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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1021 asked in the Legislative Council on 18 November 2021 by Hon Steve Martin

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — MANDATORY VACCINATIONS —FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICE VOLUNTEERS

1021. Hon STEVE MARTIN to the Leader of the House representing the Minister for Emergency Services:

I refer to question without notice 981 asked on 16 November 2021 and the minister's response to my question asking whether unvaccinated volunteer firefighters will be able to attend a fire, to which the minister responded, ''No.''

(1) Is the minister familiar with paragraph 8(c) of the Fire and Emergency Services Worker (Restrictions on Access) Direction (No 2), which permits unvaccinated fire and emergency services workers to respond to emergencies when vaccinated persons are not available?

(2) Was the minister's response to question without notice 981 correct?

(3) How would paragraph 8(c) be practically applied in an emergency response by volunteers?

(4) Will the Department of Fire and Emergency Services issue guidance to assist volunteer brigades, groups and units to comply with paragraph 8(c)?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1) The minister is familiar with paragraph 8(c) of the Fire and Emergency Services Worker (Restrictions on Access) Direction (No 2).

(2) Yes.

(3) There are a multitude of potential emergencies that volunteers could respond to and it is impossible to outline a response to every individual conceivable emergency scenario.

(4) DFES is currently in the process of developing frequently asked questions and support information for volunteers, which will be uploaded on the DFES, Western Australian Local Government Association and local government websites and shared with volunteers and volunteer associations via email.