The next ACT government needs to address the opaque and overly bureaucratic structure of the territory's emergency services that have become a "self-licking ice cream" obscuring accountability for front-line decisions, the secretary of the firefighters' union says.
United Firefighters Union ACT secretary Greg McConville said a review of the emergency management plan should be halted until the next government is formed and a full review of the legislation is completed in 2025.
Elements of the current plan contradicted parts of the Emergencies Act and these were issues that needed to be addressed by the new government, he said.
"You have the subplan contradicting the plan and the plan contradicting the legislation. Who says two wrongs don't make a right? Because it seems they get there in the end through a series of errors," Mr McConville said.
"Now in emergency management, you don't get points for trying; you get points for accuracy and success. This is not a recipe for either."
Mr McConville said the legislation should be reviewed first to ensure it was fit for purpose before the plan was updated.
The union secretary said the ACT needed a much more streamlined structure of accountability for its emergency services.
"While the chief officer [of ACT Fire and Rescue] is the primary decision-maker for fires, they can be directed on day-to-day activities by the ESA commissioner. They are subsidiary to a department head, which is [the Justice and Community Safety Directorate], and they don't report to the minister," Mr McConville said.
"And you ask yourself why, in one of the smallest jurisdictions in the country, the fire service is so far removed from accountability to the political leaders?"
Mr McConville said it was what some members of the union referred to as "a self-licking ice cream. It's kind of self sustaining and self perpetuating".
An ACT government spokesman said further development of the emergency plan would be undertaken in parallel with the legislative review of the Emergencies Act.
"The review of the ACT Emergency Plan is not directly linked to the legislative review of the Emergencies Act, as the Emergencies Act only provides broad direction for the drafting of an ACT Emergency Plan," the spokesperson said.
"This review of the ACT emergency plan has identified areas for consideration in the legislative review of the Emergencies Act in order to provide for continual improvement in the ACT's strategic, whole-of-government emergency arrangements."
But Mr McConville said the plan was issued in 2023. "It's now 2024 and it's being reviewed again. What useful purpose does that serve?" he said.
"Particularly when they just issued the plan last year following a review and we're asked to believe it's an administrative review that they did.
"Well, that suggests that this is a substantive review. If it's a substantive review, that has to be taken as a signal to use this as a mechanism to predetermining the review of the act."
Mr McConville said ACT Fire and Rescue had rescue responsibility under the act, but the plan established the State Emergency Service as the lead agency for flooding and severe storm. "But if you go back to the act, the State Emergency Service is not a response agency. It's really a mitigation agency," he said.
"There's one contradiction where the plan contradicts the act. But if you then go to the subplan, under the emergencies plan, the subplan re-establishes Fire and Rescue as the response agency. Clear as mud."
The plan also sets out police are responsible for vertical rescues in rural areas, Mr McConville said. "But in reality, it's ACT Fire and Rescue that responds to rescues repeatedly at places like Booromba Rocks. To that extent, again, the plan contradicts the legislation," he said.
Mr McConville said the contradictions pointed to a need to review the Emergency Act first.
"As things stand, there is in essence a secret army of some 18 to 20 personnel resident in the security and emergency management division of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate who are not established by any legislation at all who are questionably accountable to anyone and who are undertaking the work of reviewing the emergencies plan," he said.
A government spokesperson said: "The review of the ACT emergency plan is being led by the Security and Emergency Management Division (SEMD) within the Justice and Community Safety Directorate in partnership with the ACT Emergency Services Agency. SEMD is undertaking the policy and cross-government consultation elements, while [the Emergency Services Agency] undertakes internal consultation."
The United Firefighters Union has long been critical of what it sees as the top-heavy bureaucratic structure of the Emergency Services Agency.
Mr McConville said the agency should be returned to its original legislative intent of supporting the front-line services.
