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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-15 Daily Xml
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MONTEROLA, MR V.D.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:38): Today I would like to recognise Mr Vincent Monterola, a recipient of a Member of the Order of Australia Award (AM) conferred in the recent Queen's Birthday Honours List. Mr Monterola was awarded an AM for his service to the community through leadership in the fire and emergency services sector, particularly the Eyre Peninsula recovery effort.

Vincent Dudley Monterola was born in 1941. At the age of 22, he started work for the Electricity Trust of South Australia after graduating from the SA Institute of Technology. A year later, in 1964, he joined the Stirling CFS as a volunteer firefighter—45 years on, and he is still a volunteer firefighter with his local Adelaide Hills Brigade.

Vincent Monterola's contribution to his community extends beyond his local community, and it has been significant for the state of South Australia. After the 2005 Wangary fire near Port Lincoln, Vince (as he is known to his friends and family) was handpicked by Premier Mike Rann and the then minister for emergency services (Patrick Conlon) to head up the West Coast Recovery Committee.

Vince possesses a leadership quality that has allowed him to pool people together in often difficult circumstances. The day after the Wangary fires, when the Premier, the then minister Patrick Conlon and the now member for Mawson (Leon Bignell) witnessed the devastation firsthand, they knew that the circumstances the community found itself in needed a special person to help them. Vince was the immediate choice and had no qualms about putting his own life on hold to assist the community to get back on its feet.

In the post-Wangary environment, emotions ran very high with people expressing various opinions and, in that climate, Vince mediated and talked through things with many people from a diversity of backgrounds. In his own words, Vince recalled that it was a privilege to be appointed to lead the Black Tuesday recovery, and he felt it was a humbling and gratifying experience. He is on record in the media as saying of the Eyre Peninsula community:

The loss they experienced was so dramatic. They're a very resilient community. They weren't just sitting back and letting people do everything for them. We were working with them.

Vince is revered by the locals over on the West Coast. His capacity to bring people together is further evidenced by his leadership in his role as the inaugural chairman and chief executive of the South Australian Fire and Emergency Services Commission (SAFECOM). As the minister for emergency services at the time of progressing the SAFECOM act through parliament, I had bipartisan agreement to amend the bill to see Vince remain as chair of the SAFECOM board for the first two years. Such is the respect with which he is held.

Vince has held the position of chief executive officer of the South Australian Country Fire Service, and he had an esteemed private sector career of 35 years prior to his appointment as the top brass of the CFS. Vince was awarded life membership of the CFS in 1984 and of Keep South Australia Beautiful (KESAB) in 2000, and he has two other medals to go with his AM: an Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM) 1999 and an Australian Centenary Medal 2001.

There is one word in Vince's vocabulary that he just does not understand—that is, retirement. Vince has attempted to retire twice and was, until recently, in his third period of retirement, but he has taken up the cause to become the chairman of the CFS Foundation, which supports volunteer firefighters in need.

I know that best wishes and congratulations go to Vince not only from the cabinet and all government members but from all members of parliament—and, in particular, from now retired former premier the Hon. Rob Kerin. It was a pleasure to work with Vince Monterola during my time as minister for emergency services, and I am indebted to him for his wise counsel whenever it was required. I am also indebted to him for agreeing to conduct the Ministerial Review on Bushfire Prevention Management and for other emergency services tasks carried out for the government over several years.

Vince is a highly regarded and well respected person across the emergency services sector as well as political, business and media circles. I would like to quote some words from a note I recently received from Vince, which provide us with a window into the type of person he is. He said:

Members of emergency services are so often rewarded simply through the opportunity to provide assistance to people in need. To be recognised in this special way is indeed both unexpected and humbling. As we usually achieve our best results through working as a team in emergency services, I am pleased to share this recognition with those men and women with and for whom I have worked for more than 45 years. I am genuine too in praise for Helen, my wife, who has unquestionably helped me achieve whatever success I may have.

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