Volunteers firefighters suspended for speaking out not told about allegations against them

Authorities have denied CFS volunteers have been banned from speaking to the media as new claims emerge about a lack of justice in the service’s disciplinary tactics.

Volunteer firefighters issued with suspensions for speaking out about concerns within the CFS are often not made aware of the allegations against them, members say.

It comes as The Advertiser revealed the CFS was gagging its members from voicing concerns about the equipment shortfalls and lack of support within the organisation.

However, on Saturday, the CFS denied these claims and labelled them as “untrue”.

CFS volunteer Adrian Packer said one of his colleagues was suspended under “Reg 21” for speaking out and accused of bringing the organisation into disrepute.

“There’s this person that’s been suspended and then no one from the CFS, no one has interviewed him, put allegations to him, spoken to him, given him a chance to defend himself for nine months,” Mr Packer said.

“I’m just asking for natural justice which every member of the Australian community is entitled to but as soon as you’re a CFS member, – no.”

A “Reg 21” is a suspension letter barring members from their brigades and gagging them from speaking about any allegations against them.

CFS members put out a fire which reached Hay bails on a property at Mount Torrens in the Adelaide Hills. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Section 21 (1b) of the Fire and Emergency Services Regulations 2021 states a member of a SACFS organisation who, “in the performance of official duties or otherwise, behaves in a manner that reflects or is likely to reflect adversely on SACKS, is liable to disciplinary action”.

Another CFS volunteer, who asked to remain anonymous, said suspended members often didn’t receive a letter outlining allegations against them.

“Before they would either post it or email it but now the staff won’t even do that,” they said.

“They’ll send it through a group officer to do it and the poor volunteer doesn’t get a chance to reply to it.”

The senior volunteer said these practises were disgusting and could have a deadly impact on the firefighters and locals they were trying to protect because there weren’t enough members.

They said there had been a high turnover of volunteers recently because they were refusing to stand by an organisation that was “gaging people left and right”.

“Someone is going to get hurt this fire season,” they said.

“We’ve lost too many good staff that raised concerns with their chain of command and now we have staff now with no fire experience and they are making operational decisions.

“You should be embarrassed that we’ve lost our good staff, we should be keeping our staff.”

It comes as regional South Australia is facing one of its most dangerous fire seasons in years.

During a press conference about the opening of a new $5m SES Unit in Noarlunga,

A Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services Joe Szakacs. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

Emergency Service Minister Joe Szakacs denied volunteers were being gagged for speaking out about their concerns.

Mr Szakacs said he had spoken to SA Country Fire Service Chief Officer Brett Loughlin in the past 12 hours who told him it wasn’t true.

Mr Loughlin told The Advertiser the allegations were incorrect.

“This is simply a representation of the process,” he said.

“We do not suspend people for talking out or raising concerns.

“We do not stop our people from speaking out and in fact we have an exhaustive list of committees and consultative arrangement in place because our people are in the front line and we want to hear from them.”

Another CFS volunteer, who wanted to remain anonymous, when they tried to follow the chain of command “nothing happens”.

“When we are contacting higher officers we get shrugged off,” they said.

Originally published as Volunteers firefighters suspended for speaking out not told about allegations against them