CODE 2, VOL 38, NO 4 : 07 March 2024

NEW QFD LEGISLATION TABLED IN QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENT

I have published multiple Code 2’s in recent years about the UFUQ position that legislative reform was needed to protect the professional firefighting role in Queensland. Your union has done a significant amount of work talking to the Queensland government about this and finally, we can announce the commencement of the legislative changes we have been pushing for.

On Thursday 7 March 2024, Minister Boyd introduced proposed changes to the current Fire and Rescue legislation into parliament. I take this opportunity to personally thank Minister Boyd for her comments during introducing the Bill to parliament acknowledging the primary importance of the professional experience and expertise you and your colleagues need to do your jobs.

The Disaster Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 makes many significant changes that improve the legislative oversight of your roles as professional firefighters. I will discuss some of these below and in future Code 2’s as this legislation process moves from being tabled to being passed for commencement (commencement is currently planned for 1 July 2024). 

You can find a copy of the Bill here.

The first of the important changes I wanted to share are:

1. FIRE AND RESCUE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
You may recall that prior to changes by the Newman government in 2012, the Commissioner of (currently QFES) was required to have been a professional firefighter, with actual operational Fire and Rescue response experience. Since 2012, anyone at all could be appointed as Commissioner.  That resulted in appointments of people with no experience in actual operational Fire and Rescue roles who were making decisions that were continuously being corrected by your Union. Decisions such as trying to act a public servant in charge of the Far North Region is a good example.

I am pleased to inform you that your union has successfully obtained a return to the legislative surety that the person being considered MUST have professional ‘firefighting’, ‘incident control’ and ‘fire prevention’ experience. These eligibility criteria rule out anyone who has not done the job you and your colleagues do every day. The terms ‘professional firefighting experience’, ‘incident control expertise’ and ‘fire prevention expertise’ will be defined in the new legislation.

In equally important and positive news, these same eligibility criteria apply to persons seeking appointment to the roles of Deputy Commissioner, Chief Fire Officer, Assistant Commissioner, Chief Superintendent, Superintendent, and Inspector within Fire and Rescue.  This will address the constant threat to safe systems of work when you’re responding to Fire and Rescue emergencies posed by having someone in command or control of your roles who has never done the job.

These changes are vital to ensuring your safety.  The UFUQ welcomes these amendments and thanks the Queensland Miles ALP government and Minister Boyd for the introduction of this improvement to the health and safety of you and your colleagues upon commencement of the new legislation.  I also want to quickly point out that similar eligibility criteria specific to rural experience have also been introduced to help those on the rural fire service side of QFD with choosing who to appoint to their roles. But to be clear, those people cannot be (and shouldn’t be) appointed to Fire and Rescue roles.

2. AMENDMENT OF MERIT CRITERIA
Most of you would surely have been exposed to the way the merit process has changed over the years, with an overly public service merit process having crept into recruitment matters within Fire and Rescue.  Your union has negotiated with QFES that in the new QFD, uniformed professional Fire and Rescue role recruitment matters will be managed within the Fire and Rescue stream of QFD, not by the public service.

But importantly, to ensure the right considerations occur when people are vying for recruitment or classification progression, the Bill introduces stronger merit criteria clarity, enhancing the requirements of the public service legislation. This amendment makes it compulsory for those considering appointment of a person to a position that an applicant has the mandatory qualifications, skills, and experience necessary for the position and that these criteria are considered first before any other matter that might be considered regarding appointment of the person to a role.

This is again a significant change for the better when considering that only those with actual professional firefighting and other mandatory qualifications, skills and experience ought to be appointed to a position within Fire and Rescue.  This amendment strengthens health and safety for you and your colleagues, because consideration of experience vital to those working with you and managing you will be one of the primary considerations in choosing someone for a role.

3. MORE TO COME.
As the legislative process continues your union will provide extensive written submissions to the parliamentary committee considering the Bill, and it’s also very likely we will appear in person before that committee to make our case and respond to questions.  I will provide more updates on the crucial legislative reform, with topics such as command and control at incidents, the role of the Chief Fire Officer, and more. If you review the Bill and have questions, please only provide them to your union via the ufu@ufuq.com.au email address, so that we can formulate proper responses and we can also factor your questions and topics into our future communications to you.

John Oliver - General Secretary