Australia's volunteer firefighting force declined 10% in past decade
Australia has suffered a 10% decline in the number of volunteer firefighters over the last decade, according to the Productivity Commission’s review of government services.
The latest instalment of the review, released on Tuesday, found that the number of volunteer firefighters nationwide has dropped from 169,766 to 152,798 in the decade from 2009-10 to 2018-19.
In the same time, the total proportion of volunteers, including firefighters and support staff, has dropped from 1,015 per 100,000 people to 824, almost a 20% reduction.
The new figures come after an unprecedented season of bushfires and fierce political debate about Australia’s preparedness both in terms of emergency services resourcing and the need to do more to combat global heating.
In December, the prime minister Scott Morrison first rejected calls to compensate volunteers before bowing to mounting pressure from Labor and some within his own ministry, creating a supplement to pay volunteers.
Under the scheme, eligible volunteers will receive $300 a day up to a total of $6,000 if called out for more than 10 days this fire season.
The review of government services found the long-term trend of decline continued in the last year, with the number of volunteers engaged in firefighting falling from 156,319 in 2017-18 to 152,798 in 2018-19.
Most states and territories contributed to the decline, with 1,745 fewer volunteers engaged in firefighting in New South Wales, 794 fewer in Queensland, 442 fewer in Victoria and 403 fewer in the Northern Territory.
Only the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania bucked the trend, adding just 28 and 20 volunteer firefighters respectively.
While the volunteer workforce has shrunk, the number of professionals has grown – suggesting the trends are driven in part by the urbanisation of the population, with more Australians living in cities and towns served by professional firefighters.
The number of professional firefighters and support staff has grown from 17,278 in 2009-10 to 20,692 in 2018-19, although the proportion of the population engaged in professional firefighting rose only slightly from 61 per 100,000 people to 63.
Jurisdictions with the highest rate of attrition of professional firefighters in the last year were Queensland, with 7% quitting the service, followed by the ACT (4.3%) and Western Australia (3.7%).
In December Morrison said the volunteer effort “is a big part of our natural disaster response and it is a big part of how Australia has always dealt with these issues”, and promised to search for options to encourage volunteers. Labor called for volunteer firefighters to be paid or offered tax breaks.
On Christmas Eve, Morrison directed all commonwealth public service departments and agencies to permanently offer at least 20 working days’ paid leave for volunteer firefighting.
The veterans’ affairs minister, Darren Chester, proposed a levy to pay volunteers in “one-off” events, warning it it was likely unsustainable to pay some from the federal public service to fight fires and not other volunteers.
Morrison then announced a package of payments up to $6,000, primarily directed at employees of small and medium businesses and self-employed volunteers. He suggested that larger companies could provide their employees with 20 days of emergency services leave.
