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Australia ‘better prepared’ for bushfires than ahead of black summer as government considers national community service

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/24/national-community-service-considered-as-way-to-boost-australias-fire-fighting-recruitment

Emergency services minister says service would likely be voluntary as government ‘wouldn’t want to commit to obliging people or forcing them’

Australia ‘better prepared’ for bushfires than ahead of black summer as government considers national community service

Emergency services minister says service would likely be voluntary as government ‘wouldn’t want to commit to obliging people or forcing them’

13 comments

Varyk

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Isn't monetary compensation generally very fair in Australia?

And emergency services water jobs that need to be done

Why is the Aussie government pretending that paying people isn't the obvious solution to recruiting workers into a necessary sector.

LucyLastic

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Yeah, I'm a volunteer firefighter in Catalonia, we only really do maintenance work or fill up gopher roles and damping down in the event of a serious fire ... proper firefighting is in no way fun, people need to be paid for it (and you can't just drag anyone in off the street to do it, lots of my fellow volunteers can't hold a hose for long and would panic in an emergency ... that's not a criticism, it's just how people are)

tsonfeir

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Have you ever gotten a cat down from a tree?

LucyLastic

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Yes ... but that was before I volunteered!

tsonfeir

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Clearly you were made for the job.

LucyLastic

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It's my density!

Varyk

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Oh of course. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about, it seems like such a difficult and dynamic job it seems absurd for any governing body to essentially depend on volunteers to perform any essential part of that job.

Thank you very much for doing way more than your part, and especially at this point where every year there's more wildfires than there ever have been before in larger wildfires than there ever have been, governments better take the hint and start paying people.

LucyLastic

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Yeah, the firefighters here are well supplied, it's amazing that places like Canada and Australia don't have this sorted out already ... and don't get me started on the lack of upkeep of electricity infrastructure causing fires in the US!

Cheradenine

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Oz has long relied on the Rural Fire Service, which is almost completely volunteer. Not saying that's the way it should be, only that there is precedent.

Benj1B

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The sad thing is that there is no political incentive to have a paid rural fire fighting service - there's not enough votes out there to buy. We'll face more and worse summers of fires but it's not until a major town is threatened that anything will actually change.

Cheradenine

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So you're saying the ADF needs to land a Taipan in central Canbra? /s

Nails

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Some explosives training might do the trick as well https://www.9news.com.au/national/defence-admits-starting-nsw-fire-report/9e40d367-9860-4d9d-a17c-9c628b5b1f4f

TenderfootGungi

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The US has this. The majority of fireman in the US are volunteers. But they are rarely called out for more than a few hours at a time (my neighbor went to a large fire for several days once, but that is extremely rare). Fighting a large brush fire could take weeks.