Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to raise my concerns about the Australian government’s failure to renew funding for the Local Grants Scheme as part of the previous coalition government’s Working Together to Manage Emergencies program. The Local Grants Scheme provided communities such as mine access to funds so that emergency service centres could be upgraded or purchase additional equipment. Following a search of the Attorney-General’s website today, I found the following statement:

The Local Grants Scheme will not be offered.

This statement concerns me greatly. I find it ironic that the Australian government is offering funding to assist local emergency services with volunteer recruitment and training, while neglecting to fund basic equipment that is necessary to get the job done in the first place. This will impact on the capacity of volunteers to serve local communities effectively. The Hawkesbury Rural Fire Service Operational Centre in my electorate has a phone system which urgently requires upgrading. This phone system is the link between volunteers and residents in the community, especially when homes and lives are at risk during a fire. The Attorney-General said:

The Rudd government recognises that emergency volunteers give so freely of their time to protect the lives and property of others.

What I am saying is that denying these volunteers access to funds to purchase essential equipment is not recognising their value. Basic equipment which was previously funded under the coalition government included equipment for the upgrade of the SES Emergency Operations Centre in the Hawkesbury, emergency generators for Cootamundra Shire Council and upgrading of communication equipment for Shoalhaven’s main and alternate emergency operation centres. All this was funded through the Local Grants Scheme. The current eligibility guidelines under the National Emergency Volunteer Support Fund for such items state that ‘operational equipment will generally not be considered unless it can be demonstrated to have a training use’. While training is critical to all emergency services, organisations and volunteers particularly to maintain occupational health and safety requirements, equipment to do the job and training on such equipment cannot be undertaken without the purchase of such equipment.

I call on the Rudd government to provide rural fire services and the SES in electorates such as mine and in other parts of our country with funding for much-needed equipment, just as the previous coalition government did. In my electorate alone, where the New South Wales government is primarily responsible for the emergency services, Labor have failed to provide these emergency services with basic equipment to help them fight fires, to keep volunteers and the people and communities they seek to protect safe. In the Hawkesbury we have the RAFT—the remote area fire team. The job of the RAFT volunteers is to be dropped, often by helicopter, into remote locations and to fight fires in the early stages at their source where on-the-ground units cannot reach. It is unacceptable that the members of this unit, which assisted with the Canberra fires, do not have the following as part of their basic firefighting kits: battery packs to ensure power radios remain powered in remote areas—they need 20; a 2,000-watt converter generator to recharge radios—they need one; backpack blowers to clear firebreaks and helipads—they need two; professional chainsaws to clear firebreaks and helipads—again, they need two; and lightweight sleeping bags so that when they sleep out overnight in the bush they have something to sleep in. That is basic. Most importantly, they need eight emergency distress beacons, which are essential in an area with no radio coverage. All this totals just $23,000.

I have many emergency services in my electorate, including Ebenezer RFS and Oakville RFS, to name just two. The group fire captains and the fire control centre of the Hawkesbury Rural Fire Service desperately need equipment. I call on the Rudd Labor government to provide Australian government funding to rural fire services and state emergency services in my state and others, because the state Labor governments have failed to provide these much-needed pieces of equipment so that these volunteers can do their job. With the apparent alteration to guidelines for local grants, an avenue for federal funds is now cut off.