NSW Floods: SES vaccine requirement blamed for low numbers at inquiry
During a flood inquiry at Murwillumbah the shockingly low number of SES volunteers was brought to light, and locals say it’s because of the Covid-19 vaccination requirement. Vote in our poll >>>
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A meeting as part of the upper house inquiry into flooding in New South Wales has brought to light the issue of low numbers in the SES.
And locals blame the vaccination requirement.
The NSW Upper House flood inquiry was held in Murwillumbah on June 1 where speakers were given the opportunity to discuss the response to the major flooding in New South Wales.
Together the four North Coast leaders demonstrated reasons and examples of where Resilience NSW and other key government agencies failed in their response to the catastrophic flooding that has left the region decimated.
The multi-party committee listened to harrowing stories of homelessness, lack of power to store food, and community members still sleeping in their cars.
Among several other issues discussed at the Murwillumbah forum, the low numbers of SES in the Northern Rivers was brought to light.
Member for Tweed Geoff Provest told the inquiry in the region there were only 20 to 30 volunteers with only half of them active and a number of them over the age of 60.
“We’ve got 1 per 1500, 2000 – in Sydney it’s 1 per 500,” Mr Provest said.
SES have 11 local units in the Northern Rivers region, three within the Tweed; Murwillumbah, Tweed Head and Tweed Coast.
Mr Provest criticised the flood inquiry, stating there had been several after previous floods.
“Each flood we have a review like this, come up with a heap of suggestions and most of them never see the light of day,” he said.
He brought up issues with the lack of coordination, resources the SES weren’t trained to use, and failing to use local knowledge.
“The last review in 2017 spoke highly of local knowledge … moving away from tech and predictions,” he said.
“That never eventuated.”
Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry said the Covid-19 vaccination requirement had impacted numbers in the SES.
“We have had that real blow through our resourcing,” she said.
According to the department of health’s latest numbers 91 per cent of the Tweed Shire is fully vaccinated, and neighbouring Byron Shire is 86.4 per cent fully vaccinated.
Former SES volunteer of 15 years Phil Davidson spoke at the inquiry asking for the mandate to be removed which was greeted by applause from the public.
“I’ve been trained for everything, flood boats, everything, and I cannot volunteer for the SES because I have not had the vax,” Mr Davidson said.
“I’m not anti-vax, I’m just not sticking that poison in my body.”
SES was contacted for comment but said as the inquiry was ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.
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