Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to commend the contribution to the select committee on Australian disaster resilience recently made by the Fire Brigade Employees Union of New South Wales and the United Firefighters Union Queensland. As the unions representing 95 per cent of professional and retained firefighters in New South Wales and Queensland, there's no organisation more intimately aware of the experiences of our firies battling fires and other natural hazards.

The cost to Australia of extreme weather has doubled since the 1970s. The FBEU of New South Wales supports the finding of the bushfire royal commission that better coordination is required to significantly reduce disaster risks and impacts in the future. The submission raises important questions around the models of retained and volunteer firefighter workforces. It also notes that the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research published a report in 2013 titled Firefighters and climate change. It said that, between 2013 and 2020, the nation would need a 20 per cent increase in professional full-time firefighters to deal with climate change. Unfortunately, this did not occur.

The question of how we staff disaster recovery and response initiatives is one of the key challenges this country faces in this space. That's why we've undertaken an extensive consultation process on alternative capabilities for crisis response. I also want to support the FBEU and their secretary, Leighton Drury, in their campaign for a fair pay rise, because they've had 10 years of poor pay rises and they deserve a pay rise.