DEPARTMENT OF FIRE AND
EMERGENCY SERVICES — STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE INTEGRATION
1287. Hon RICK MAZZA to the minister representing the
Minister for Emergency Services:
At a meeting with the Minister for
Emergency Services on 30 October, the State Emergency Service Volunteers
Association of Western Australia was told that the SES was not getting a chief
officer and it was to be integrated into the Department of Fire and Emergency
Services.
(1) Can the minister confirm that Western Australia is
the only jurisdiction in Australia without a chief officer?
(2) If yes to (1), what is the rationale for not appointing
one?
(3) Can the minister confirm the SES
has gone from 2 500 volunteers eight years ago to 1 902 today?
(4) If yes to (3), why is this the
case?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following information has been provided to me
by the Minister for Emergency Services.
(1) No. There are other
jurisdictions without a chief officer.
(2) Not applicable.
(3) No. The SES figure in the 2009–10 Fire
and Emergency Services Authority annual report was 1 914. At that time,
volunteers registered with more than one SES unit were counted for each
registration; that is, volunteers registered with two SES units were counted
twice. Data cleansing after the annual report figures are released also occurs.
The revised figure is 1 772 individual volunteers. The SES has actually
increased from 1 772 individual volunteers in 2009–10 to 1 906
individual volunteers as of 2 December 2018.
(4) Not applicable.