Page 3615 - Week 11 - Thursday, 16 November 2006
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trialled by all SES volunteer units and may set a new direction for fleet configuration in the SES.
This financial year, the government has made further investment in the emergency services that has allowed the SES to purchase a $42,000 lighting tower. This tower is to replace an ageing lighting trailer used by the SES and will provide the emergency services with far greater capability to provide emergency lighting at a range of incidents or events, including road crashes, property fires, mass gathering events and staging areas. The tower will be delivered next week.
In addition to the lighting tower, the government has allocated $80,000 towards volunteer recruitment and the purchase of safety clothing for each and every new recruit. This new clothing will be state of the art and will provide the volunteer members of the SES with the highest standards of personal protective clothing and equipment that is available. The standards of SES personal protective equipment were recently recognised by a nomination for an ACT WorkCover award in the category of best solution to an identified workplace health and safety issue—not a silly little OH&S reason, as indicated by Mr Pratt earlier.
Mr Gentleman: Maybe he does not care about their safety.
MR HARGREAVES: No. Further investment in the SES has also been made through funding made available through the working together to manage emergencies program administered by the commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. In addition to the other funding, the SES has received $35,000 to design and construct a field welfare and catering trailer to ensure that the volunteers of the SES are well catered for in the field.
Overall, the investment made by this government in new equipment for the SES has exceeded $200,000 and this has allowed the SES to increase its capabilities and modernise its response equipment. Volunteers have access to modern and reliable equipment that will allow them to continue to provide such a valuable and important service to the ACT community during emergencies. I will leave the training to one of my colleagues to address but, as far as equipping our emergency services is concerned, I do not think anyone can argue that this government has not taken huge steps to ensure that our emergency services are the best equipped they can be and are far better placed than they were previously.
Of the nine ambulance staff, in response to some of the stuff Mr Pratt was going on about, three are intensive care qualified paramedics, that is, at the highest level, and the other six staff are qualified paramedics. Let us not build up straw things and then tear them down again. Let us not perpetuate untruths out there in the public arena.
Mr Pratt: Are they operating now?
MR HARGREAVES: I will repeat it, because sometimes it needs repeating. Three of them are intensive care qualified, the highest level paramedics, and the other six are qualified paramedics. Those six will undergo a bridging course over the next 12 months to upgrade their qualifications to intensive care paramedics.
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