Introduced without notice with a greatly reduced time for brigades and communities to have their say, this is bad draft legislation that the Government is trying to ram through Parliament in a hurry.
In January the RFBAQ were given 7 working days to give feedback on draft legislation. Our position was, don’t do it, as it’s very bad.
The Government completely disregarded the voice of the largest stakeholder in fire.
This bad draft legislation gives all the money (almost $1 billion) to Fire & Rescue in the hope that some will trickle down to the Rural Fire Service and Rural Fire Brigades.
This bad draft legislation means that forever more the only person who can ever have control of Fire & Rescue, as well as the Rural Fire Service and Rural Fire Brigades must come from Fire & Rescue.
This bad draft legislation means that forever more the person who will be in charge of reporting and making recommendations on service delivery, integration, innovation, research and culture must forever more come from Fire & Rescue.
The Minister says that this will give greater protection to brigades and volunteers.
New South Wales volunteer firefighters have greater protection than Queensland volunteer firefighters, and their Commissioner doesn’t come from Fire & Rescue.
Victorian volunteer firefighters have greater protection than Queensland volunteer firefighters, and their Commissioner doesn’t come from Fire & Rescue.
South Australian volunteer firefighters have greater protection than Queensland volunteer firefighters, and their Commissioner doesn’t come from Fire & Rescue.
Volunteer firefighters in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are also able to defend their communities to a higher level than volunteer firefighters in Queensland because they have never been restricted and dominated by a smaller service. This is akin to legislation stating forever more the head of Army must come from the Air Force.
Money
This year the budget is $940 million.
While the Minister says in the future the Rural Fire Service will have control of its own budget, the bit that is being missed out is that Rural Fire receives its money from the Fire & Rescue Commissioner. Trickle down fire economics has not worked in favour of Rural Fire Brigades previously in Queensland and under this bad draft legislation it’s not going to get any better.
New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian volunteer fire services don’t receive their funds through Fire & Rescue control, and neither should Queensland Rural Fire.
There is much more in this bad draft legislation that restricts community defence and we recommend that everyone read it.
Link to bill - https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/tp/2024/5724T328-AD98.pdf
Your Say Restricted
Last Friday afternoon, 8th March, the Community Safety and Legal Affairs Committee announced that all submissions regarding the bad draft legislation must be received by 10am on Friday 15th March.
That is less that 1 week for brigades and communities to call a meeting, discuss the bad draft legislation, vote on a position and then choose someone to write the submission.
If ever there was a way of the Government showing its disdain for the Rural Fire Brigades and a complete disregard of how volunteer organisation function, then this is it.
The RFBAQ has written to the Community Safety and Legal Affairs Committee requesting an extension of time to allow brigades to meet and formulate their positions. The Fire Service themselves rule that a brigade must give a minimum of 7 days notice of a meeting and the current Committee period is shorter than that.
During the Committee period for fair firefighter cancer coverage, that the Government was opposed to, the RFBAQ requested an extension of time to allow brigades to have their voices heard. This was granted.
As the process is the same there should be no reason for the Committee not to accept this request from the RFBAQ.
The Government are saying that this bad draft legislation must be approved by 30 June.
Call To Action
We wrote to the Premier and Minister stating that the current Fire Service Act 1990 has many, many failings, but it is far preferable to what the Government is trying to ram through Parliament. If the current Act has hobbled along for 32 years it can make it another couple of months until the State election in October.
All Members of Parliament:
Please vote NO
to this bad draft legislation.
