NSW disaster agency axed and hero Shane Fitzsimmons shown the door

Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons will retire from public service after thirty years in the sector after government orders demanded Resilience NSW be abolished.

Resilience NSW commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Resilience NSW has been abolished and commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons – who rose to prom­inence during the Black Summer bushfires – made redundant.

More than 200 staff attended a meeting on Thursday afternoon at which Mr Fitzsimmons ­revealed it had not been his choice to leave the public service after more than 30 years.

It is understood Mr Fitzsimmons’ termination from a role paying between $345,000 and $487,000 a year will take ­effect on Friday.

It comes after floods earlier this year triggered a government ­inquiry examining the state’s emergency services response. The inquiry, led by former NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller and scientist Mary O’Kane, recommended the dissolution of Resilience NSW after finding a failure by management to learn from previous disasters and previous reviews. With a budget blowout totalling $38.5m due to employee-related expenses across 245 staff, the report called for the body to be made “leaner” by assigning ­responsibilities to other departments. It also recommended the establishment of a new body, ­Recovery NSW, that would not be headed by Mr Fitzsimmons.

The inquiry found a “majority of submissions” were critical of Resilience NSW and its slowness and unresponsiveness “exacerbated the stresses resulting from the disaster”. “Resilience NSW demonstrated some of the biggest failures of the NSW government’s response to the floods,” the­ ­inquiry’s report said.

It is understood 185 Resilience NSW positions will be transitioned to Recovery NSW, 31 will move to the Department of Premier and Cabinet, 16 to the Department of Communities and Justice, and five to NSW Police.

“Shane has worked tirelessly for the people of NSW and I can’t thank him enough for his ­dedicated service and support,” Emergency Services, Resilience and Flood Recovery Minister Steph Cooke said.