Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, as you know, summer is around the corner. You have been going to a great deal of trouble for months now driving what is really a very divisive approach to emergency services. It is something that I find deeply troubling. I agree with you that our volunteers here are magnificent men and women, but so are our firefighters. Paid firefighters, like our volunteers, put their lives on the line. I find the language that you have been using deeply disturbing, and it further underlines how political what you are driving here is. The primary goal here is not public safety.

I think what is really necessary, now that we can get into the detail here, is that you point out the specific clauses in the agreement that are detrimental to volunteers. Can you name the clauses and what parts of the clauses are detrimental to volunteers. We need to get past the general statements and the rhetoric that there are some good people who fight fires—the implication being that there are some bad people who fight fires—and actually deal with public safety. You need to identify the actual clauses and where they are detrimental to volunteers.