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United Firefighters Union of Australia
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Minister Symes – What Next From You?

Last week in Question Time Mr David Ettershank MLC asked Emergency Services Minister, Jaclyn Symes, about Victoria’s Fire Truck crisis and its impact on the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.

Mr Ettershank noted that Trucks had broken down at multiple fires in the West recently, including the Chemical Blaze in Derrimut.

He went on to ask the Minister whether she supported calls by the UFU and FRV Commissioner Freeman for the reintroduction of a Rolling Replacement Scheme.

Whilst it is questionable as to whether Minister Symes directly answered the question, Minister Symes stated that she met with firefighters and FRV Commissioner Freeman regularly to discuss matters of importance to them such as Firefighter Safety.

But according to publicly available diaries, where she is meant to disclose such meetings with stakeholders and external organisations, she’s never listed Fire Rescue Victoria or Commissioner Freeman.

Whilst there have meetings with CFA chief, Victoria police Commissioner and Police association, there no meetings with FRV or FRV Firefighters.

Further to this story as noted on Facebook “Premier Jacinta Allan is this an acceptable standard of conduct from your ministers? We know of no firefighter who has had Jaclyn Symes visit their station to discuss issues, in fact she actively avoided visiting FS72 on her recent tax-payer funded photo op in Mildura”

Minister Symes Diary can be viewed here

https://content.vic.gov.au/…/Leader-of-the-Government….

and here:

https://content.vic.gov.au/…/Leader-of-the-Government…

The UFU acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land, and we pay our respect to their Elders, past and present.

The UFU supports the call of First Nations peoples for a Voice to Parliament to be enshrined in the Constitution.

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