As this edition of ‘Fire Wise’ hits the streets our
calendar brings us to three quite different and important reminders. Firstly, St Florien’s Day or International Firefighters Day on 4 May, when firefighters and communities across the world show support and recognition of our firefighters commitment and dedication, remember those lost or injured in the line of duty and say thank you.
And on Sunday 7 May many of us will have come together at Churchill or at other special places to remember CFA members who have given their lives in service to protecting their communities. My thoughts and prayers are for the families, friends and loved ones of those who have died in the line of duty and also for all those that have suffered
loss or injury or sickness through their work, dedication and commitment to protecting their communities.
The second week of May (from 8–14 May) is National Volunteer Week, an annual and national celebration to acknowledge the generous
commitment of our volunteers.
Generally our CFA volunteers shy away from recognition or thanks but I think it is really important for every volunteer to take a moment to reflect on the incredible and essential contribution you make to your communities and to communities across Victoria and beyond. You should feel good and be immensely proud of what you do, your
professionalism and your commitment deserves to be celebrated.
Numerous reviews have documented and acknowledged that CFA’s volunteer based resource model is the only approach capable of economically and practically dealing with the number,
scale and simultaneous occurrence of fires and other emergencies experienced in Victoria.
The CFA volunteers’ contribution to the community is incalculable with the value of labour alone estimated to be in excess of one billion dollars per
year, let alone the contribution to community resilience, social connections, local knowledge and the substantial replacement cost or capacity loss if volunteers weren’t there.
There will be plenty of celebration and recognition for the work you do
and my everlasting hope is that decision makers and others who influence public policy will continue to understand and respect the capacity, professionalism and essential contribution CFA volunteers make to public safety.
CFA is a modern and
contemporary fire and emergency service, protecting not just country Victoria but also to more than 60% of metropolitan Melbourne and provincial centres and townships across the State. I am hopeful that times like National Volunteer Week can be used as a catalyst to remind everyone of the vital and huge volunteer resource that currently exists in CFA and other emergency service volunteers.
We also need to take the opportunity provided by National Volunteer Week to recognise and thank those who appreciate, respect and support the work we do as volunteers. To the families, employers, friends, decision makers; to the paid staff who work with and in support of volunteers; to our brother and sister volunteers in other agencies; and
to our communities – THANK YOU for your ongoing support and respect.
As I write this, it would be foolish to ignore the fact that there is significant disquiet amongst many in our volunteer ranks. I understand this and desperately wish I could fix
it. Over the past year and months I am constantly approached by volunteers and brigades who are concerned that the capacity, professionalism and essential need for our CFA volunteers may have been forgotten by some decision makers and politicians. Again, it would be foolish to ignore the actions and public messaging that give rise to this feeling.
Rather than sit and wait for the train wreck, I want to encourage all of you to use this month to get out and be loud about what volunteers do and what needs to be done to maintain and grow this wonderful resource for future generations. Please activate now, talk to everyone you know, to your local member of parliament, to your local community
clubs and networks – thank them for their support; educate them if they are not aware of what you do; ask for their support to ensure the CFA model is respected, supported and sustained; and explain to them the consequence of a future where CFA volunteer capacity is reduced or where the cost of the fire service levy goes through the roof due to lack of respect and support for volunteers.
Explain the integral relationship between CFA volunteers in your local community and the surge capacity support that can be drawn from CFA volunteers across outer metropolitan Melbourne and other parts of Victoria when required.
And, in preparation for the potential that the rumoured CFA carve up could be a real backroom plan, explain to them the breadth of services and risk environments CFA volunteer brigades currently provide; the vital CFA surge capacity that the whole CFA volunteer network provides for Victoria; the way volunteer brigades can be supported (not
replaced) by paid staff in busy areas so that CFA can maintain service to growing communities and at the same time retain the important surge capacity that comes from the brigades in these busy urbanised areas.
Help them understand that talk
of carving CFA up into a paid urban service and a volunteer bushfire service, just to satisfy an industrial agenda, is a costly and potentially disastrous nonsense. Ask them to be ready to help you send a loud message to protect CFA and the CFA volunteer ethos.
Sadly I know lots of volunteers who are feeling fed up and many who have already either withdrawn, resigned or preparing to resign. My message to everyone is that we need to stay, we need to continue to serve our communities and we need to stay proud about the work we do.
Please be really clear, nothing in this message is about being anti change, or anti paid staff or anti Government. Of course we need to evolve and change as communities change, of course we need to grow and adapt our capacity to meet changing community needs and of course we need to support and be supported by paid staff in various roles. Our paid CFA staff, along with all of the paid workers and other volunteers in the emergency sector,
do a fantastic job and it is vitally important that we respect one another and work well together as one team.
But my message is strong on several key points and that is that any contemplation of change to the CFA model must not be done just
to pacify an industrial agenda or secret deal; must not be done without transparent, fair and genuine consultation with volunteers; and must not be driven by anything other than the interests of the community.
And if the play is foul, we
should call it, protest it and actively contest it. Please stay in touch via your local VFBV delegates and VFBV website for further updates.
