The ACT Opposition has accused the ACT Emergency Services Agency of building a "behemoth bureaucracy" after government figures showed a 464 per cent rise in "non-operational" staff over the past three years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But ESA commissioner Dominic Lane dismissed the characterisation of his staff as "bureaucrats", saying all were classified as "operational" with the majority able to return to the frontline if required.
More than 90 per cent of the ESA's staff worked in "operational" areas of the agency - ACT Fire & Rescue, ACT Ambulance Services, the ACT Rural Fire Service and the ACT SES - at December 31 last year, figures provided to the ACT Legislative Assembly via a question on notice showed.
However analysis of those figures by the United Firefighters Union found while those frontline staff numbers either remained on balance or fell between the start of 2014 and the end of 2016, an extra 46.4 jobs in non-operational areas had been added to the 10 existing positions.
These departments included risk and planning, logistics and governance, people and culture, and strategic reform agenda. The latter three did not exist before a strategic reform.
Canberra Liberals' emergency services spokeswoman Guilia Jones will skewer emergency services minister Mick Gentleman over those numbers in budget estimates on Friday.
Mrs Jones said there had never been a clear explanation why the ESA would shift to a "more bureaucratic model".
"We've known for some time the changed program in the emergency services has involved the employment of additional public servants, I think that now it's becoming very apparent how enormous the bureaucracy that's being built is compared to the people that are on the ground fighting fires and saving us," Mrs Jones said.
"I think most Canberrans would be disappointed to find even though the city is growing by apparently 5000 per year, we are not keeping up with additional firefighters and other emergency services but we are employing more people in an office, which is not what the community expects. Why are we building this huge behemoth of a public service when what people need is more firefighters on the ground?"
United Firefighters' Union ACT secretary Greg McConville said the "shift in priorities" had "outraged" firefighters at a time where savings were being sought.
"There is a clampdown on overtime, there's a clampdown on member's ability to take their discretionary recreational leave," he said.
"There was about $15.4 million allocated by the government over three years to 'improve operational response' and it's clear that what it's delivering instead is an increase in the administrative burden on the taxpayer."
But a spokesman for Mr Gentleman said it was "disappointing" these figures were being used to "undermine" the ESA and "paint an inaccurate picture of operational staffing".
"Since 2014, the ESA refined its organisational structure as part of the Strategic Reform Agenda. A number of staff have transferred to new units during this time," the spokesman said
"[The questions on notice don't] take account of the fact that all staff in the ACT ESA are either directly involved in operations or provide capability support for frontline services."
Mr Lane said the service was currently recruiting extra firefighters from interstate and also had another recruit college on the way.
He said it was a change in reporting lines that made it appear as if firefighters performing administrative duties were "bureaucrats".
"At any time they can return to duty and I certainly dispute any view they're bureaucrats. They're uniformed personnel and they're very proud of the job they do," Mr Lane said.
"Everyone is operational. If we have a major incident I expect all of those people, whether they're in training, whether it's Darren in media, whether it's people who help out in the resources centre to provide the equipment and the uniforms, if there's a major emergency, everyone falls into their operational functions.
"Obviously our on-shift firefighters and paramedics are on the frontline every day and we respect the work they do. But the person in my office that helps me frame up budget bits so we can take it forward to government might indeed be a policy person but they're critical to the overall function of the ESA. They aren't frontline but nor have those numbers changed."
