Page 4046 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 30 October 2013
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And again, when we talked about truck licensing for SES drivers, the ridicule and the disdain that was expressed! I have had it from an SES officer that they do not take full crews out because if they load up with a full crew, the truck is over the limit. The government’s answer is, “We’ll get everybody a truck licence.” How ridiculous. Here is another Simon Corbell procurement special along the lines of FireLink and some of the sheds that they have procured. Here is another one where we get something where we have not fully worked out, when it is loaded up, whether or not it complies with the road regulations. You can laugh about it, minister, but if you are only sending out two-thirds or half a crew in a vehicle, that is a problem. It puts additional pressure on the crews, which again goes down to stress, and it may hamper the response. Apparently they have been aware of this for about 12 months, but we have not got a solution yet. If you are talking about now making sure that every member of the SES has a truck licence so that you can respond vehicles, there is something wrong with your management, there is something wrong with your approach and there is something wrong with your timeliness.
That is the problem with this minister. You know when Simon Corbell is on a good thing; he brings out the detail—long, detailed speeches. You know when he is in trouble when he goes the ridicule approach. And he is obviously in lots of trouble, because all we got today were doses of ridicule.
I hope that Mr Rattenbury reconsiders his position. The fact that everything the minister has said can be easily countered shows that this detail needs to be addressed. The reason I asked that he respond to the Assembly is that yes, I am quite aware that we are having ESA, but a couple of these issues could use up the entire time allocated to the ESA inside JACS. These are big issues for those people on the ground who have concerns about their colleagues and concerns about themselves. (Extension of time granted.)
This is an important motion. The minister knows that I have people who speak to me in all the services. We all do. These are not issues that have just come up. It is not “Look, it’s Monday; I need to write a motion for Tuesday so I can debate it on Wednesday.” These are things in many cases that I have followed for a long time. Certainly people raise the issue of the Bronto with me all the time. Certainly there are the issues in terms of staffing. It would be interesting, minister—maybe I will put a question on notice—to know what is the staffing level of RFS in comparison with other services. As they have grown, has the RFS staffing grown? It would be a very interesting question, because there are concerns about that as well.
People raise with me the issue of compliance with the law in sections 58 and 53 of the Emergencies Act. We go to the deputy chief officer of the State Emergency Service. Again, the staff were told it would not be filled because it is a cost saving. If it is a cost saving, that is fine. But do not put pressure on an individual and say, “You now do two jobs,” and expect those people to perform at the same level. They will do it for a little while, and I honour all the members of the Emergency Services Agency. They are there because they want to be. They love these jobs. They love doing these jobs. They love the role that they perform. But let us give them the structure and the tools to do their job properly.
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