The Brumby Labor Government will deliver the biggest one-off firefighter boost in Victoria’s history " 612 more permanent career firefighters and 231 more seasonal firefighters " and more support for volunteer firefighters as the centrepiece of major reforms to tackle the bushfire threat.
(Media-Newswire.com) - The Brumby Labor Government will deliver the biggest one-off firefighter boost in Victoria’s history – 612 more permanent career firefighters and 231 more seasonal firefighters – and more support for volunteer firefighters as the centrepiece of major reforms to tackle the bushfire threat.
The Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Bob Cameron, and the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Gavin Jennings, said the Brumby Labor Government would deliver more firefighters to protect Victorians from the threat of bushfires.
“The Brumby Labor Government’s strong economic management means we can invest in key reforms to protect Victorians from the threat of bushfires and make our State as fire-safe and as fire-ready as possible,” Mr Cameron said.
“Our Government is determined to give our firefighting agencies the additional frontline firefighters they need to protect our community into the future.”
More support for volunteers, more firefighers, additional new equipment, upgrades to Incident Control Centres, training of incident management teams, more roadside vegetation clearing and funding to fix communications blackspots are all part of the package to reform the firefighting effort.
Mr Cameron and Mr Jennings said the boosts to CFA and DSE operations would build on the record investments made by the Brumby Labor Government’s in the state’s firefighting capacity and drive new reforms to protect Victorians from the threat of bushfires.
The package includes:
$113 million for additional permanent firefighters – 342 at CFA and 100 at MFB , on top of 170 permanent frefighters and 231 seasonal firefighters at DSE funded under the Land and Fuel Management package; A $44.5 million support package for volunteer firefighters, including new emergency pagers, upgrades to training equipment and the employment of volunteer support officers; $23.8 million to retrofit CFA trucks with sprinklers and roll down fire blankets to withstand a firestorm in the field and fitting GPS tracking devices in trucks; $15.7 million for CFA radio communication interoperability and radio blackspot remediation; $12.6 million for structural firefighting personal protective equipment; $8 million for CFA statewide network of incident control centres, building on the $28.9 million invested to upgrade pre-formed ICCs to new higher minimum standards and provide increased specialist capabilities; $6.1 million to establish the new role of a Fire Services Commissioner; $6 million to upgrade the One Source One Message ( OSOM ) website to military standards to withstand greater pressure on demand and increase reliability; and $450,000 for joint fire agencies training of incident management teams.
“The Commission’s direction to provide more CFA brigade resources will see funding to deliver 342 additional career firefighters to the CFA and 64 paid workers to free up CFA volunteers to spend more time fighting fires and less time on administrative necessities,” Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron said the Brumby Labor Government would also deliver a $44.5 million package to better support the State’s volunteer firefighters.
The program includes providing 64 volunteer support officers across the CFA; an additional 2000 EAS pagers; new mobile training equipment and upgrades to regional field training grounds; health and wellbeing support and a recruitment campaign.
“The Commission’s direction to provide more CFA brigade resources will see funding to deliver 342 additional career firefighters to the CFA and 64 paid workers to free up CFA volunteers to spend more time fighting fires and less time on administrative necessities,” he said.
“Victoria is blessed to have a volunteer firefighting brigade that is the envy of the world.
“I know I speak for all Victorians when I express my admiration for the selflessness and expertise of our magnificent volunteers.
“This significant volunteer support program will ensure that volunteer firefighters can keep their skills and training up to date and that they receive the support they need to keep our communities safe.
“Underpinning the strength of the volunteer workforce, the CFA support staff means brigades will have dedicated staff driving membership and training by managing the volunteer database as well as completing administrative duties to ease that burden on volunteers.
“We are continuing to invest in technology for our firefighters and by adding GPS tracking to CFA trucks we will have optimal information to track our firefighters, to improve how fire chiefs deploy resources to fight fires as effectively and safely as possible.
“We will also retrofit older fleet vehicles to continue the truck upgrades we’ve been doing since the 2006 fires, so that our older trucks will have protective shield sprinklers and blankets which saved the lives of those on the fire field during Black Saturday.”
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