The volunteer fire fighting service which protects 93 per cent of Queensland is falling apart as a result of bureaucratic arrogance and incompetence, Gympie-based volunteer representative Justin Choveaux said this week.
Speaking from Rural Fire Brigades Association of Queensland headquarters in Fraser Road on Monday, Mr Choveaux said the explosive findings of a new parliamentary inquiry left the state government with little option but to dismantle and rebuild the entire administration of fire services across the state.
“They don’t supply boots, (suitable) trucks or training, all they say is disputed and volunteers don’t believe a word,“ Mr Choveaux said.
“There’s no going back from this.
The department, he says, must be torn down and rebuilt from scratch.
“Last year, the former Government introduced bad legislation that the LNP and Katters Australian Party voted against.
“The LNP and the KAP were right,“ he said.
“There is no way the department can continue on from this. It was a terrible idea.
“It gives us no joy to be right,“ he said of a report which appears to vindicate years of concerns expressed by the RFBAQ and its affiliated brigades, including about 27,000 volunteer members.
Those concerns are outlined in the report of the “Inquiry into Volunteering in Queensland,“ released last weekend.
“We hope the Crisafulli Government will give us an undertaking to work towards a separate and independent rural fire service with its own legislation, access to money, and under the direct control of a board, comprised of rural fire brigade members of long standing, who will operate under policy direction but have control over all matters that are operational.“
The six-member parliamentary committee received 500 submissions and held hearings in Gympie, Emerald, Dalby, Rockhampton, Roma, Brisbane, Cairns, Cooktown, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and Townsville.
Rural fire brigades had lost 3485 volunteer members between 2019-20 and April this year, the committee noted.
“Rural fire volunteers were generally of the view that the decrease in their membership was a direct reaction to the significant concerns that they highlighted throughout the inquiry,“ committee members found.
The report said voluntary associations, from social clubs, emergency and service organisations, the Justice of the Peace system and sporting bodies received volunteer contributions from 2.8 million Queenslanders, contributing effort valued at $117 billion.
But volunteering was in decline, having fallen by nearly 200 million hours from 2020 to 2023.
Committee members expressed disappointment at apparently irreconcilable tensions within fire fighting services, particularly between volunteer rural brigades and paid officials in the largely urban-based Queensland Fire Department, which was created under legislation last year.
Volunteers had complained of bullying and equipment and infrastructure bottlenecks and complex administrative and accounting procedures tending to make the service hard for volunteers to run.
They also complained of being treated disrespectfully by the department’s paid administrators.
Another issue has been the expense, online complexity and inconvenience of Blue Card requirements, despite fire fighters rarely if ever having contact with children.
Some issues had continued from the previous departmental body, the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service.
