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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 700 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 28 October 2021 by Ms J.L. Hanns

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

KOOLINUP EMERGENCY SERVICES CENTRE

700. Ms J.L. HANNS to the Minister for Emergency Services:

I refer to the McGowan government's commitment to supporting our emergency services personnel through its significant investment in infrastructure and equipment.

(1) Can the minister outline to the house how this investment in new appliances and new infrastructure both in my electorate of Collie–Preston and across Western Australia is helping to improve community safety?

(2) Can the minister advise the house how this investment is also supporting local businesses and creating local jobs?

Mr R.R. WHITBY replied:

(1)–(2) I thank the member for Collie–Preston for her question and for her advocacy for the issue of bushfires and protecting her community. As the member would know, last week the Premier and I were in Collie for the official opening of the Koolinup Emergency Services Centre. It was a big deal for Collie and a big deal for Western Australia. When we have a big deal, we also sometimes attract big personalities. We also had in attendance the former member for Collie–Preston Hon Mick Murray and the former Minister for Emergency Services Hon Fran Logan. I can tell members, they both looked very healthy, very relaxed, very tanned and very happy, and so they should be happy because they have left us a wonderful legacy in their hard work for securing the Koolinup Emergency Services Centre in Collie.

This is part of our state's continued massive investment in keeping the people of Western Australia safe. It is also a big part of our plan to help transition Collie away from the use of coal and the coal industry. As we know, things are good in Collie. The transition continues to be very successful and this has been a big part of that. The new centre includes an emergency driver training school, a new regional fleet maintenance and management services workshop for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services' fleet and a fleet commissioning facility for locally built emergency response vehicles. It is also the first regional—this is important—purpose-built level 3 incident control centre capable of managing major emergencies, including bushfires. When there is a major event in Western Australia, often the approach is to bring equipment and facilities into a location. This is an existing level 3 incident control centre. As we know, the south west is prone to emergencies, including bushfires, floods and storm events, so this will play a critical role in our emergency management response to those situations.

I will talk a little about the Koolinup centre. The member for Bunbury will be very pleased to know that the Bunbury-based Perkins Builders played a key role as the builder of this $13.4 million centre. There is a participation strategy, which is very important to our government, to ensure that local providers are involved in all major infrastructure projects. More than 70 per cent of the centre's building materials, contractors and supply chains were sourced either locally in Collie or from the south west. It has created 130 construction jobs and will lead to 12 permanent jobs. It is important that we are also drawing on the support of local businesses in Collie. South West Fire is maintaining the emergency driver training vehicles and the DFES high fire season fleet, which will be based for part of the year in Collie for servicing and responding to emergencies in the south west. Frontline Fire and Rescue's equipment manufacturing facility is right across the road and will also deliver 17 full-time jobs in Collie in addition to the 12 at the centre. Frontline is also complete and fully operational. I visited that facility when I was there the other day for the opening of the emergency centre.

The Koolinup Emergency Services Centre will continue to bring in volunteers and DFES career staff for that emergency driver training as well as other reasons. As well having the facility and the jobs there, we will see an ongoing influx of emergency responders to Collie into the future. Of course, they will want to stay in local accommodation and spend money at the wonderful businesses in Collie. This is a great outcome for Collie and certainly a great outcome for our emergency services.