I don’t know what the specific proposal being proposed …
I will take that where it is.
But these are things that the government has been considering, in the first instance these are matters for state governments. The RFS and the fire services around Australia are run by state governments so it is not for the commonwealth to step in and make decisions.
But these are things that I think can be contemplated.
But I very much want to do that in consultation with state and territory governments.
As I said to the commissioner today, whatever they need, whatever they think they need to bolster support, sustain the operations that they are running, they simply need to ask.
And they will get that support.
I think there are immediate issues that need to be addressed there with the rural firefighters, particularly as they get into areas of terrible fatigue now.
… They have been fighting fires for a while now and they are still going. Thankfully, as I was briefed this morning, those parts of the state are more under today than they were when I was there not that long ago.
But these are the many issues that I think we need to understand. Let’s not forget, there are 210,000 rural firefighters around the country, and there are thousands of surf-lifesavers who will be patrolling our beaches, those who are volunteering on meals on wheels and carers and others.
Australia is a magnificent country because it does have that volunteer spirit. And Australia relies on them and they should be celebrated and we do so.
And where there are ways that we can further support that volunteer effort, we are very open to considering this.
Let me say one thing, all our firefighters are professionals. They are all professional at what they do.
They are well-trained and they are very good at what they do. One of the things we focused on this morning was ensuring how we can better supplement the clearing work and the other things that need to be done in those areas that have been ravaged by fires and ensure that we can get even more prompt defence support into those arrangements.
There has been defence liaisons in these … there has been in Queensland other places, and I am sure we can get some … at local level as well through the state government.
The defence forces being deployed in those, defence force members who are firefighters, are out there fighting fires, just like any other employee would be.
They are not in their platoons, they are in their brigades.
