Media Release
3 August 2017
Tamara Smith, Greens Member for Ballina has today secured funding from Emergency Services Minister Troy Grant to maintain State Emergency Services vehicles.
The SES Volunteers Association was concerned that no funding had been allocated to replacing NSW SES Emergency Services vehicles in the recent Budget announcements.
“The SES Volunteers Association came to me with their concerns that there didn’t seem to be any funding for replacement vehicles – vehicles the community has relied on more than 37,000 times in 2015-2016 and 35,000 times in 2016-2017,” said Ms Smith.
“Naturally the volunteers were worried that they would not be able to adequately respond to help the community for essential rescue and emergency assistance and that their own safety would be at risk if their vehicles were not maintained.
“I raised this with the Minister today in Question Time and he admitted that the funding for maintenance of vehicles has been secured and is in the SES budget but that a business case about future procurement of vehicles was not finalised in time for the Budget.
“It is a shame that SES volunteers were left confused about whether their essential vehicles were able to be replaced and worried about their own safety, but I was happy to be able to get a clear commitment from the Minister for them,” said Ms Smith