Media Release

The $3.2 million Croydon fire station still remains empty while the fire season commences, yet Minister for Police and Emergency Services Bob Cameron continues his silence on the issue.

As reported in the Sunday Herald Sun (October 19) and the Maroondah Journal (August 20), the new station sits empty due to a Union dispute over the location of the exit. On both occasions Bob Cameron has refused to comment.

Minister Cameron has been invisible since his disastrous performance on Melbourne radio in August, when he was unable to convince 3AW’s Neil Mitchell of his competency. In the months since, Bob Cameron has failed to appear at several of his portfolio launches, and has refused to speak to media or answer for his failure to act on issues such as Croydon Fire Station.

Kilsyth MP David Hodgett said, “Hiding from responsibility is bad enough, but failure to address a serious safety issue through either laziness or utter incompetency is unforgivable.”

“We are approaching another summer of record breaking heat, in the middle of a prolonged drought, and the Minister for Emergency services has evidently decided that fire protection is suddenly not important.”

The dispute over the fire station arose after The United Fire-fighters Union refused to sign off on the station as the current design has the fire trucks driving straight out into the busy Dorset Rd and Mt Dandenong Rd intersection. This intersection has a history of serious accidents and carries more than 50,000 vehicle movements each day.

The Melbourne Fire Brigade have claimed that the fire station is safe, but the station will not be in active use until the United Fire-fighters union signs off on the safety of the station, or the Minister intervenes to settle the dispute.