Fire fight over ‘hostile takeover’ of local brigades

A country revolt is brewing over a state government “hostile takeover” of rural fire brigades, under legislation before the Queensland parliament this week.

The legislation, due for a second reading in state parliament on Tuesday, would see a renamed Queensland Fire Department take control of local brigades through Rural Fire Service Queensland from July 1.

Samford Rural Fire Brigade members attending Black Summer fires in 2019-20.Credit: Samford Rural Fire Brigade

Local brigades would no longer be unincorporated associations and would instead fall under the umbrella of the newly formed RFSQ.

“It’s very unusual in government – and I spent 25 years in senior positions in the state government – to simply say, ‘we’re going to nationalise a community organisation’,” Samford Rural Firefighter Brigade deputy chairman John Stalker said.

“Nationalisation is not something we’ve seen extensively in Australia, but it’s in effect what they’re doing – and they’re doing it without any consultation with brigades.”

While introducing the legislation last month, Fire and Disaster Recovery Minister Nikki Boyd said it would provide more support to volunteer firefighters and sought to allay concerns it was a power grab for the state’s professional firefighters.

“I would like to reassure brigade members and volunteers that this is about providing them with legal protections and establishing a separate RFS with its own budget in recognition of the valued and important work that they do,” she said on March 7.

“To be clear: yellow trucks will not need to wait for red trucks to respond to an incident.”

But Rural Fire Brigades Association of Queensland general manager Justin Choveaux said it was a matter of “giving Brisbane more control over the volunteers and brigades”.

Queensland Rural Fire Brigade Association general manager Justin Choveaux

He said the change of local brigades’ legal status would be the “most profound change that has ever happened to rural fire brigades in Queensland” and would discourage volunteerism.

“Right now, a rural fire brigade is an unincorporated association, so it’s a group of people who come together for a common purpose,” Choveaux said.

“In Queensland, a rural fire brigade has more autonomy than any other rural fire service brigade set up anywhere in Australia, which is really cool – it means that our brigades look different, to reflect the individual community needs.

“... Brigades in Queensland all look a little bit different and they have a real flexibility that other states don’t have. As of the first of July, they will lose that.”

Choveaux said there was a cultural divide between volunteer rural firefighters and professional firefighters in urban areas.

“The contract’s different, right?” he said.

“In the city, you pay your money and then you dial triple-zero and someone comes and fixes your problem.

“In the country, you’ve got to fix your own problem and so a rural fire brigade is that empowering organisation that allows you to defend yourself.”

Under the legislation, those in senior roles in the new RFSQ would be required to have rural firefighting experience.

But the Rural Fire Brigades Association was concerned that, in the new structure, they would ultimately be answerable to professional firefighters in the new Queensland Fire Department.

“None of them are volunteers, or from a volunteering background,” Choveaux said.

“They don’t understand the ethos. Sociologically, a rural fire brigade and a fire and rescue station are oil and water and that’s acknowledged across the rest of the country.”

Choveaux said he was also concerned brigade assets would, in effect, be seized by the state.

“As of the first of July, every cent any brigade owns will be owned by the state of Queensland, and we’re talking millions and millions and millions of dollars,” he said.

“It will all be owned by the state of Queensland, which means the state legally can decide what the brigades can spend their money on or not.”

Boyd’s spokesman said: “The minister and the commissioner have been clear – local finances and local assets will be used solely for local purpose.

“Local brigades will continue to be able to access these finances for their own local purposes,” he said.

That did not satisfy Stalker, who said it would be “very limiting” to his Samford brigade, given it was mostly self-funded through volunteer fundraising.

Under the new structure, brigades would have access to debit cards to make purchases up to a to-be-determined limit, at which point a request would have to be made at a higher organisational level.

“Our volunteers have put in the time and effort and they can come along, without notice, and simply withdraw the funds from the brigade,” Stalker said.

At age 70, Stalker said he was limited to support roles these days and was unsure whether he would be able to continue to volunteer his time under the new regime.

“We don’t volunteer to get involved in politics. We volunteer to help our community,” he said.

“The way that they’ve approached this whole issue has meant that we’ve had to start thinking about how the hell do we respond?

“We’ve had to go out and get legal advice on where our brigade stands, because they’re telling us we’ve got to dissolve our unincorporated association status.

“Well to do that, your membership has to vote on it – unless you’ve got a majority vote agreeing that you’re going to dissolve your unincorporated association, you can’t.

“So if we vote against doing it, that means the next step for the Queensland Fire Department will be taking us to the Supreme Court to have us dissolved.”