The following “Dorothy Dix” question without notice was asked by the Member for Bunbury, Mr Don Punch and answered in Parliament today by Emergency Services Minister Hon Fran Logan.
CORONAVIRUS — ECONOMIC RECOVERY — KOOLINUP EMERGENCY SERVICES CENTRE
Mr D. PUNCH to the Minister for Emergency Services:
I refer to the McGowan Labor government’s efforts to support local jobs and drive economic activity as the state recovers from the impacts of COVID-19. Can the minister update the house on this government’s investment in a new multipurpose emergency services facility in Collie; and can the minister outline to the house how this investment will support local jobs, local businesses and local manufacturing?
Mr F. LOGAN replied:
I thank the member for Bunbury for that question and acknowledge his commitment to emergency services in Western Australia. I also acknowledge that only days ago, the two of us visited an arm of emergency services, Marine Rescue Bunbury, to see its new boat Dingo Marley. The dingo came around and said hello to us while we were down there, which was fantastic.
The SPEAKER: I am very impressed, minister.
Mr F. LOGAN:
It was very impressive. The other day before I went to Bunbury I was in Collie for the sod-turning ceremony for the new emergency centre that is in the process of being built in Collie. We were there to do the sod turning and announce the successful tenderer for the construction and give it its new name—the Koolinup Emergency Services Centre, “koolinup” means “to swim” in the local Aboriginal dialect. Obviously, with the Collie River and the other rivers in the area, it is quite an appropriate name for that facility. It will be a terrific $13.4 million facility that will employ 13 full-time employees in Collie. It will primarily be set up to do a number of things. First, it will be a level 3 incident control facility for the broader south west of Western Australia. Collie is an appropriate place to locate the centre. It will be an outreach of the Bunbury district office. It will also deal with the high-season fire fleet. The high season fire fleet in Western Australia—that is, the number of trucks that go to the north and help with the northern season fires and then come back to deal with the southern season fires—continually have to be maintained and upgraded.
Until now, that has been done in O’Connor; the workshops there are full of normal Department of Fire and Emergency Services trucks and equipment, so it is quite appropriate for the high-season fire fleet to be maintained elsewhere. It is perfect that it will be done in Collie. Another thing that is happening in Collie is that right across the road, Frontline Fire and Rescue Equipment is building a very large manufacturing facility that will employ 17 full-time tradespeople to build the 4.4 tankers and the small, fast-attack vehicles based on the Toyota chassis.
Mr P. Rundle: What about the South West Fire services —
The SPEAKER: What about I call you to order for the first time, member for Roe.
Mr F. LOGAN:
I am sure that South West Fire services has plenty of work on at the moment. The member should go down there and have a look. Frontline Fire and Rescue Equipment won the contract to do this work and took it upon itself, after winning the contract, to invest in Collie and create additional full-time jobs.
I cannot speak more highly of the company. It is right opposite the new Koolinup Emergency Services Centre and as those vehicles come off the line with Frontline engineering, they will be rolled into the DFES facility across the road and brought into service for the department. The member for Collie–Preston was there with his fantastic replacement, Jodie Hanns, who is a terrific person and who will carry on the good fight on behalf of Collie. Getting 30 full-time trade-skilled jobs into a place like Collie is absolutely fantastic. Everyone knows what is going to happen in Collie in the future. The number of jobs at the power station and mine will start to decline and to secure jobs for those people who will lose their job either at the mine or the power station is a job well done by the McGowan government.
