The NSW State Emergency Services (SES) Commissioner has defended the work of volunteers in the wake of the flood inquiry report, as she calls for more funding.
Key points:
- The SES has received 64,000 requests for assistance this financial year, up from 42,000
- Commissioner York disagrees with the flood report that the organisation failed to carry out its work
- She has urged volunteers to keep strong and “keep your chin up”
Carlene York’s plea comes as data shows the organisation had its biggest year on record.
More than 64,000 requests for assistance were received between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022 — an increase from 42,000 in the previous financial year.
Flood rescues also increased along with road crash rescues and storm assistance.
Commissioner York said volunteers had always helped the community at their time of need, despite “disappointing” budget cuts over the years.
“We have been really trying to do a lot with our training and managing the money and the resources that we have,” she said.
“But obviously, these recent events the continuity of the events across New South Wales show that it is time that the SES got future funding.”
In June, the state government announced that $132 million would go towards “future-proofing” the agency.
Ms York said it was a welcome first step, and while the “enhancement” showed “appreciation”, it needed more
“I look at what the Rural Fire Service got after the recent bushfires in 2019 2020. I look at the need for more trainers for more run flood rescue operators for better facilities.”
She also said the SES would be compiling business cases and costings and putting a dollar figure to government.
A spokesperson for the Minister for Emergency Services Steph Cooke said the SES had received it’s single largest investment in the organisations history.
“That funding was part of a record $4.2 billion budget investment in emergency services,” they said.
“The NSW government is committed to ensuring all emergency services organisations have the funding and resources they need to protect communities.”
Last week’s report into the state’s devastating floods found the volunteer body was “unprepared” to respond to large scale disasters, failing to warn and protect communities.
“I don’t agree that the word failure should be used,” Commissioner York said.
“It’s the result of poor planning decisions, cuts to our budget, significant weather events increasing over that time, building of infrastructure.
“There’s many, many government departments and many decisions that are made by all levels of government in relation to how we prepare and prevent for natural disasters.”
Woodburn SES Commander Ashley Slapp was stranded with hundreds of people and their animals in a temporary evacuation centre during the Northern Rivers flooding event.
He’s also disappointed at the negativity in the report, saying that members of his team “worked around the clock” — like many other volunteers across the state.
“No one stopped. No one went home. No one said I’ve had enough,” he said.
“It boggles my mind all the time when I think of why it’s been said that we didn’t do all we could.
“They’re [the members] obviously disheartened … for someone to not only not recognise the amount of work that you did, the effort you put in, the sacrifice you made, the risk you took but to be criticised on that, it’s not fair.”
Mr Slapp hopes people won’t be put off joining as the state potentially heads into another wet summer with a predicted return of La Niña.
Commissioner York shares his concerns.
“I will be having conversations with the Department of Premier and Cabinet on how we can put in extra opportunities for our volunteers, improve the service and respond”.
“But you know, we’ve just got to accept sometimes some of these significant events at a point in time over a very short period when the weather comes down in those unexpected areas will stretch any organisation.
“So I say to those volunteers keep strong. Keep your chin up. You have done a fantastic job in helping the communities when you are called out.”
NSW SES Commissioner defends volunteers and calls for more funding in wake of flood report & Latest News Update
NSW SES Commissioner defends volunteers and calls for more funding in wake of flood report & More Live News
All this news that I have made and shared for you people, you will like it very much and in it we keep bringing topics for you people like every time so that you keep getting news information like trending topics and you It is our goal to be able to get
all kinds of news without going through us so that we can reach you the latest and best news for free so that you can move ahead further by getting the information of that news together with you. Later on, we will continue
to give information about more today world news update types of latest news through posts on our website so that you always keep moving forward in that news and whatever kind of information will be there, it will definitely be conveyed to you people.
NSW SES Commissioner defends volunteers and calls for more funding in wake of flood report & More News Today
All this news that I have brought up to you or will be the most different and best news that you people are not going to get anywhere, along with the information Trending News, Breaking News, Health News, Science News, Sports News, Entertainment News, Technology News, Business News, World News of this made available to all of you so that you are always connected with the news, stay ahead in the matter and keep getting today news all types of news for free till today so that you can get the news by getting it. Always take two steps forward
Credit Goes To News Website – This Original Content Owner News Website . This Is Not My Content So If You Want To Read Original Content You Can Follow Below Links