Slash and burn as government cuts firefighting funds
EXCLUSIVE by Andrew Clennell
The Daily Telegraph
January 11, 2013
RURAL Fire Service firefighters yesterday attacked damaging cuts to its frontline operation, saying the bushfire-ravaged state was now in even greater danger.
They said a NSW government decision to slash cash for the replacement of tankers and fire brigade stations over the past year had severely hurt their fire-fighting capability."Governments cut emergency services at their peril," RFS president Mr Brian McKinlay said yesterday.
"What it means is infrastructure items such as tankers and capital equipment and control centre (construction) hasn't proceeded as in previous years."
Premier Barry O'Farrell, who has posed with RFS bosses as they fought fires across the state, tried to hose down the claims last night, saying the government had increased funding to the RFS.
But the RFS claims were backed by figures released by the Auditor-General last month which showed cuts across the board.
NSW Rural Fire Service firefighters hold the line of the Shoalhaven fire at Princess Highway near Sussex Inlet / Pic: Craig Greenhill Source: The Daily Telegraph
The Auditor-General reported total expenditure on the Rural Fire Service fell from $307 million in 2010-11 to $287 million in 2011-12.
The number of tankers supplied or refurbished fell from 216 in 2010-11 to 177 in 2011-12.
The number of active, trained firefighters in 2011-12 had decreased from 94 per cent to 82 per cent and local government firefighting and equipment spending had fallen from $128.7 million in 2010-11 to $109.5 million in 2011-12.
Public Service Association industrial officer Shane Howes said the RFS had been told to cut labour costs by $12 million over four years, which would lead to 120 redundancies.
In an association newsletter last year, Mr McKinlay wrote: "With dismay we note the reduction in the Rural Fire Fighting Fund from $271 million in last year's budget to the figure of $263 million in the FY12/13 state budget."
Of even greater concern was that " the total allocation for brigade stations and fire control centres amounts to $5 million from the O'Farrell government. In the last two years of the Keneally government this allocation for the same period was over $30 million".
The budget for the tanker replacement program "has been dealt a similar fate".
The government disputed some of those figures and claimed that in 2012-13 funds had actually been increased significantly. But Mr McKinlay said some of those figures involved money "carried over" from the time of the Labor government.
The Premier's Office referred the matter to Emergency Services Minister Mike Gallacher. A spokesman for Mr Gallacher said: "Funding of $30.1 million is available for tankers and other vehicles and $9.9 million for brigade stations and control centres in 2012/13."
Opposition's emergency services spokesman Nathan Rees said: "Only a government with its priorities completely out of whack would consider cutting funding for fire tankers.
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