Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:33): I rise to support this motion by the member for Chaffey:

That this house—

(a) recognises that 4 May is International Firefighters' Day;

(b) acknowledges that firefighters dedicate their lives to protecting South Australians across our metropolitan areas and in our regions;

(c) honours and remembers past firefighters who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving their communities and protecting others;

(d) expresses its gratitude to all CFS and MFS personnel and volunteers for their courage, commitment and tireless effort in times of emergency; and

(e) recognises the serious health risks firefighters face from exposure to hazardous contaminants and the importance of ensuring their protection.

I certainly support the many thousands of firefighters, whether they be the 13,000 CFS volunteers or the Metropolitan Fire Service personnel, full-time or retained, and the many thousands of farmers and other local people in the regions and in the suburban areas—outer suburban areas, most likely—who command farm firefighting units. The whole system works well together and they are all needed when it literally hits the fan. It was interesting that not that many years ago farm firefighting units were discouraged, but now they are totally embraced as a vital part of the firefighting effort out on the fireground.

As a local CFS volunteer myself I am so proud to see many people, whether it is in an intense moment or in the mopping-up stages of a situation, doing their bit to assist their community. There have been a few fires recently down our way out in the Mallee and in the South-East over the years. The Carcuma fire was an interesting one, out near Ngarkat Conservation Park. We were out there just prior to Christmas. We had the farm firefighting unit out there, actually, and my two brothers were out there as well along with many others trying to put this fire out. There was a bit of hesitancy on doing a back-burn on some country that was going to burn anyway. Thankfully, a decision was made to put the back-burn in place. The dozer breaks had been put in and the back-burn was instigated, and it saved many days, I think, of people waiting for it to get into that scrub line and get that fire contained and under control.

I have seen over the decades hesitancy to do the appropriate back-burns when the reality is that the fire is coming at you. The big one was just over 20 years ago when there was one in Ngarkat Conservation Park that was burning towards the Mallee Highway. Before it could get to the Mallee Highway it had to go through many thousands of acres of farmland. Notwithstanding the fact that the fire was predicted to come out of that park at 90 km/h with the winds behind it, there was no decision made to light a back-burn, which would have been the most sensible decision that day.

We need to be far more proactive on a fireground when the stark reality is that you do have to sacrifice some country to get the best outcome. You end up with lawsuits and many hundreds of acres of farmland burnt. It is interesting that with a fire coming at that ferocity, the CFS and the powers that be deemed that the place to hold it was the Mallee Highway. That was barely big enough to hold that fire, so I think some learnings came out of that.

When I was down on Kangaroo Island helping with the mop-up I witnessed that there was some serious work done, even on one road near Vivonne Bay where they actually got the scrub chain, the anchor chain, out between a couple of dozers and chained down massive trees—probably 20 metres high—all up one side of the road as a firebreak. I saw a contractor and an Army bulldozer clearing a big break, probably at least 150 metres wide, of similar-sized trees on the way to Kingscote as a last-ditch firebreak, so it was good to see some reality there.

Having recently been over to Kangaroo Island, it is good to see that on the North Coast Road coming back from Stokes Bay down towards Cape Borda, I think it is, a decent-sized break has been made. I think it is about 80 metres wide; it possibly could be wider, but at least there is a break in the parkland there to help contain those lightning strikes that will probably happen again—noting that the last big fire before 2019-20 on Kangaroo Island was in 2007.

They do keep going and they do keep coming. I certainly acknowledge, in talking about the big effort in that huge fire where about 50 per cent of the island was burnt, that it was MFS, CFS and local units in attendance. It was a massive job done by all.

Certainly the biggest one locally was the Yumali-Netherton fire, five years ago this year. Many local people went out with their farm firefighter unit, and the CFS were there, the strike teams came up from the South-East and from close into Adelaide, which was very welcome after we had been out all day. They attended to it at night and then a lot of us were back on the scene the next morning, either helping mop up or having to put down sheep, shooting sheep and assisting distraught landowners who could not do that themselves.

Sadly, there were a few burns out of that—we were lucky that people did not get killed. Two women were in a ute that was about to be overwhelmed; thankfully they just parked, shut the windows and the fire went over the top and they came out completely unscathed. I saw that ute later, completely burnt to the ground. We can never underestimate the work done by the people who go to put out fires—our Country Fire Service, Metropolitan Fire Service and those farmers and others on the ground with their farm firefighter units. Anything can happen on the day, especially when you have a 30-kilometre breeze coming behind you and you can feel the heat—you know it is on.

People go out—because that is what they do in country areas—to assist their communities and put out these fires. It is great to see more infrastructure over time going in. I know that Coomandook will get a new station not that far down the track, a three-bay station, to house the 34 truck, the 44 truck and the bulk water tanker. The other thing that CFS do in country areas is a lot of roadworks. I was there one night when a truck burnt to the ground. It is pretty ferocious when turbos get hot in motors and other things; electrical faults light up semitrailers and B-doubles and it is quite a sight. You do what you can to get the truck out, but usually it is pretty fierce by the time you get there, then you try to save the surrounding areas.

Another thing that firefighters do, in an interesting way I suppose, is bring joy to people's lives. One of my constituents in a rest home in Murray Bridge—Resthaven—was turning 100. I turned up and saw her and I talked to her daughter. I said, 'What does your mum really want for her birthday?' The birthday was two days later, but I could not be there that day so I was there a couple of days earlier. She said 'She'd like to see some firemen turn up'. I thought, 'I have to pull some magic as the local member here'. I went through the process, and the local Metropolitan Fire Service are retained fireys, so they have to come off their normal work. They brought in a truck and there were two or three of them there. She got a real kick out of it—they pulled up out the front of Resthaven and entertained her just outside the rest home. That is something that brings a little bit of light to people's lives, especially toward the end of their life.

I truly support the commitment of all our firefighters, whoever they are—they do lay their lives on the line. Things are getting better, obviously, with burnover drills. We heard about the terrible incident at Lynton, where they got burnt in their truck, and we have to do a burnover drill every year to make sure we know all the survival techniques, but sometimes you are not in that situation. You have to be very aware on the fireground. May our firefighters be safe in the coming seasons.