From the VFBA
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Hi Everyone
This is an update to let you know what happened in Parliament this week
with the SAFECOM bill, and to see if we can do something about it.
The Minister gave the second reading at 5pm Monday, after which the
Opposition commenced with a number of amendments they had flagged four
weeks ago.
We were not particularly concerned as we believed that the Bill had the
support of the Democrats. To everyone's surprise Mr Gilfillan and his
fellow Democrats voted with the Opposition on most of the amendments. We
do not know why - he has not told us, and in fact has declined to speak
with us about it.
The amendments continued through on tuesday night. We now expect it to
go back down to the Lower House next week, where the amendments will be
rejected, and from there it will go to a "Conference", which is where a
group of 10 MPs, 5 govt and 5 opposition (inc Mr Gilfillan) will decide
the fate of our SAFECOM Bill. So it it out of our hands - the
politicians will come to an agreement as they think fit.
Included in the amendments was one to allow a landholder to light a fire
on their property if they had reasonable grounds to believe they were
threatened by a fire, without the concurrence of the CFS.
We and the CFS believe that this amendment needs a full risk
assessment, as it has the possibility to put the community, the
landholder and CFS volunteers at risk. I attach Hansard so you can read
the debate for yourselves starting on page 8.
Our other objection is a successful amendment to create a nine person
SAFECom board comprising
the three chiefs
ceo safecom
2 nominees vfba
2 nominees sesva
1 nominee local govt assn
An amendment was passed to take the non voting accountant and lawyer
type people off the board - people quite necessary for a governance Board.
Our objection to the make up of the Board to include 2 from each of the
Associations on the face of it looks quite crazy. However, we knew all
along that if such a proposal got up, that there would be a very good
chance that the UFU would also be on that Board.
The VFBA will not support any move to include the UFU on a Board of
governance over the CFS! This is particularly a concern while they have
a policy of one fire service.
Nor do we particularly want to be involved in a governance position over
the MFS. We want to put our focus into decision making within the CFS
We are particularly concerned about this as Mr Gilfillan has already
voted to keep the non voting UFU member on the Advisory Board, along
with the voting MFS retained firefighter. He did not vote with the
Opposition to take them off. This leads us to think he will be disposed
to include them on a Board of Governance if such a compromise deal is
sought.
The VFBA stance on all of this was to get the best possible arrangement
for a volunteer voice at the highest level. We did this by putting a
volunteer from the Advisory Board on the SAFECOM Board as a non voting
member. There the volunteer view could be heard in real time, and
importantly the background to decisions and how they were reached could
be heard first hand. This we believed would lead to honesty,
transparancy and openness.
To put a voting member on that Board, we knew could only lead to one
thing. The UFU would demand and probably get the same right. We are all
equal partners in this SAFECOM thing, but while the Advisory Board was a
Volunteers Board, and the nonvoting member did not upset the voting
arrangements at the top, we were able to make this arrangement.
We ask that you think about this, and if you agree with our position,
to contact your MP, and more importantly, the MPs who will be on that
conference group.
We do not know at this stage exactly who that will be but we think
govt
Minister Zollo
Minister Conlon elder@...
Paul Caica colton@...
Opposition
Wayne Matthew bright@...
caroline Schaefer caroline.schaefer@...
Ian gilfillan ian.gilfillan@...
Angus redford angus.redford@...
All upper house members, min Zollo, redford, gilfillan and Schaefer's
phone number is 8237 9100
lower House members numbers can be found on pg 37 of the adelaide phone
book.
We need CFS volunteers to voice their concern re the landholders
lighting fires amendment (can you imagine how that will put our
volunteers lives at risk if 10 small landholders light up in the
Adelaide Hills (for instance) if they believe there is a fire headed
their way)
We also need volunteers to protest being used as a political football,
when this thing should have been put to bed a long time ago. We just
want to get on with it, work with it for two years, and if necessary
make changes come review time. we want to keep the Bill in its original
form.
if you would like further explanation of this, please feel free to ring
me at any time over the weekend. The only times i won't be available is
a meeting tomorrow (10 - 3) and the footy on sunday afternoon!
We have power as a volunteer force only if we are prepared to use it.
Please lets voice our concerns over what is happening. It is outrageous
that after two years of negotiation on this by all in the Emergency
Services Sector, it comes down to 10 politicians in a closed room coming
to a deal.
Regards, Wendy
0427 823 656
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