Labor wrong on fire alarm awareness campaign funding

Once again Labor has been caught out making completely false claims.

Labor claims about supposed cuts to fire alarm awareness campaigns are not only part of a disgraceful scaremongering campaign, they are wrong.

The Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) was part of a national campaign to run television advertising on changing fire alarm batteries that was run in partnership with, and funded by, Duracell Batteries.

That campaign ended earlier this year, but clearly not due to any government cuts because it was not funded by the TFS in the first place.

This is an example of the nonsense that Labor is peddling, along with their spurious assertions regarding Forestry Tasmania’s firefighting capacity, which have also debunked.

As we have consistently said, there have been no cuts to TFS frontline firefighters under this Government; in fact the number has grown.

The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to protecting lives and property from fire, and we have backed that up with a $28.5 million investment over four years in the most comprehensive cross-tenure fuel reduction program in this State’s history.

As a result, Tasmania is better prepared for the summer bushfire season than ever before.

Further, we are investing in our fire service, with $1 million for world-class personal protective clothing to keep our firefighters safe and $15.3 million for the Emergency Services Computer Aided Dispatch project, which will improve the efficiency and safety of all emergency services workers, including firefighters.

Labor is committed to playing politics; the Liberal Government is committed to backing all our emergency services to keep Tasmanians safe.
Rene Hidding, Minister for Police and Emergency Management