Fire and Emergency Services (Volunteer Charters) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (16:44): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Fire and Emergency Services Act 2005. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (16:45): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This amendment to the Fire and Emergency Services Act specifically deals with volunteer charters. I introduce this bill today because a promise was made to the CFS during the time of the proposed amalgamations to the emergency services back in 2015, and at this point in time the government has not honoured that promise. To be fair to the new minister, I place on the public record that I met with the new minister and I talked to him about the fact that I was introducing this bill. He will receive a copy of the bill and my second reading speech on it from my office today or tomorrow at the latest, and he has promised to look at this.

I have said to the minister that this is something on which we need to be multipartisan. Government, opposition and crossbenchers all support the incredible work done by both the CFS and SES, and all the volunteer emergency services, for that matter. I include the paid services as well in the MFS, but they do not need a charter such as is needed for the volunteers.

As I said, the government promised a volunteer CFS charter, a charter that was established in 2008 and signed by the government every four years. They promised that it would be enshrined into legislation. In 2015, I am advised that the former minister, the Hon. Tony Piccolo, did publicly make the commitment to this charter. During that proposed amalgamation, the government failed to genuinely consult with the volunteer emergency services, and in doing so it is my opinion that the government failed to act in accordance with what is known as their Advancing the Community Together Partnership agreement, and that is to have an open, transparent, consistent and collaborative working relationship with volunteers, and in this case clearly the emergency services sector.

Volunteers Day, 19 May 2003, for information, after an extensive consultation process with the volunteer community and government agencies, produced the Advancing the Community Together Partnership. It represents a public commitment by the South Australian government and the volunteer community to open transparent, consistent and collaborative ways of working together.

What this consultation failure on the government's behalf did show was that it is essential that we legislate a statement of commitment and principles that apply between the government, the commission and the volunteer emergency services. Legislating this charter means that the volunteer services will input on what happens to them, rather than always being told what is to happen to them. It is only fair that people who volunteer their time to serve the community have a genuine consultation about all matters that might reasonably be expected to affect them, which extends to a genuine consideration of their views when adopting new practices or policies, and ensuring there is no discrimination against any form of emergency service to the detriment of another.

This legislates that the government, the commission—through commissioner Jackman—and the volunteer emergency services recognise, value, respect and promote the contribution of volunteer officers and other members, and ensures that volunteers get the recognition and support they deserve. The volunteer emergency services, namely, the CFS and the SES, provide an invaluable service to the community and it is essential that we recognise their service by affording them a legitimate say in what happens to them at an organisational level. Certainly, there have been times when this has not happened, and government promises of consultation have been more lip service than genuine efforts to address issues and find a suitable middle ground.

My bill is, I advise, the same bill that, in another house, the member for Morphett, Mr Duncan McFetridge, introduced in both 2012 and 2015. I can confirm that both the CFS and SES volunteer associations are hugely supportive of this bill being passed.

If you have a look at the CFS annual report 2015-16, there are 14,000 professionally trained volunteers who attended, in that year, over 402,000 hours of incidents. They attended 9,000 incidents, including bushfires, structure and vehicle fires, road crash rescue, and hazardous materials spills. The firefighter numbers were down in 2015 at 10,801 from 2014 at 10,848. I would suggest that the parliament and the government supporting and passing this charter as a priority would help to recruit new volunteers. From the SES annual report, also of 2015-16, there were 7,000 calls for assistance, 487 attended by volunteer marine rescue associations, with approximately 1,572 volunteers.

I am confident that the new minister, who does have some knowledge of CFS and SES from his work as the local member for Kaurna, where they have excellent CFS brigades and a very good SES that serves the area from Noarlunga, would realise that it is a sensible move, prior to facing this next fire season, that we have cooperation with the government and with the opposition and crossbenchers to pass this before we get up at the end of this session. It can be done.

I welcome any tweaking to the bill from the minister, the government or any other members, for that matter, but I appeal to the minister, the government and all colleagues who all support the volunteers, to get behind this bill. Let's do this with some expediency. Let's honour a commitment that was made and expected to be delivered back in 2015. Let's honour it before the end of this term of parliament and let's get this bill through both houses by the end of November. I commend the bill to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.A. Darley.