Fire volunteers seek accountability

That's the message from the Emergency Services Volunteers Association (ESVA) to the State Government on bushfire management in WA, saying it wants a chief operations officer appointed and held accountable to an Emergency Services Commissioner.

Last week, the State Government announced it would support all 17 recommendations of the Special Inquiry into the January 2016 Waroona fire, including the implementation of a Rural Fire Service.

But Farm Weekly understands there is deep industry concern that the government's response to the so-called Ferguson Report - chaired by Victorian Country Fire Authority chief Euan Ferguson - will be a white-wash.

Volunteers and local governments have expressed their concerns in relation to the influence of the United Fire Fighters Union over matters involving bushfire management and the lack of experienced bushfire personnel in key positions in the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES).

This approach has caused a lack of confidence in the management of major bushfires by DFES staff who are generally based in the Metropolitan area and sent out to the rural areas.

Former ESVA president John Iffla said the change to a rural fire service must start this year and be managed by the appropriate qualified personnel.

"If this does not happen, it will all be a waste of time and rural communities will be impacted by poor decision making for years to come," he said.

"The process of setting up a rural fire service will take a few years before it is fully functional, but must start as soon as possible with an experienced chief operations officer.

Of the 142 public submissions in response to the Ferguson Report, 88 per cent supported a Rural Fire Service

Despite the Yes Minister-political rhetoric of the government's media release last week, the government has given no indication of its time-frame to implement a Rural Fire Service and Premier Colin Barnett left the question of an independent rural service hanging.

Emergency Services Minister Joe Francis said many of Mr Ferguson's recommendations were being implemented ahead of the upcoming bushfire season.

These included:

* Establishing five pre-formed multi-agency incident management teams for level three incidents, which include representation from both government and volunteers

* Installing Automated Vehicle Location Systems in vehicles and appliances at a cost of $2.4 million.

* Establishing a $2.8m critical messaging system by November 2016 which will issue warnings and provide advice on fire danger ratings and total fire bans. The information will be available on a new Emergency WA website to be promoted through the Are You Ready bushfire campaign

* Issuing identification cards to DFES volunteers in high-risk regions.

* A new Office of Emergency Management (OEM), comprising the State Emergency Management Committee Secretariat and the Office of Bushfire Risk Management will also be established.

* There would also be an independent review into the Emergency Services Levy.

"The new OEM will have a quality assurance role and report directly to the Minister for Emergency Services," Mr Francis said.

Regional Development and Lands Minister Terry Redman also weighed in with a pledge to contribute an additional $15 million of funding from Royalities for Regions to address bushfire risk on government-owned land.

"The need for a greater emphasis on preventing and mitigating risk on Crown land was identified as a key issue by Mr Ferguson and the government has reacted swiftly to allocate additional funding to this area ahead of the 2016-17 bushfire season," Mr Redman said.

"The increased funding will be accessible to various State Government agencies responsible for land within and adjacent to regional town sites as part of government's strong desire to see a more co-ordinated approach to address risks on Crown land."

ESVA executive officer Merv Austic, a former DFES staff member, said some of the money would be better spent on the establishment of an independent Rural Fire Service with its own chief operations officer being held accountable by a Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner.

"We would argue that for between five and $10m a network of key staff who are appropriately qualified and appointed independently could be formed as part of a transition towards an independent Rural Fire Service," he said.

"It can be started now, with the appointment of a chief operations officer to oversee the development of the Rural Fire Service.

"All Mr Barnett has to do is to appoint a chief operations officer with experience similar to Mr Ferguson, along with a number of other experienced bushfire staff to start the formation of a Rural Fire Service.

"Then appointments should be made involving between 20 and 30 bushfire mitigation officers to oversee the bushfire risk management planning and become operational during the summer months to form part of a chain of command working with local volunteers.

"The critical aspect of these appointments must be that people come from a bush fire background.

"This can be done quickly and simply with accountability for new funding arrangements.

"We see this as a cost-effective and practical solution that can be started now.

"If it happens, we can start the building blocks for a rural fire service and in 12 months time an independent rural fire service could be in place.

"And you would have major support from local government authorities."

Mr Austic said local governments bushfire brigades could be given the opportunity to transition to the Rural Fire Service.

"But local government would still remain responsible for fire prevention.

"Bushfire brigades would be fully supported by a number of mandated committees so their voice would be heard throughout WA."

According to Mr Barnett, Mr Ferguson's recommendation for the establishment of a Rural Fire Service emphasised the importance of local knowledge and experience in fighting bushfires.

"The State's volunteer fire-fighters do a magnificent job and their expertise in fighting bushfires needs to be better utilised," he said.

"The State Government will establish a Rural Fire Service as either a separate agency or sub-department of DFES.

"Consultation will take place with relevant agencies such as the Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPAW), DFES, local government, volunteer fire-fighters and the United Firefighters Union of WA to investigate the best model."

In a media release following the government's announcement, the Association of Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades gave the government a tick of approval, presumably assuming it would "proceed with the establishment of an independent Rural Fire Service, in a new approach to protecting communities from the ever present threat of bushfires."

While the government has made no such "independent" pledge, association president David Gossage said it welcomed the government's announcement to adopt this key recommendation.

"The news will be welcomed across a large swathe of our State that is exposed to the annual threats posed by bushfires," he said.

"The association, with the support of other rural and emergency services groups, and rural communities in general, has worked hard to convince the government to follow the Ferguson Inquiry recommendations as a way to improving the State's bush fire management capability."

"The association looks forward to a new Rural Fire Service restoring proper local community control over their bush fire management.

"We are confident that such an authority will work well with DFES and DPAW in better protecting our communities exposed to the risk of bushfires."

Esperance farmer and WAFarmers senior vice president Mic Fels has welcomed funding for mitigation work.

"We think that the $15 million being offered over four years to address bushfire risk on government-owned land is a fantastic outcome," Mr Fels said.

He said while a Rural Fire Service would definitely help in terms of what to do when dealing with a fire, mitigation really helped in reducing the impact of future fires.

"You go back one step further than actually putting out a fire, reducing the risk is key in terms of how big these fires get and so on," Mr Fels said.

Mr Fels said previous funding arrangements had incentivised the State to deal with response to fires, rather than mitigation.

"This is certainly not about WAFarmers taking credit, the State Government should be given a lot of credit for actually listening to the people on the ground and doing something about concerns."

Mr Fels also said he hoped the WA Government would leverage off this funding and try and get the Federal Government to match it.

"Funding of $15m is a great start, but if we could have a pool of $30m that we could keep in a trust fund for mitigation work, it would be of great benefit to WA and to reducing the impact of fire in this State," he said.