Sykes: Firewater – Government Response Disgraceful
“Disgraceful” is how Nationals Police & Emergency Services spokesperson Bill Sykes described the Labor Government’s response to his call for the Government to be required by legislation to replace water used by the fire fighters.
Dr Sykes said, “Last night in Parliament I moved an amendment to the Emergency Services Bill to make it a legislated responsibility of the Government to replace water taken from private water storages to fight fires, particularly on public land”.
“This would replace the current arrangement of it being ‘at the whim’ of the Government of the day to replace the water or to expect people to claim the loss of water on their insurance policy.
The Government response was to ‘belittle’ The Nationals and to make stupid statements such as:-
“There is now very little water in dams to fight fires anywhere. One of the silly proposals in the Member for Benalla’s contribution was to build fire fighting dams (on crown land). This might be well and good if it rained but it doesn’t rain anymore. What a ridiculous proposal.”
Dr Sykes continued, “The VFF strongly support The Nationals proposal as do many CFA members and landholders.
“Last week The Nationals extracted a political commitment from the Government to replace critical water supplies used to fight fires.
“This week in Parliament, the Minister for the Environment went further when he agreed to compensate all land holders whose water is taken for use in DSE fire fighting operations.
“Our request is quite reasonable; let’s enshrine what now appears to be Government policy into legislation.
“Clearly the Melbourne centric Labor Government is out of touch with country Victoria and has been caught out with ill-prepared legislation followed by ‘knee jerk’ responses by an ill-informed spokesperson.”
Dr Sykes concluded, “The Nationals will fight every inch of the way in Parliament. We hope to gain the support of other parties to force the Government to amend the legislation to ensure the Government is required by law to replace the water used to fight fires on public land. This is preferable to the Government using the replacement of water as a political point scoring exercise each time there is a big fire.”
Dr Sykes said, “Last night in Parliament I moved an amendment to the Emergency Services Bill to make it a legislated responsibility of the Government to replace water taken from private water storages to fight fires, particularly on public land”.
“This would replace the current arrangement of it being ‘at the whim’ of the Government of the day to replace the water or to expect people to claim the loss of water on their insurance policy.
The Government response was to ‘belittle’ The Nationals and to make stupid statements such as:-
“There is now very little water in dams to fight fires anywhere. One of the silly proposals in the Member for Benalla’s contribution was to build fire fighting dams (on crown land). This might be well and good if it rained but it doesn’t rain anymore. What a ridiculous proposal.”
Dr Sykes continued, “The VFF strongly support The Nationals proposal as do many CFA members and landholders.
“Last week The Nationals extracted a political commitment from the Government to replace critical water supplies used to fight fires.
“This week in Parliament, the Minister for the Environment went further when he agreed to compensate all land holders whose water is taken for use in DSE fire fighting operations.
“Our request is quite reasonable; let’s enshrine what now appears to be Government policy into legislation.
“Clearly the Melbourne centric Labor Government is out of touch with country Victoria and has been caught out with ill-prepared legislation followed by ‘knee jerk’ responses by an ill-informed spokesperson.”
Dr Sykes concluded, “The Nationals will fight every inch of the way in Parliament. We hope to gain the support of other parties to force the Government to amend the legislation to ensure the Government is required by law to replace the water used to fight fires on public land. This is preferable to the Government using the replacement of water as a political point scoring exercise each time there is a big fire.”
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posted by Greg Naylor at
9:37 PM
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