NSW RFS chief Shane Fitzsimmons slams Labor over budget cut claims

A stoush has erupted over the funding of the NSW Rural Fire Service, with fire boss Shane Fitzsimmons taking aim at Labor after frontbencher Trish Doyle claimed he was a puppet for the government.

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Rural Fire Service chief Shane Fitzsimmons has delivered an unprecedented slapdown of a Labor frontbencher after she claimed he was a puppet for the government.

Opposition emergency services spokeswoman Trish Doyle had accused Emergency Services Minister David Elliott of “forcing” Mr Fitzsimmons to declare the fire service had “never had it so good”.

The politicisation of the bureaucracy by Mr Elliott was a “disgraceful act of base political cowardice”, Ms Doyle declared.

The statements, made in the final parliamentary sitting week, triggered a scathing response from the fire chief, who described the allegation he had been told what to say as “personally offensive”.

NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty

Labor MP Trish Doyle took aim at Mr Elliott and the RFS. Picture: Tim Hunter

In a letter sent to Ms Doyle on Tuesday, Mr Fitzsimmons noted how he had served “eight or nine” ministers from both sides since his 2007 appointment by a Labor government.

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The accusation risked undermining his integrity and credibility as commissioner, he said.

“It truly disappoints me to feel the need to write to you concerning the ongoing dialogue regarding the NSW RFS budget and more specifically, comments contained in Hansard … that draw into question my role as Commissioner of the NSW RFS,” he wrote.

“Any suggestion that I would be forced to do anything, let alone anything that wasn’t right is personally offensive,” he wrote.

NSW has been hit with an early bushfire season, which has devastated the state. Picture: Nathan Edwards

The state government has been accused of cutting the operational budgets of the fire service by as much as $26.7 million.

The government has explained the reduction on the exclusion of expenses for natural disasters, while the capital expenditure did not include previously funded “one off” items such as buying large air tanker.

Originally published as NSW RFS chief Shane Fitzsimmons slams Labor over budget cut claims