The union representing the ACT’s 340 firefighters says claims of sexism and bullying among emergency service crews do not resonate with its members.
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United Firefighters Union ACT branch secretary Dave Livingstone has reacted angrily to the release of Freedom of Information documents outlining an internal investigation which found some firefighters did not take seriously respect and equity training.
On Monday, it was reported a review of sexual harassment in the ACT fire service by consultant Clive Haggar found an uphill battle to change the attitudes of some firefighters.
One Canberra female firefighter had to struggle for more than a decade to have degrading pornographic material removed from Canberra fire stations, with no action taken by leadership until 2012.
In another case in 2011, a female firefighter discovered a pen-camera recording device inside a toilet cubicle.
Reacting to Canberra Times reports of the documents, Mr Livingstone said the ACT government should open a dialogue with firefighters about the issues.
"Part of the report relied on allegations of inappropriate material in fire stations," he said in a statement.
"Those allegations have not been investigated. It is not useful to form an opinion about the culture of the fire service based on untested allegations, nor is it fair on anybody involved."
Mr Haggar's review found some firefighters did not take seriously standard training and some fire stations still don’t have separate toilets and change rooms for women.
In the 2011 incident, the offender claimed the camera was “a practical joke gone wrong”, but his eventual sacking was bungled and became the subject of a compensation claim.
The investigation showed that senior officers were unsure how to handle sensitive cases of bullying and that poor communication continued to exist between the fire service and the Emergency Services Directorate.
Documents show a preference by the fire service to keep the troubling allegations ''in house''.
Mr Haggar found that case to be an outlier with the misconduct considered completely unacceptable by most firefighters, but not all.
Some fire crew members accepted the man's defence that his conduct had been part of a joke, and were even prepared to provide references for future employment.
Despite some advancements, there are still just seven female fire fighters in the ACT's force of 340.
Mr Livingstone said the issues had been "poorly managed by the government".
"We have long argued that the government needs to improve these processes," he said in a statement.
"If this means that relations between the Brigade and the [Emergency Services Directorate] need to improve, then it is up to the government to take responsibility."
Emergency Services commissioner Dominic Lane this week said there was no culture of bullying and misogyny in the fire service.
He said firefighters now understood why pornographic material was not acceptable in fire stations and that he hoped most new recruits at the firefighting training college would be women.
In May, Emergency Services Minister Simon Corbell launched a campaign to attract more women.
