{"id":1955,"date":"2019-03-18T23:41:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T23:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=1955"},"modified":"2019-03-18T23:41:36","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T23:41:36","slug":"labors-national-fire-fighting-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/03\/18\/labors-national-fire-fighting-fleet\/","title":{"rendered":"LABOR\u2019S NATIONAL FIRE FIGHTING FLEET"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Shorten Labor Government will\u00a0boost Australia\u2019s firefighting capabilities with a national fleet of aircraft and dedicated smokejumper units to keep Australians safe from bushfires.
\nAll Australians understand the devastating impact that bushfires have. Lives are lost, homes destroyed and communities shattered.
\nOur firefighters and emergency services personnel are among the best in the world, and they do a tremendous job, often putting their own lives at risk. But they need more support from government.
\nAt the moment, Australia doesn\u2019t have a\u00a0government-owned\u00a0fleet of water bombing aircraft \u2013 making us reliant on borrowing\u00a0from private companies domestically and from\u00a0overseas.
\nThe bushfire season in Australia is lengthening and already overlapping with the northern hemisphere, increasing the risk that we won\u2019t be able to access the aircraft we need at times of peril.
\nAt the same time, the Federal Government\u2019s contribution to the National Aerial Firefighting Centre has plummeted from 50 per cent of funding to just 23 per cent, reducing our overall firefighting capability.
\nThe Bureau of Meteorology has identified\u00a0this summer\u00a0as Australia\u2019s hottest on record,\u00a0which included\u00a0devastating bushfires in Victoria and Tasmania. Now is the time to invest in giving our firefighters the\u00a0resources\u00a0they need\u00a0to keep us all safe.
\nLabor\u2019s national firefighting package will\u00a0deliver:
\n$80 million to establish the National Aerial Bushfire Fighting Fleet of aircraft<\/u><\/strong>
\nThis fleet will provide standing aerial firefighting capacity that can be used on demand in emergencies.
\nIt will include retro-fitted Black Hawk helicopters as they are phased out from active use by the Australian Army and Erickson S-64 Air-crane helicopters (or \u2018Elvis\u2019 as they are commonly known) which has a 2,650 gallon tank capable of snorkelling or scooping fresh or salt water.
\nIt\u2019s expected that the national fleet will include a standing capability of up to six Large or Very Large Air Tankers, and up to 12 heavy rotary wing helicopters.
\nThe benefits of aerial firefighting are clear. Aircrafts offer speed, access and observation advantages over ground crews. Containment is more effective and the final fire burned area minimised using aerial capability, thereby reducing demand on ground crews.
\nAustralia\u2019s first\u00a0\u2018smokejumper\u2019 units<\/u><\/strong>
\nSmokejumpers are firefighters trained to be rapidly deployed by helicopters at remote fires during the short window during which those fires can be contained.
\nSmokejumpers usually rappel from helicopters and use chain-saws, hoes and other dry firefighting tools to establish a containment perimeter around the fire. They then patrol the perimeter to ensure the fire does not jump containment lines while working with water-bombing aircraft to ensure the contained fire is fully extinguished.
\nCalifornia and other US\u00a0states\u00a0currently have a number of smokejumper units which have proven successful.
\nAs part of the $80 million commitment to establish a fleet, Labor will work with the states and territories to establish smokejumper units across the country.
\n$21 million for the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC)<\/u><\/strong>
\nA Shorten Labor Government will\u00a0stop the Federal Government\u2019s reduction in funding for our firefighting capabilities by returning to a 50-50 funding\u00a0split\u00a0between the states and territories and the Commonwealth.
\nLabor\u2019s investment will\u00a0ease the burden on state and territory governments,\u00a0develop new national programs including a national risk management model, and national research and development programs including trials of new aircraft and night firefighting activities.
\nLabor can pay for new firefighting aircraft the smokejumper units because we are making multinationals pay their fair share and closing tax loopholes for the top end of town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Shorten Labor Government will\u00a0boost Australia\u2019s firefighting capabilities with a national fleet of aircraft and dedicated smokejumper units to keep Australians safe from bushfires. All Australians understand the devastating impact that bushfires have. Lives are lost, homes destroyed and communities shattered. Our firefighters and emergency services personnel are among the best in the world, and … Continue reading “LABOR\u2019S NATIONAL FIRE FIGHTING FLEET”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}