heavy rains and flooding in some spots of our community as well. I understand that in total they responded to more than 400 incidents across our state at the time.

It was only earlier this year, in March, that they were again out there when those severe winds came back, knocking out power to over 51,000 properties, which had the SES responding to over 400 incidents of trees knocked down or weather damage-related call-outs. These volunteers are absolutely incredible. With around 1,750 volunteers across their 69 units here in South Australia, the SES are an amazing volunteer organisation that truly do it all—no matter the time of day, no matter where it is they may be needed, they are always there to answer our calls for help when we most need them.

It's not just about responding to those calls during severe weather events either. The SES play an important role in supporting our police with land search operations, and they even lend a hand when it comes to traffic management. When we have major bushfires, you can be sure that you will find the SES around, supporting the amazing work of our CFS. Their efforts deserve all the thanks and recognition they can get.

It was such a great pleasure to visit the Tea Tree Gully SES station last week, along with the member for Newland and the member for Wright, to check in and hear firsthand how everything is going. It was great to be shown their brand-new vehicle and given a run-through of its set-up to better understand how it will be able to assist our community. It is quite a bit bigger than the other vehicles at the station, and I am confident it will be a value-add to the tasks managed by these incredible volunteers.

We also discussed other investments that we are making to support these incredible first responders, such as the introduction of advanced emergency service vehicle locators. These locators provide real-time vehicle location data to enhance the safety of firefighters and emergency services personnel in the event of burnovers and other life-threatening emergencies.

It was a $12 million investment, and it will go a long way to improve the response and coordination of emergency resources and, most importantly, enhance the protection and safety of our first responders. In total, this software will be installed in 1,400 vehicles within the South Australian Country Fire Service, State Emergency Service, Volunteer Marine Rescue, Metropolitan Fire Service and ForestrySA.

I am glad that we are not the only people to recognise and thank our emergency services staff and volunteers. I may be a little biased when I say this, but I am so pleased that the pride of South Australia, the mighty Adelaide Crows, have joined us to dedicate an AFL match to recognise and thank these incredible people for their daily sacrifices and commitment. What a way to promote the exceptional and positive impact their services play in our community! I thank the Minister for Emergency Services and the Adelaide Crows for this very important initiative.

I strongly encourage all my community's incredible volunteers at both the Salisbury and the Tea Tree Gully stations to get in quickly and apply for the independent ticket ballot, of which 3,000 tickets will be provided to personnel from SA Police, Metropolitan Fire Service, Country Fire Service, State Emergency Service and South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission.

Once again, to the many amazing SES volunteers across our state I would like to extend my deepest thanks for the work that you do.

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