South Australia is one of the few jurisdictions in Australia to have increased funding for emergency services in the previous financial year, according to a new Commonwealth report.

In 2024-25, South Australia’s total government grant funding increased by $9.8 million compared to 2023-2024.

The increase comes as our emergency services are responding to more incidents than ever before.

The Report on Government Services shows South Australian fire services responded to 33,419 fires and other emergencies in 2024/25, up from the 32,770 reported in 2023/24.

The number of SES incidents also increased from a total of 7,267 incidents in 2023-24 to 8,025 in 2024-25, largely due to floods, storms and other natural disasters.

The SA SES also saw a significant increase in women volunteering with the service taking on an additional 75 women over the previous financial year with volunteer numbers increasing across all age groups.

Reported fires and other primary incidents attended - The total number of system-initiated false (unwanted) alarms has decreased (8164 to 7666), and the number of malicious false calls has remained steady.

Non-fire rescue activity incidents have remained relatively steady over the past 5 years (7591 in 2020-21 compared to 7508 in 2024-25).

Fire related injury hospitalisations have continued for a five-year downward trend reaching 10.5 hospitalisations per 100,000 people.

Extreme weather-related injury hospitalisations have decreased steadily since 2019. Heat related hospitalisations declined from 14.8 per 100,000 (2019-20 to 2021-22) to 8.6 per 100,000 (2021-22 to 2023-24)

Insurance claims related to fire events (excluding bushfires) increased both in number of claims being made and value. 580 claims in 2024-25 totalling $65.1 million compared to 544 claims valued at $49.8 million.

South Australia has also maintained its strong firefighting frontline capacity with 10,720 firefighters throughout the state.

Quotes

Attributable to Rhiannon Pearce

Our emergency services are busier than ever, and this is why the Malinauskas Government continues to invest in training, equipment and other resources.

I’m really pleased to see the SA SES is attracting more women than ever before and that they continue to see volunteers increase across all age groups.

South Australia is fortunate to have such professional emergency services including the dedicated volunteers who give their time to keeping our communities safe.