00:00Today we've got the opportunity to tell the Parliamentary Inquiry the real story and that is that 140 FRV trucks
00:07are out of date, over 700 CFA tankers are out of date and should be off the road, that there
00:12have actually been funding cuts in relation to the fire service against the backdrop where this government's taxing in some
00:19cases doubled the community.
00:20On top of that, there was a lot of misinformation that had been given to the committee members and we
00:25have to ask the question, why weren't they given the actual data in relation to succumbed programs, in relation to
00:32the issue of some of the legislative changes.
00:35What we've seen today is the opportunity for us to speak on behalf of firefighters, both Korea and my colleagues
00:41on behalf of volunteers and it's important that they get their story across and today we got the opportunity to
00:46do that.
00:47But may I say, we wanted more time. We'll be asking the committee for more time.
00:52So the misinformation was around the secondment and the stuff, the data that they had and the people that were
00:59speaking was totally different to what Peter's had.
01:03So, you know, I'm not party to all the exact wording of that, all that, that was between them. They
01:08can sort that out as far as I'm concerned. We just want a better outcome for firefighters and the volunteers.
01:12Our submission included volunteer retention, which is a really, really big issue within the CFA at the moment.
01:19It also addressed the funding issues that we've got at the moment and also the new emergency service and volunteers
01:26fund tax, which heavily targets the rural community and CFA volunteers.
01:31Everyone was receptive and listening and seemed interested.
01:35So hopefully that actually translates into meaningful action for the Victorian community and for CFA volunteers that protect it.
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