‘Overwhelming’ support from councils to see fire assets transferred back to state

The Country Mayors Association of NSW recently surveyed its members to gauge the level of upport for a private members bill tabled by Member for the Northern Tablelands, Adam Marshall to the NSW Parliament.

Mr Marshall has introduced a private member’s bill into parliament at the last sitting week, seeking to amend the Rural Fires Act 1997, to transfer the ownership of NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) vehicles, fire trucks and buildings from local councils back to the NSW government.

The Country Mayors Association said it had engaged with members to see if councils supported Mr Marshall’s bill.

“The results were overwhelmingly in support of the private member’s bill with more than 75 per cent of the membership of CMA responding to the request for feedback and 100 per cent of those respondents in favour”, said Country Mayors Association chairman Jamie Chaffey.

“The most recent annual survey of our members clearly highlighted that financial sustainability is the number one concern for Local Government in Regional, Rural and Remote NSW right now, so it is no surprise to see the unanimous support for change that would ease the financial burden to the tune of many millions of dollars across our membership.”

Mr Chaffey, the mayor of neighbouring Gunnedah Shire Council, said the association stands firm in its pursuit of equity of service provision for the residents of country communities.

“We stand united with our members to advocate for residents who choose to call country NSW home,” Mr Chaffey said.

“We will continue to work with both state and Commonwealth governments to achieve the best quality of life and provision of services for our residents, and we look forward to a prosperous future.”

Previously, Mr Marshall described the ‘red fleet dispute’ as an ongoing debacle – a political football – over the last 12 months between the state government and local councils over who owns and pays for RFS assets.

“My bill will remedy the situation, bringing the argy-bargy to an end by making it clear that RFS assets belong to, and should be accounted for by, the state government, via the NSW Rural Fire Service,” Mr Marshall said.

“This will bring the treatment of all these items in line with how the vehicle and building assets of all other emergency services in NSW are accounted for and remove an enormous and ridiculous cost burden from our local councils.

“Why should local councils use ratepayer dollars to account for a depreciating ‘asset’ which they do not purchase, manage or have the authority to dispose of?

“And why do councils legally own these vehicles but not police cars or Fire & Rescue NSW pumpers?”

Mr Marshall said his bill would amend Section 119 of the Rural Fires Act 1997 to transfer the ownership of all NSW Rural Fire Service vehicles and buildings to the NSW Rural Fire Service.

“This will ensure these assets are vested solely with the RFS, which will be required to account for these assets, and the associated depreciation and costs, on its books,” Mr Marshall said.