Fears QFES restructure could entrench bad culture, KPMG report finds gender gap

A scathing report into Queensland’s fire service has called for gender quotas and training to end a boys’ club culture as the department is restructured.

There are fears a major restructure of Queensland Fire and Emergency Services will make its boys club culture worse, with an independent report calling for gender quotas and leadership training to be put in place.

The independent review into the effectiveness and efficiency of QFES, done by KPMG, has sparked sweeping reform including transferring parts of the service — including the State Emergency Service (SES) — to Queensland Police.

Police Minister Mark Ryan, who has had the KPMG report since at least late 2021 and a separate report into the SES since 2020, announced the restructure on Wednesday and noted it would take many months to complete.

“To implement the recommendations the government will commit more than $400 million over the next four years, investing in almost 500 additional frontline personnel and delivering better frontline services for all Queenslanders,” he said.

The KPMG report made 19 recommendations to “reform of the delivery of fire and emergency services and disaster management”, with the state government rejecting only one proposal — the introduction of a new $52 yearly levy on households which would have raise $120m for the SES.

Minister for Police and Corrective Services and Minister for Fire and Emergency Services Mark Ryan at a press conference on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The main proposal was to make QFES more fire-focused, with the restructure to create the new “Queensland Fire Department” and include only firefighters and the Rural Fire Service.

The SES — which has decried the clunky organisational structure it is subject to at QFES and through its funding modes — will instead fall under the umbrella of Queensland Police alongside the newly created Marine Services Queensland.

Addressing “cultural challenges” at QFES was also recommended to ensure the service was keeping up with the times.

Stakeholders interviewed for the report were concerned the new slimmed down department would give rise to culture issues, noting the “view of the fire service being ‘a system built by men and for men’” was outdated.

They also noted a “lack of respect between certain services” which was hindering service delivery.

The report found there was a “significant” gap in the gender balance at QFES which was not reflective of society with issues extending to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the LGBTIQ+ community and those with disabilities.

It recommended “specific targets” be implemented to increase representation from each of these communities, similar to the Queensland government’s inclusion and diversity strategy which sets a 50 per cent target of women in leadership by 2025 in the public sector.

“The current gap between the community diversity statistics and the current QFES workforce profile is significant,” the report stated.

As of July 2021, just 19.4 per cent of the entire QFES workforce were women, with the report noting “stakeholders have identified concerns with achieving inclusion across the department”.