23 Jun 2016
Emergency Services
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN ( 14:53 ): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Emergency Services a question.
Leave granted.
The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: On 24 May 2016, the minister wrote an open letter to members of the South Australian State Emergency Service. In this letter the minister detailed a series of programs and equipment upgrades over the next four years which will be funded by a 1.5 percentage increase in the emergency services levy. Can the minister provide a breakdown of the budgeted amount to be spent for each respective financial year and the budgeted amount allocated to each service for each financial year?
The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) ( 14:54 ): I am more than happy to provide a fair bit of information that hopefully satisfies the honourable member in respect of the detail that they are asking for. We are really proud, as a government, of the fact that we are doing everything we can as a government to ensure that our front-line volunteers in the emergency services are getting the resources that they need.
Over four years, $2.6 million has been allocated to fire truck safety assistance. The sorts of things we are talking about with fire truck safety systems particularly refer to the burn-over technology. I have referred to burn-over technology in this place before. In fact, I think I can recall questions being asked by the honourable member in respect of that.
An amount of $1.5 million is being spent on increased training and support for both CFS and SES volunteers. We have a very good representation of volunteers in the state of South Australia in emergency services, and in fact in some areas volunteer numbers are growing, so we have to make sure that we are investing in the training those volunteers get in order to make sure they remain safe when they perform the function of operating within our emergency services. An amount of $1 million has been allocated to enhance SES flood response and incident management, and that equates to $5.5 million over four years. This principally goes to looking at the way we deal with flood as a hazard in South Australia, which is important because flood remains a very real risk in the state of South Australia, particularly in some parts of metropolitan Adelaide.
An amount of $5,000, or $2 million over four years, has been allocated to the SERM project, and $160,000 has been allocated to fund the Government Radio Network training. It is really important to ensure that we get the most out of the Government Radio Network, that we invest in the training of volunteers to make sure they know how to use the GRN, particularly in situations of substantial crisis. An additional $1.4 million per annum has been allocated to SAFECOM, so that equates to $4.6 million over four years. I am advised that $3.5 million has been allocated to DEWNR, although that is not necessarily specifically funded from the ESL. The member asked, I think, about a breakdown by agency, and I have been advised of some figures in respect of the basic allocation or breakdown of funds from the ESL to each agency:
•$136.4 million has been allocated to the MFS;
•$82.4 million has been allocated to the CFS;
•$21.8 million to SAPOL;
•$17.6 million to the SES;
•$12.4 million to SAFECOM;
•$3.5 million to DEWNR;
•$2.8 million to Surf Lifesaving; and
•$1.2 million in respect of the Volunteer Marine Rescue service.
I think that covers the basic elements of my portfolio. As you can see, Mr President, all the effort that goes into the ESL is principally, or essentially entirely focused on delivering the best possible equipment and service that we can to our front-line first responders, whether they be volunteers or paid professionals. We need to make sure that as a state, when we ask people to put themselves in harm’s way in the service of others, they have the training, the equipment and the support they deserve to ensure that the South Australian community remains safe.
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