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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 736 asked in the Legislative Council on 15 September 2021 by Hon Martin Aldridge

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES — ELECTION COMMITMENTS — 2021–22 STATE BUDGET

736. Hon MARTIN ALDRIDGE to the Leader of the House representing the Minister for Emergency Services:

I refer to election commitments funded in the 2021–22 state budget.

(1) On what date can the additional firefighters be expected in Kalgoorlie–Boulder, Geraldton and Albany?

(2) Can the minister please provide a breakdown of the funding per year and identify the source of the funds if other than from the consolidated account?

(3) Can the minister please identify which firefighters and which fire services will benefit from the $4.9 million investment in personal protective clothing?

(4) How many sets of PPC will be made available to —

(a) career firefighters; and

(b) volunteer firefighters?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

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

(1) The process to recruit, train and initially deploy career firefighters from start to finish takes time. It will take two to three years to complete, based on our capacity to train new recruits. However, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services will be starting to post additional career firefighters to regional Western Australia from 2021. The recruitment process for the next trainee firefighter school commences in November 2021, with testing to begin in early 2022. The school takes just over five months, and DFES intends to post some of those graduates to regional stations prior to the 2022–23 southern bushfire season.

(2) This information is available in the state budget.

(3) The $4.9 million investment in personal protective clothing will replace the level 2 structural PPC statewide for career fire and rescue service personnel, volunteer fire and rescue service and volunteer fire and emergency services firefighters who currently have level 2 PPC.

(4) A total of 4 100 sets are required for a full level 2 structural PPC replacement statewide. The full replacement quota for career and volunteer services is —

(a) 2 246 sets for career fire and rescue service firefighters; and

(b) 1 854 sets for volunteer fire and rescue service and volunteer fire and emergency services firefighters.