Rural Fire Brigade Volunteers; the backbone of a resilient community

12 July 2013

Hon Campbell Newman MP

Department of the Premier and Cabinet

Level 15, Executive Building

100 George Street

BRISBANE QLD 4000

Open letter to the Honourable Campbell Newman MP, Premier of Queensland from the Rural Fire Brigades Association Queensland (RFBAQ)

Dear Premier

The RFBAQ is the acknowledged organisation that represents Rural Fire Brigades in Queensland which comprises 34,000 volunteers in over 1,400 Rural Fire Brigades who in times of disaster not only support their local communities, but also the wider Queensland community through hazard reduction burning, fire-fighting, flood clean-up and cyclone response; and it is through volunteers in the yellow coats, riding the yellow trucks that this state is able to defend itself from all of the hazards that endanger the whole Queensland community.

The RFBAQ sees the proposed Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue Levy as an opportunity for your Government to emplace an assured, ongoing, reasonable and rational way of supporting all volunteer fire brigades across Queensland.

Under the existing system, all Rural Fire Brigades (RFBs) do not have access to an assured system of financial support with almost 1,000 of the 1,400 RFBs in Queensland receiving no financial support. This current system sees the funding of RFBs drawn as a Special Rate or Charge (Rural Fire Levy) under the Local Government Act that allows for Local Government to set the rate locally, collect the rate locally and distribute the rate to the RFBs locally. This has been in existence for over 20 years and has seen many RFBs access and maintain fire-fighting vehicles and buildings to better protect their local communities. The RFBAQ has historically supported RFBs and Local Government working co-operatively in providing for their communities defence.

The Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue Levy as proposed by Treasury would now see the landholders in Queensland protected by the 424 RFBs who are supported financially by the Local Government Act now have to pay and additional levy with none of the revenue being directed back to RFBs for operational costs, vehicle maintenance, building maintenance, contents of 1st aid kits and the plethora of ancillary running expenses of a RFB. Additionally, for the approximately 1,000 RFBs who have previously not received a levy from their Local Government, and have had to access equipment through grants, the running of chook raffles and generally through subsidising the brigade out of their own pockets, the proposed Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue Levy would see landholders for the 1st time pay a levy with none of the money sticking to the local RFBs for improvements in community defence.

As stated above, the RFBAQ sees the proposed Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue Levy as an opportunity for your Government to take the lead in being able to support the RFBs, as Queensland is the only State in Australia that does not as yet have a workable and sustainable funding model for Volunteer Rural Fire Brigades.

The RFBAQ suggest that with minor changes to the proposed Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue Levy a workable and equitable model can be achieved within the proposed framework as delivered in the State Budget.

Our proposed model would see that the Rural Fire Levy as collected by Local Government under the Local Government Act discontinued and acknowledged for the works that it has achieved for RFBs across Queensland, and all RFB levy income now come from the Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue Levy.

That for the RFBs who have been in receipt of the previous Rural Fire Levy, that a portion ($40) of each new levy be distributed directly to RFBs by the Local Government with the balance of the proposed Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue Levy then being returned as directed in the Regulation.

For the approximately 1,000 RFBs who have not previously received any levy, a portion ($40) of each new levy be managed by the proposed District Fire Management Group* (*Malone Review into the Rural Fire Service) through establishment of a local RFB co-operative account. For RFBs that do not have bank accounts, the District Fire Management Group would manage an auditable bank account for RFBs to be able to draw upon for equipment and necessary support.

The above proposed amendments to the distribution of the proposed Emergency Management, Fire and Rescue Levy would also see that RFB funding would increase in line with the increases in the Regulation as set by Parliament.

With consideration and adoption of the RFBAQ proposal as outlined in this open letter, your Government would set a precedent in Queensland history for providing a basis for supporting the 34,000 Queensland volunteer fire-fighters in an ongoing, equitable system that is accountable, transparent and recognises that while volunteers are unpaid, their time is priceless.

Yours faithfully

M Garrahy

Mike Garrahy AFSM

President, Toowoomba District Representative

Rural Fire Brigades Association Queensland Inc.

Rural Fire Brigade Volunteers; the backbone of a resilient community