The union representing Canberra's firefighters has slammed a major overhaul of emergency services in the territory, saying ACT Fire and Rescue desperately needs more skilled workers.
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United Firefighters Union ACT secretary Greg McConville said the Emergency Services Agency should focus on boosting the minimum number of firies covering the ACT rather than cuts to senior management.
Mr McConville said he would also be "very disturbed" if the ACT dropped firefighters from its call centre, citing a similar system in Victoria which sparked deaths and a royal commission.
Former British fire chief Mark Jones has been appointed by the ACT government to head its structural reform agenda to reduce duplication and drive efficiency in the ambulance, fire, and state emergency services.
Mr McConville said the minimum number of ACT firefighters in the service's enterprise agreement had fallen well behind population growth.
He said increasing firefighting numbers should take priority over a review of the agency's "layers of bureaucracy".
"We now have a dangerous development where a toecutter from the UK has been announced as overseeing the strategic reform agenda," he said.
"He has already given a paper to the government which said that there were levels of firefighters that needed to be cut from the senior levels. You can only infer that that's exactly what's he's going to do.
"We think that's a very concerning development and instead of bringing in consultants from overseas to have a cutting agenda, we think it's more important that we establish an appropriate level of fire cover."
Mr McConville said the minimum number of firefighters in the territory had grown by 4 per cent since 2006, compared to an overall growth in Canberra's population of about 16 per cent during the same period.
The UFU says the minimum number of firefighters working per shift has increased by just two since 2006, while the ACT population has jumped from 335,100 to 389,747.
Those numbers are based on successive UFU enterprise agreements against Australian Bureau of Statistics data on the ACT's population.
"As things stand, that's all the community can rely on - the minimum numbers," he said.
But ESA Commissioner Dominic Lane said the number of fire incidents ACT Fire and Rescue attended did not correlate with population growth, and the number of fires in the territory was not increasing.
"The community can be assured this reform is not about cutting firefighter numbers on the road," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr McConville said the union was waiting on the ACT Fire and Rescue and the government to negotiate an establishment, or the maximum number of firefighters for the capital, which is based on levels of risk, numbers of available skilled people and adequate fire cover.
He said the figure should have been agreed upon within three months of the latest enterprise agreement coming into effect mid-year.
"It hasn't happened, we've called on the fire service to undertake that process with us as a matter of urgency," he said.
"The community expects the best level of fire cover that it can get. We know that we've got the bare minimum at the moment."
Mr McConville said the proposed replacement of professional firefighters with trained call takers and dispatchers was disturbing.
He said the command centre began dealing with cases before fire trucks arrived on scene and should not be treated purely as a call centre.
"You're dealing with distressed people. You need those professional firefighting resources, [people] who know what goes on in the fire ground," he said.
"The public does not have good experiences with call centres and the model that's being talked about is dangerously close to the model that led to the introduction of [call-taking and dispatch system] Intergraph in Victoria.
"That was disastrous. People died, there was a royal commission; it was one of the major factors that brought down the Kennett government. I would be very disturbed if the ACT decided to go down that path."
Mr McConville said the city's resources during the 2003 bushfires were "stretched to the limit" and firefighters feared they would miss calls.
"That is a terrible feeling for professional firefighters to have, that they might miss out on someone they're trying to save," he said.
"You don't know how bad those risks are going to be at the time but you don't want to be relying on the minimum at that time."