 G'day everyone. I'm Jason Heffernan and I'm absolutely honoured to be appointed the new Chief Officer of the Country Fire Authority. In 1998, I started as a volunteer firefighter in the River Marina region of New South Wales, in the city of Wagga Wagga. This started my passion for community-based emergency services. The same passion I know is held by our CFA members across this state. Since starting as a volunteer, I've held several district, regional and executive roles in the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. These roles have given me the foundation to understanding the unique ethos of volunteers and their dedication that they give to their communities. I want to acknowledge the hard work of the CFA leadership over the past five months, during what has been a very challenging time. I'd particularly like to acknowledge the work of Gary Cook, who is Acting Chief Officer, led your CFA through the Fire Services Reform. Gary's unwavering commitment and dedication to this organisation has been nothing short of absolutely admirable. I look forward to working with Gary and the other Deputy Chief Officers, the Executive and most importantly you, the members of the CFA, going forward to ensure that we work hard to make sure we remain a strong, trusted and reliable community-based volunteer and fire emergency service. CFA is a trusted and respected part of all communities across Victoria and our members demonstrate an unwavering commitment to serving their communities. As CFA members place their communities at the centre of everything they do, I as your Chief Officer will do all I can do to empower, champion our members, of which I absolutely expect you to hold me and my leadership team to account. I'm committed to building capability and ensuring that all your volunteers are resourced and supported to undertake the important roles that you do. As demonstrated over the weekend, we are already well and truly into the fire season. I wish to congratulate everyone out there who was prepared for this season, particularly in these COVID times. Over the coming weeks, I'll be travelling the state to meet our members, in particular our senior volunteers, to sit, listen, understand what matters most to our people. I look forward to meeting with you all and working towards making this a greater and stronger CFA together.