Rural Fire Service resorting to 'emotional blackmail': Council
Councillor Bruce Miller has said the Rural Fire Service (RFS) has resorted to "emotional blackmail" when it comes to requesting financial allocations to its Rural Fire Fighting Fund.
At its ordinary meeting on February 22, Cowra Council was presented with a report showing it would have to pay a 12.13 per cent increase in the 2020/21 financial year and a projected 54.3 per cent increase in the 2021/22 financial year to its original contributions.
According to advice from the RFS, the increase was primarily due to the introduction of workers compensation legislation, which provides the presumption that when an employed or volunteer firefighter contracts one of 12 prescribed cancers, the cancer is a work related injury.
Cr Miller said it was an "absolute disgrace" for the organisation to use that justification.
"We've heard about the unaccountability of a big organistation that seems to hold their hand out and use emotional blackmail to get the amount of money that they want," he said.
"We go through this year in and year out, nothing has changed here and it's time they were held to account. It's time that they learnt to operate within their budgeting needs.
"We are entrusted by our community to manage all of our services and what we supply to our community and what this does is has a huge impact on what do we leave off, what don't we maintain, what safety issues are going to be compromised along the way, simply because we've got to meet a grab for money."
The report stated that increases to the general income of councils are restricted by rate-pegging, while the RFS contributions had no such restrictions and the contribution required of councils regularly exceeds the rate-peg.
Cr Peter Wright said it seemed the RFS were "getting back to their old tricks".
"It's hard to believe it was only three years ago we signed an agreement with the RFS head office that we would pay a certain fee," he said.
"That fee would go up by CBI each year and everyone knew where they were going to be in budgeting concerns.
"They've been looking for a Rolls-Royce service, but are not in a position to offer that.
"It's not council's money, it's the ratepayers' money. The general manager explained, under our rate pegging criteria, which I have a lot of respect for, all the increases we will get under the current rate increase will be used on paying the increase in this RFS contribution.
"Unfortunately, if we take on the RFS, we get accused of putting firefighters lives at risk."
Cr Judi Smith described the advice as an unconscionable and disproportionate burden on the ratepayers of rural and regional councils.
"This council is fully supportive of adequate and sustainable funding for everything that these firefighters need to do a very difficult job, including a comprehensive insurance that will support them and their families should things go wrong," she said.
"Speaking for this motion is by no means speaking against any of those people who do a terrific job.
"Until a longer term funding model is introduced, their funding will always be at the discretion of the government of the day.
"That's absolutely what's needed, a sustainable funding model that is transparent and that is as far as possible upfront before councils do their budgets and takes into account what the rate pegging is each year."
Cr Bill West said a long term funding model had been explored previously and needed to be reexamined.
"There needs to be an overhaul, in that a broad based property tax is the logical thing to be doing," he said.
"People run away from it but it should be revisited. There should be certainty both from the volunteers' perspective and from the state government perspective over long term budgeting.
"This is about the budget process and head office being able to put their hand in local government's pockets without any consultation or consideration of the impacts on local government and the communities we represent.
"These decisions are being made the other side of the sandstone curtain," he said.
Cr Miller agreed saying the evidence was there to support a property tax model.
"What's wrong with the current model is some parts of the community do pay and they pay it two or three times, he said.
"But there are a lot in the community who get the benefits of these emergency services who don't pay anything and that's what a broad based property tax does, it makes that equitable.
"There is a much better system that could be introduced if they were prepared to bite the bullet and do it.
"It takes a bit of political leadership but it is a much better system."
As such, council moved to write to the relevant members of parliament and Local Government NSW to raise concerns at the obvious impact these increases are having, and would continue to have, on council's finances and the level of service provided to the community.
Cr Wright said the relevant bodies "need to know this well isn't going to overflow forever and they need to be more accountable".