Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Cameron, as you would be well aware, this dispute has now been ongoing for a number of years. There have been numerous iterations of the agreement and, certainly up until a few months ago, the specific clause that you are referring to was one that did require seven paid firefighters to be on the ground. A change was made to that clause because it was of such concern to the volunteers—so it was an admission by the United Firefighters Union that there were concerns with the clause. Concerns still do remain with the clause, I might add. The clause has been refined so that the clause now refers to seven paid firefighters needing to be 'dispatched' to the fire operations before the paid firefighters can commence the firefighting operations. But certainly, in numerous iterations of the agreement, the clauses you articulated were included in that agreement. It was only when it was absolutely acknowledged that this clause was a problem that the language was changed to 'dispatched'.