Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, instead of the rhetoric, I would like to get you back to why you made this statement. Deputy President Roe made his final recommendation on this issue on 1 June 2016, and dealt with that issue, and it was on 22 August that you decided to go out there and actually do a written commentary on this agreement that was out of date—so it was clearly designed to inflame distrust and mistrust between the firefighters, both the paid firefighters—the career firefighters—and the volunteer firefighters. And while you are on your feet in relation to this issue, Minister, the firefighters have explained the reason why they want seven paid firefighters to be deployed in certain circumstances. Have you looked why that deployment was to take place—the reasons why there was an agreement between the CFA and the UFU on that deployment? It was basically about ensuring that if a firefighter goes into dangerous situation, there is enough back-up support there for that firefighter to be rescued if he or she ends up in trouble. Were you aware of that reasoning?