FIRE
AND EMERGENCY SERVICES — PLANT AND EQUIPMENT TECHNICIANS
1148. Hon MARTIN ALDRIDGE to the Leader of the House
representing the Minister for Emergency Services:
I refer to the article in The
West Australian of 9 December titled ''Bushfire season a worry as
staff exit''.
(1) How many
technicians by FTE are employed in the plant and equipment portfolio within the
Department of Fire and Emergency Services?
(2) Of those identified in (1), how
many technicians are presently available to be rostered?
(3) What measures
has DFES put in place to address the shortage of technicians throughout the
high-threat fire period?
(4) Is it still the state government's
position that the best way to attract and retain staff is to simply pay them
more?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) Twelve technicians are
employed.
(2) Two are currently available to
be rostered.
(3)–(4) DFES has engaged external contractors experienced
in repairing DFES fleet to supplement the on-call roster to meet the
increased workload during the high fire season; undertaken and continues to run
a recruitment campaign; and assessed the schedule of the high–fire
season fleet being relocated from the state's north to establish
short-term replacement appliance availability.