farmdoc's blog post number 329

Leonards Hill, 10km south of Daylesford in Victoria, is named after timber splitter W P Leonard who took up 143 acres there in the 1860s. Though a small town, Leonards Hill has a Country Fire Authority brigade. The brigade captain, Sue Waters (great surname for a firefighter), led her team fighting the ‘Musk Vale-Hogans Road’ bushfire. On 26 February, with the fire still raging, Victorian Premier John Brumby visited Leonards Hill, met with Ms Waters, and praised thousands of CFA volunteers, including her. She asked the Premier for funding to provide her brigade with a four-wheel-drive slip-on truck, adding “The slip-on we have at the moment, which was bought with funds raised by the brigade, is only two-wheel drive…(and)…it’s not really enough for the terrain we have around here”. I’ll wager she’s had no reply yet. It’s disgraceful Victorian brigades aren’t fully funded. All brigades in tiny Tasmania are. Fancy having to raise funds to buy a fire truck. Premier Brumby has no qualms paying Bernie Ecclestone $47M a year for a blighted car race, yet the fire brigades in his State lack essential equipment; and need to fundraise for the equipment they do have. It’s time to get your spending priorities right, Premier. $47M would buy a lot of appliances and equipment which would benefit Victorians infinitely more than a Grand Prix. So, sir, get real – before the voters wake up to your insensitivity, duplicity and stupidity.