❓ Mr. Catania questions the Minister for Emergency Services about the SES Volunteers Association not being given an opportunity to present at a DFES forum. The Minister denies preventing them from speaking and clarifies the forum's focus on unit managers' concerns.
AnsweredQoN 1026Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DEPARTMENT OF FIRE AND
EMERGENCY SERVICES — STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE FORUM
1026. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Minister for Emergency Services:
I refer to the State Emergency
Service forum that the Department of Fire and Emergency Services is hosting
this weekend, and to concerns relayed by volunteers that their representative
organisation, the SES Volunteers Association of Western Australia, will not be
given an opportunity to present at the forum.
(1) Is the
minister, his office or the department preventing the SES Volunteers
Association from formally addressing the forum?
(2) Why is the SES Volunteers
Association being prevented from formally addressing the forum?
EMERGENCY SERVICES — STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE FORUM
1026. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Minister for Emergency Services:
I refer to the State Emergency
Service forum that the Department of Fire and Emergency Services is hosting
this weekend, and to concerns relayed by volunteers that their representative
organisation, the SES Volunteers Association of Western Australia, will not be
given an opportunity to present at the forum.
(1) Is the
minister, his office or the department preventing the SES Volunteers
Association from formally addressing the forum?
(2) Why is the SES Volunteers
Association being prevented from formally addressing the forum?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) The
forum that the member has referred to will be held this weekend. It comes as a result
of a number of complaints by State Emergency Service volunteers from around Western
Australia over a number of issues. It goes to training. It goes to chief
officers. It goes to a whole series of issues that they have had over a number
of years. I put to the Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner, ''Let's
deal with all these things in one go. Let people speak and get their issues out
in the open so they can be debated and we can take them forward. If we can act
on them, we will do so; if we can't, we won't.'' The
Department of Fire and Emergency Services has invited over 100 unit managers
from across Western Australia to come to Perth and has paid for their airfares
and accommodation. They will spend the whole day on Saturday at the Duxton
Hotel going through all the issues that they want to go through. The SES Volunteers
Association will be part of that. It was put to me only a couple of hours ago
that the Department of Fire and Emergency Services has invited six members of
the SES association to come along and be part of the whole thing. They are
coming anyway because many of them are unit managers.
Mr V.A. Catania : But will you
let them speak?
Mr F.M. LOGAN : Of course they
will have an opportunity to speak. Does the member know what they have come
back with? ''We don't want just six; we want 12.'' That
means picking up the cost of airfares and accommodation for those 12. We have
all the unit managers—the people who should be there; the people who
are effectively the captains of each of these brigades from across Western Australia—coming
to Perth. They are the people we want to hear from. That does not mean to say
that we are going to hear from members of the association. I would encourage
them to speak there. I will personally be on a panel and I will encourage them
to speak. We are not denying them the right to speak, but first and foremost,
we want the unit managers—those people who are in charge of the
volunteers at every SES branch across Western Australia—to have their
voices heard.
forum that the member has referred to will be held this weekend. It comes as a result
of a number of complaints by State Emergency Service volunteers from around Western
Australia over a number of issues. It goes to training. It goes to chief
officers. It goes to a whole series of issues that they have had over a number
of years. I put to the Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner, ''Let's
deal with all these things in one go. Let people speak and get their issues out
in the open so they can be debated and we can take them forward. If we can act
on them, we will do so; if we can't, we won't.'' The
Department of Fire and Emergency Services has invited over 100 unit managers
from across Western Australia to come to Perth and has paid for their airfares
and accommodation. They will spend the whole day on Saturday at the Duxton
Hotel going through all the issues that they want to go through. The SES Volunteers
Association will be part of that. It was put to me only a couple of hours ago
that the Department of Fire and Emergency Services has invited six members of
the SES association to come along and be part of the whole thing. They are
coming anyway because many of them are unit managers.
Mr V.A. Catania : But will you
let them speak?
Mr F.M. LOGAN : Of course they
will have an opportunity to speak. Does the member know what they have come
back with? ''We don't want just six; we want 12.'' That
means picking up the cost of airfares and accommodation for those 12. We have
all the unit managers—the people who should be there; the people who
are effectively the captains of each of these brigades from across Western Australia—coming
to Perth. They are the people we want to hear from. That does not mean to say
that we are going to hear from members of the association. I would encourage
them to speak there. I will personally be on a panel and I will encourage them
to speak. We are not denying them the right to speak, but first and foremost,
we want the unit managers—those people who are in charge of the
volunteers at every SES branch across Western Australia—to have their
voices heard.
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