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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-10-16 Daily Xml
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COUNTRY FIRE SERVICE

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:54): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Emergency Services a question related to the CFS.

Leave granted

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The Productivity Commission on government services shows that the number of volunteer fire fighters in South Australia has fallen 40 per cent under this government from 17,000 to less than 11,000. In July the Chief Officer of the CFS warned that we needed to find another 2,000 volunteers in the next three years. On Friday last the Chief Officer said that the drought had further depleted the number of CFS volunteers in drought affected areas. He said:

Many farming families are reaching the end of their financial resources and are being forced into making some hard decisions.

He went on to say that farming families are being drawn away into mining ventures. Mr Ferguson said that the loss of population is likely to increase over the next six months—that is, during the highest risk bushfire period of the year. I am advised that the on/off nature of mining rosters means that the number of CFS volunteers on the books of CFS brigades overstates the number of volunteers actually available to respond to calls, as half those involved in mining are likely to be out of the region at any one time. My questions to the minister are:

1. What steps has the government taken to ensure that we know what resources are actually available to fight fires in country South Australia?

2. What contingency plans does the government have in place to ensure that South Australia's drought-affected areas will have an adequate local fire response in the upcoming bushfire season?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:55): I thank the honourable member for his questions in relation to, essentially, the drought conditions the state is facing and the volunteer capacity within the CFS. Clearly, when we see such drought conditions it does affect those on the land and our Country Fire Services because, essentially, farms need to be viable and, if they are not viable, farmers are going to look for other means of earning a livelihood. As Chief Officer Euan Ferguson said, some are being attracted to the mining industry for obvious reasons. I suppose one of the ironies of that is, of course, that if in the long term farmers do leave their properties and leave the land we will probably see less cropping and, no doubt, more grazing. Ultimately, we may see less fuel and unfortunately, perhaps, fewer properties to defend with fewer lives to be saved. However, having said all that, of course, the Country Fire Service is both well engaged and well prepared for any drought conditions. Clearly, the Chief Officer is on the government's Drought Task Force. He is also now the president of AFAC. We support and sponsor the bushfire CRC. Our firefighters are well resourced and well prepared.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: Of course, we have other contingencies in place in relation to that. First of all, of course, we have mutual aid agreements between the MFS and the SES. In relation to the obvious: a lot of it is crown land. We have seasonal firefighters in the DEH and SA Water, and we have provided extra funding to ensure—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: They are primarily defending our own crown land, so we think it is important that we take on that responsibility. Nonetheless, there is excellent cooperation between the CFS and DEH. Indeed, the DEH crews work as part of CFS crews. As I said, it is not as if this government is not well prepared and not well engaged in relation to any drought contingencies in the state. Of course, strategies have been developed within the CFS in relation to water issues to ensure that there are more brigades to respond, and, in relation to seeing that we have more water carriers available. I could go on, and I have placed on record many times that we have increased our aerial firefighting capacity in the state. There is very little that we are not engaged in to ensure that we are adequately prepared in this state.

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