Volunteer Fire Fighters Association

On 22 April 2022, the NSW Government lifted Public Health Orders requiring mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for some sectors, instead recommending vaccine requirements be based on risk assessments.

Following this, NSW RFS members were advised that the RFS position requiring all staff and volunteers to be vaccinated remained in place.

NSW RFS members are able to provide feedback on the risk assessment via the feedback form (links in this post) by Friday 10 June 2022.

The VFFA is encouraging as many NSW RFS members as possible to provide feedback to the RFS.

Cowabbie Street, Coolamon NSW (entry by kind donation).

This fun day is organised by the Coolamon Fire Museum.

Members of the public, fire engine owners and enthusiasts are all welcome to come along.

You won’t want to miss out on seeing fire engines, emergency service and educational displays, the Firefighters Fun Relay, classic cars, bikes, and market stalls.

On the topic of COVID vaccination mandates and the requirement for volunteers to disclose their vaccination status, the question that should be asked is:

Would the NSW RFS refuse service delivery to members of the public who are not vaccinated or who choose not to disclose their vaccination status?

The answer is obviously “No”

Therefore, why mandate the requirement for volunteers to disclose their vaccination status or even be vaccinated at all.

Cathy Noakes walked away from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) in 2014, but she never quit firefighting.

After more than a decade of active service, three of them as captain of her brigade in Farringdon, Ms Noakes stepped down in frustration with the RFS bureaucracy.

“You weren’t allowed to just go and put out a fire,” she said. “You always had to wait for approval. So, as you waited, the fire just escalated.”

Instead, Ms Noakes joined the “mosquito army”, a network of community-based firefighting teams, that went on to play a vital role in firefighting efforts during the 2019-2020 bushfires around Braidwood in the NSW Southern Tablelands.

With their own firefighting gear and radios, local knowledge and experience, the “mozzies” worked in close partnership with their local brigades when RFS resources were stretched beyond their limit across the state.

You FLIR K1 may be due for an upgrade.

The K1 includes a USB-C port in the top compartment. The USB port allows the user to update the System firmware by first downloading an update file from the FLIR website and then connecting the K1 to a PC to transfer the file.

On June 7 2020 a media release was issued by President Mr. Holton with a recommendation that a RFS Volunteer Benevolent Fund be set up from the $51M raised by Celeste Barber. In the recent Commissioner’s Update Sep 21 one of the new priorities was to establish the Benevolent Fund to assist the volunteer firefighters and their families. It is good to see an initiative of the VFFA for RFS volunteer members being followed up.

My medal proposal is different, in that everyone qualifies. Not everyone qualifies for the National Medal, or the National Emergency Medal, and it represents a certain event or period in time similar to a military campaign or General Service Medal. There is no Long Service Good Conduct Medal available to you either. My proposal is a medal that represents a gift to you from your nation that recognizes your services and commitment to the Australian community. It doesn’t just recognize your service on the fire ground it represents all those days and weeks of training beforehand, committee meetings and maintenance days and fund raisers. Not to mention the other emergencies you are required to attend like car accidents. It represents the gratitude we feel as a nation for all that time you are required to spend away from your families and those special days you miss.

The Victim summaries contained in this document are from volunteers and staff who have bravely contacted the author to express their destressing and desperate plights. What is clear in every case is that the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) knowing showed an arogenate 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, supressed 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. Dog Whistling and Gaslighting are common place and go unchecked even in the presence of senior RFS staff.