News that the State Government intends to cut 208 staff from its Bushfire and Forest Services Group, including 118 from Forest Fire Management (FFM), is causing concern for East Gippsland communities.
Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, said the revelation was dreadful news on two fronts.
“The first is the human element. In towns like Orbost, Omeo, Heyfield, Bairnsdale and Yarram that have FFM workers, it creates a great deal of uncertainty,” Mr Bull said.
“These are communities that have been impacted by the ridiculous decision to close our native timber industry, and now the government plans to cut more jobs which will further impact these local economies.
“The second point is the lack of fuel reduction burning has allowed fuel loads to hit very dangerous levels again and it has left us very vulnerable, which indicates they learned nothing from the 2019/20 fires.
“But on top of that, the government’s response is to make cuts to those who are there to protect us.
“Bottom line on this is, when you allow fuel loads to build up to the levels they are again, it can only end one way in summer, there is no other possible outcome and Labor has now made it worse by weakening the frontline.
“This in the same week local Labor Upper House MP, Harriet Shing, announced funding for a ‘Rainbow Libraries Toolkit’ to encourage public library staff to use preferred pronouns for those visiting libraries. I would question where her priorities lie and their ability to read the room in the region she represents,” said Mr Bull.
“When Parliament resumes next week, I will be seeking to get some undertaking that these jobs, or at least the vast majority of them, come from within the largely do-nothing bureaucrats who sit at office desks in Melbourne and are not taken from front line positions in our communities.”
Mr Bull said this was a classic case of a government not being able to manage their finances and then makes decisions which impact rural and regional communities to try and save.
“Their own Budget figures show they are headed to a $186 billion debt by 2027 and interest repayments of $26 million a day – that is more than a million dollars an hour,” he said.
“Yet, we will go to Parliament next week and hear Labor members drinking their own bathwater saying what a great job they are doing. They are so detached from reality it is laughable.
“How you can have a debt of this magnitude that forces essential services cuts and say you are doing a good job is an oxymoron, but that’s what we are dealing with.”
