By Colin MacGillivray
Kilmore Fire Brigade captain Hayden Dally has backed Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland’s call for the State Government to provide greater funding for the Country Fire Authority, CFA, in this year’s budget.
Ms Cleeland said despite the government collecting about $800 million through a fire services property levy last year, only $7.6 million was spent on CFA infrastructure and asset renewal.
She said CFA stations and vehicles were becoming ‘incredibly outdated’ in parts of the state.
“Some of these are unsafe and downright dangerous,” she said.
“There are fleet vehicles that are completely out of line with safe emissions standards and sheds where diesel particulates are causing concern for volunteers.
“At stations like Seymour, just turning out causes traffic chaos and is having a serious impact on their response times.”
Mr Dally said the renewal of CFA fleet vehicles was a priority and echoed Ms Cleeland’s call for more budget funding.
“Currently our trucks are replaced after 30 years, whereas a while back it was 20, then it got pushed out to 25 and now it’s 30,” he said.
“It’s a known quantity. They know every year how many trucks they’re going to have to change over, yet for some reason we get pushed further and further back. At what point does that stop?
“Certainly 30 years is far too long. I personally believe 25 years is borderline. Some money needs to go into getting our fleet to a better age.”
Mr Dally said rapidly advancing technology might soon render old vehicles undriveable for younger CFA volunteers.
“Someone who’s born today in 18 years’ time could be driving a truck that they might technically have no idea how to drive, because all of the driver assistance features that are starting to come out won’t be in some of these vehicles,” he said.
Mr Dally said the CFA was being short-changed compared to other emergency services.
“I believe the average age of a car on our roads is about 10 years. The [State Emergency Service] has a 20-year changeover and I believe [Fire Rescue Victoria] is either 20 or 25 years. Police are worked out on kilometres,” he said.
“Why are we any different? Some of the trucks in our fleet are used a lot more than SES vehicles in some places.
“I know the government has to come up with funding for this from somewhere, but that isn’t my issue.
“When you look at the funding to FRV, which is somewhere in the vicinity of $280 million, and the CFA are only getting $80 million, on a per-brigade basis when we’ve got about 1200 brigades and they’ve only got about 40 or 50, it seems to be fairly skewiff.”
Emergency Services Minister and Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes said the State Government was committed to providing the resources firefighters needed to do their job.
“Our volunteer and career fire fighters put their lives on the line every day for our safety and we’ve backed these tireless efforts with more than $200 million in capital works funding and $126 million for training and equipment,” she said.
“Since being elected in 2014, I’ve also delivered funding for many local CFA brigades like Broadford, Heathcote, Pyalong and Nagambie.
“In the last week I’ve also had the pleasure of handing over a new rehab vehicle to the Seymour brigade and unveiling the new, safer protective uniforms for volunteers across the state.
“We’ll continue to work with the CFA to identify its infrastructure priorities and resourcing needs.”
Ms Cleeland said she believed the government ‘misunderstood the crucial role’ volunteers played in rural communities.
“We’ve seen shocking restructures and insufficient funding, with brigades constantly rattling cans to meet their needs,” she said.
“Our volunteers should be provided the best infrastructure and assets we can afford. They’re not getting that from the State Government.”
