DEAR EDITOR
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The preposterous proposition being advanced by the bureaucrats of the South West Rural Fire Service to build a new headquarters is beyond belief, clearly demonstrating that their only interests are their own.
I wish to make it quite clear that I have the greatest respect and admiration for those wonderful men and women who volunteer their services each year to fight fires.
Unfortunately the hierarchy of the Rural Fire Service has frightened off the majority of volunteers with their intolerable rules and regulations and so on.
Firstly there should be no discussion whatsoever about a new palace for the bureaucrats whilst there is discussion about amalgamating shires in this area and in particular the outcome.
I can see no benefit whatsoever for Harden Shire in an amalgamation however the purpose of amalgamation is to enhance efficiencies (which it rarely does), the very opposite of what the Rural Fire Service proposes to do.
It is absolutely essential that this ridiculous idea be shelved at least until amalgamation proposals in this region are resolved.
Secondly there is no need whatsoever for another building and particularly not a multi-million dollar one for the bureaucrats to parade in.
Not so many years ago one Harden Shire employee on his own ran very efficiently and very well the Rural Fire Services of Harden, Young and Boorowa.
The overall cost of doing so was a few thousand dollars and accordingly there was plenty of money to provide equipment to brigades.
Now there is none.
I have been unable to find out how many employees the South West Rural Fire Service employs,
I guess at least 15 however it could be 20 or more which would at the minimum figure produce a wages bill well in excess of $1M and it is anyone’s guess what it costs to provide them all with cars and utes, fuel and so on.
The question is what do they all do?
If one person could previously run the service very well, what does the tribe do now?
In the past 10 years or so there have been five or six major fires in the region which burned overnight and into part of the next day.
The dozens of others have all been extinguished by the volunteers, not the bureaucrats, in a matter of hours with no fuss and bother.
If perhaps it was necessary for the bureaucrats to be involved in the six major fires for say six weeks until control was achieved, and that is a very liberal allowance, what have the paid staff done for the other 514 weeks of the year?
Funds are available in Harden Shire every year for hazard reduction but I haven’t noticed any of that and in any event the volunteers would do it.
A few years ago due to the drought there was nothing whatsoever to burn in the area and last summer and autumn was so wet that again nothing would burn.
I guess that with nothing else to do they then dreamt up the idea of building a new palace.
Readers should be aware as to who pays for all this largesse. 12.2 per cent is paid for by local rate payers with the balance coming from policy holders and to some degree the industry however that is also funded by policy holders by the iniquitous Fire Service Levy to which is added stamp duty and then 10.00 per cent GST, in some cases almost doubling the premium.
The short answer is that you readers and rate payers are paying for all this.
The town fire service does an excellent job utilizing a few on-call partially paid employees, volunteers and nothing else.
Why can’t the Rural Fire Service do the same?
I am sure they will argue that they provide assistance to other zones, which they do from time to time, however organizing this was previously done at no cost whatsoever by brigade captains and group captains, Pat Brown and Justin O’Connor come to mind, who did a first rate job for free.
The one thing that the Rural Fire Service bureaucrats has done successfully is to prevent the very generous country women and men from providing refreshments and drinks to firefighters, something they have proudly done for 100 years or more.
Now there is a cosy arrangement between the Rural Fire Service and favoured suppliers to provide pre-packed lunches and “organic” water, whatever that is, in bottles.
Again we all bear the cost.
I suspect that Harden Shire might be implicated in the proposal. It should be new mayor, John Horton’s first task to kill the proposal stone dead and save us all a lot of money.
Clearly it is time the ferrets were sent in to clear out the burrows.
Ross Flanery, Galong
Read the RFS South West Slopes Zone's reply here: Proposed $4.1M facility for Young or Harden.