23 June 2026

Mr GAFFNEY (Mersey) - Thank you, Mr President. I rise to speak about the dedication and passion of our voluntary marine rescue services and the community of volunteers that support them. Our seven volunteer marine rescue, or VMR units, are spread across Tasmania as St Helens Marine Rescue; Freycinet VMR; Tamar Sea Rescue; VMR Kingborough; Ulverstone VMR; Wynyard VMR; and Sea Rescue Dodges Ferry. The seven units are split into two affiliations with Volunteer Marine Rescue Tasmania, or VMRT Inc., as their peak body to provide 24/7 on water support and resources to assist Tasmania Police. VMRT includes Sea Rescue Dodges Ferry; Freycinet VMR; Ulverstone VMR; and St Helens Marine Rescue. There's also a strong correlation with Surf Life Saving Tasmania, with the remaining three of our VMR units being directly affiliated with SLST. They are VMR Kingborough; Tamar Sea Rescue; and Wynyard VMR.

Between them all, they are community based sea rescue units providing critical marine safety services in coastal waters for vessels in distress, routine tows, and emergency communications. They also provide an invaluable source of advice and local information for visiting boaters: local hazards and compliance with safety regulations and on the use and disposal of flares and EPIRB devices.

Whilst the government did recognise the value of voluntary marine rescue services in its 2024 election commitments, with $1 million in 2024/25 to be allocated equally amongst the seven volunteer marine rescue units in the state - that is $142,857 each - there is no ongoing funding for this purpose. Late last year there was a further commitment with a three-year funding agreement with the MRT providing a total of $240,000 - that's $80,000 per annum - to support the operations of the MRT's affiliated units. The $20,000 in annual funding provided to each of the four MRT units was expected to contribute towards operational costs. It was also anticipated that would be used to fund appropriate training and development opportunities for its members.

Despite the best of intentions, it still leaves a gap that has to be filled with a variety of fundraising initiatives such as sausage sizzles, container collection refunds and the like, and that's just to raise enough money for operational expenses such as fuel for the boat, let alone pay for insurance, uniforms and equipment. Half the problem is the status of VMOs that it's not included under the definition of a statutory service under the Emergency Management Act 2006 and therefore not formally recognised by the Tasmanian state government in the same way as SES volunteers, volunteer firefighters, or volunteer ambulance officers. Therein lies the crux of the problem. The bureaucratic conundrum in legislation sees VMR as an offshoot of SLST and more aligned with sport and recreation. In reality, VMR is an essential statutory service and led by volunteers with expectation that it operates under police direction.

As an example, I'd like to include a comment from Al Hort who is a volunteer trainer with the Marine Rescue Ulverstone, where he brings 15 years of experience as a deckhand, engineer and master on all manner of craft. He says:

We operate across five councils: Wynyard, Burnie, Devonport, Ulverstone and Latrobe. Only Ulverstone seems to know that we exist. It would be great to have the profile of VMR raised across the councils and to get support from these councils as we fulfil an important emergency service in their communities.

It's not just money we need but help to run the organisation and recruiting new members, et cetera. We've been struggling to get things done, for example, like the child protection policy. We are not bureaucrats.

Al also gave me a keen insight into his motivation for trying to make a difference. He says:

In light of the accident in Ballina with the death of two volunteer marine rescue members, I've decided to grab the bull by the horns and rattle cages to get the best result for VMR.

Training an resources are critical to safety and talking with Mr Hort, he said sometimes they have to weigh up where they're going to do a practice run or a training run because they can't afford the fuel to be able to go out there. But they do it so that when they needed in crucial times, they have the right training. I believe that's something that we need to address.

VMR across Tasmania has lots of people, like Al, who are trying their very best and doing their damnedest to make a difference to reduce the number of preventable drownings and better protect the volunteers that work so hard to save them. VMR is our answer to the UK's National Lifeboat Service but run on the smell of an oily rag and without the millions of dollars, it fully supports the UK equivalent.

I call on the government to look again at support for the VMR units across Tasmania and also to raise the awareness with my fellow colleagues in this place to assist wherever they can that's possible.