General News
27 January, 2022
MPs meet with Terang CFA volunteers
SHADOW Minister for Police and Emergency Services Brad Battin visited Terang last week to meet with members of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) to gauge the issues impacting rural brigades.
SHADOW Minister for Police and Emergency Services Brad Battin visited Terang last week to meet with members of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) to gauge the issues impacting rural brigades.
Mr Battin joined South West Coast MP Roma Britnell in a tour of the south west to meet with a number of emergency services organisations.
He said the main issues he had been approached with centred on the independence of the CFA in its operation.
“The CFA is a volunteer-led operation but they can’t employ their own staff. They’re not an independent organisation,” he said.
“It’s an issue which gets raised a lot because of the say Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) has, which is union-controlled, so the CFA wants to make sure it has its own independence.
“Most out here talk about day turn-outs, training and access to training, vehicles and infrastructure.”
He said the recent state government announcement of 50 new CFA vehicles to be rolled out under the $126M CFA Capability Funding package was not getting tyres on the ground quick enough.
“The new trucks won’t even get here until after the summer season,” he said.
“They’ve been so slow in bringing out trucks throughout the state that it prevents a normal filter down where a busy station gets a new truck and then the three-year-old truck goes to a station which is less busy.
“The waterfall effect is halted because we’ve got trucks that are 30 years old, which aren’t fit for purpose.”
Mr Battin cast an eye towards the Victorian elections later this year, saying the CFA would have the support of a Coalition Government in taking its future in its own hands.
“We had a very good record of bringing in new trucks and upgrading or building 250 stations across the state when we were in government for four years,” he said.
“The most important thing we’ll do is make sure the CFA is independent.
“We’re committed to that, so the chief of the fire services can employ their own staff and not get given to them succonded fromthe FRV.”
The members of the opposition were joined by Terang CFA brigade captain Ash Miller and fireman Jeff Carroll.
Mr Carroll said he wanted to see improvement made to help rural CFA brigades attract new volunteers.
Training for operational volunteers, who respond to fire, road accidents and other incidents, can take up to six months to complete and require travel across the state before volunteers can respond to incidents.
“To get your volunteers in, they require training which is good but it’s too long,” Mr Carroll said.
“Four weeks to do training is just ridiculous.
“They have to go away to do it, so they don’t want to do it.
“I think the training is good, but you need to modify it.”
Mr Miller said no CFA volunteer underestimates the importance or necessity of training, but wanted to see greater efficiency as to not overburden potential recruits.
“Firefighter safety is paramount and volunteers need that training before they get on the truck, it’s just the process isn’t streamlined,” he said.
“It’s hard to get volunteers now, and once you get them it’s hard to retain that member past their general training because once they realise they’ll have an eight-step program to get on the truck, it’s hard to keep that motivation through a lengthy and complicated process.”
Ms Britnell said she had concerns for how regions could respond to large-scale bushfires if changes were not made to help boost volunteer numbers.
“With a farming background I understand the value and importance of the CFA. We had three fires threaten our properties while I was farming, and I was evacuated on St Patrick’s night, so I’ve been in the cold face of it,”she said.
“What I think is not understood by much of the Labor state government is you can’t have the surge capacity that we need for events like Ash Wednesday and St Patrick’s Day if you think you don’t need volunteers.”
She said she was concerned an increasing emphasis on paid career firefighters came at the cost of losing a culture of volunteering.
“My dad used to do the spraying and slashing outside the farm fence because that’s what you did as a good citizen, but nowadays farmers are too scared to do that because you might get in to trouble,” she said.
“If we lose the culture of volunteering to bolster surge capacity, to protect our regions, we’re in real strife.
“I’m making sure I say a lot because in the city there is a culture of paying everyone but thousands of people are needed on days like Ash Wednesday, but you can’t have them sitting around and waiting for Ash Wednesday for 30 years though.”