Productivity Commission report shows Victorian volunteer firefighter numbers falling
The state’s volunteer firefighting force is continuing to dwindle, while the cost of career staff across the MFB and CFA has blown out to almost $900 million.
VIC News
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Victoria’s volunteer firefighting force is continuing to shrink while the pay bill for career staff across the MFB and CFA has soared to almost $900 million a year.
New figures show Victoria had 34,483 volunteer firefighters in 2018/19, down from 35,263 two years ago and 36,823 when the Andrews Government came to power in 2014.
The Productivity Commission’s government services report, to be released today, also shows labour costs across the state’s fire services hit $884 million in the last financial year.
That was $40 million more than New South Wales, despite Victoria employing fewer staff.
The fire services wages bill was $600 million in 2014/15 and has shot up since then, reaching $806 million in 2017/18 before another big increase last year.
MFB and CFA crews have endured a relentless summer with bushfires burning more than 1.5 million hectares across East Gippsland and the state’s northeast.
CFA chief officer Steve Warrington said last month that the authority’s “operational capability has not reduced”, despite a reduction in total volunteer numbers.
“The reality is there’s about 20,000 … that actually respond, get in a truck and drive out the door and go and fight fires,” he said at the time.
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“On a regular basis we have 20,000 that respond. Those responding numbers haven’t changed in a number of years.”
The Herald Sun revealed last year that the CFA was 5000 short of its target number of volunteer firefighters and had the fewest signed up since 2006.
The Productivity Commission’s report also showed MFB and CFA crews were called to 80,334 incidents last year, a quarter of which were fires, and responded faster to structure fires than any other state.