March 28, 2019
The Opposition has launched a petition calling on the State Government to abandon its planned restructuring of rural fire brigades and SES groups.
The Rural Fire Brigades Association Queensland (RFBAQ) – the body that represents rural firefighters – has publicly criticised the changes, claiming lack of consultation and has called for a six-month freeze on their implementation.
On Tuesday, the RFBAQ presented Queensland MPs with enamel pannikins that read “Don’t Be A Mug” to press home their concerns about the shake-up.
“Repeated requests for information in writing about what the changes are and what the 21 future changes will mean for Rural Fire Brigades and the communities that they defend have gone unanswered,” a RFBAQ spokesperson said.
“When the Minister was asked to put a freeze on the process for six months so that there could be consultation as well as time for the QFES to create a detailed change management plan and defined future state, the Minister stated that these are operational matters.
“Let’s get to tin tacks. Brigades and volunteer firefighters defend their communities for free and also raise much of the money locally to provide an excellent service across 93 per cent of Queensland.
“To make fundamental change without any consultation to a system that is working well and has proved to be able to defend the whole of Queensland alongside Fire & Rescue and the SES in our year of natural disasters without a detailed plan is very troublesome.”
Opposition emergency services spokesman Lachlan Millar has described the shake-up as a “Brisbane power grab”.
“While the Minister calls his plan ‘regionalisation’, the facts could not be further from the truth,” Mr Millar said.
“This plan strips power from the Rural Fire Service assistance commission and dilutes it amongst the regional assistant commissioners that come from and represent urban firefighting interests, not rural and regional Queensland.”
- External link: LNP petition
- Related article: MPs Bicker Over Fire Changes
