The Blue Mountains Gazette reported that past members of Mt Riverview Rural Fire Brigade who have died while active members of the brigade were honoured with the unveiling of a memorial bell on Saturday, May 15.
This is one of a number of stories from around the state in this edition of our News Roundup.
A hard hitting article by the extremely knowledgable Vic Jurkis. Please read ….
As a volunteer firefighter, you may have experienced exposure to many stressful events while carrying out your duties. These stressful events, such as working on dangerous and unpredictable firegrounds during bushfire threats, can have an impact on the way we feel. The ways in which people experience and process their involvement in such events affect many aspects of their lives.
The Victim summaries contained in this document are from volunteers and staff who have bravely contacted the author to express their distressing and desperate plights. What is clear in every case is that the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) knowingly showed an arrogant disregard of its duty of care as an employer. It, the RFS, fosters a culture where reports of Bullying, Harassment, Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct were ignored, suppressed or dismissed. Complaints and grievances are systematically lost and investigations delayed and incompetently mishandled to the point complainants simply give up and leave the service. Retaliation is a common occurrence for victims of the RFS. It is common for a complainant to be the subject of a new counter complaint especially when the original complaint is about a Captain or other senior member of their Brigade.
We highlight farmer Martin Tebbutt’s fight with the NSW state bureaucracy for the right to clear a fire track around his property.
In our summary we examine the issues surrounding the Bushfire Envirjonmental Code, which is in need of a complete revision.
The VFFA made a submission to an Upper House inquiry into Emergency Service Agencies on the 23rd of July 2017.
In that submission, the VFFA highlighted the following key issues:
• RFS failure to properly engage local knowledge.
• Prevalence of bullying, harassment and discrimination in the RFS.
• RFS disciplinary procedures do not provide appropriate procedural fairness and impartiality and have been developed in a way that appears to favour the salaried NSW RFS staff, not the volunteer.
• Nepotism, Favouritism and Similar Forms of Discrimination.
The VFFA also pushed for relocation of the RFS Headquarters to a regional area to break the city centric and ‘Boy’s Club’ culture that had developed.
A total or 27 recommendations were made to the NSW Government by the Legislative Council, Portfolio Committee No. 4 – Legal Affairs.
The NSW Government response was disappointing without any significant actions by the NSW RFS until the most recent display of interest by the current RFS Commissioner, Mr. Rogers.
It’s great to see so much Hazard Reduction taking place all across the state and we’ve summarised some of the stories reported in the last week.
Bullying & harassment remain in the news and the Sydney Morning Herald quoted VFFA President Mick Holton as saying it was a step in the right direction, but we’re not there yet.
David Littleproud tells us he is disappointed that only NSW & Tasmania have supported the Royal Commission recommendations.