Dear Ms Haylett
I'm writing to you today from our property in your electorate where I've just finished hand feeding and watering the very small number of stock we care for on our single block of land. My partner left at 4.00am this morning to attend the Fire Services Levy rally in Melbourne, he's a Lieutenant in our local brigade, proud of the work they do in the local area, and as part of a number of strike teams to the massive fires that have started, in crown land, in the Western Half of the State in recent years.
As a self-employed private contractor, every time he steps out of the office to head out on the CFA Truck, our financial situation takes an immediate and sometimes dramatic hit. He's unable to bill time for which he does not produce output, so we can't rely on the "kindness of an employer". Mind you, I've never seen the fairness in a system that says that employers can stump up wages for volunteer's, no questions asked.
But then there's nothing inherently fair in any of the current argument. Volunteers give up their paid time, put themselves at risk, fight the fires they were originally formed to tackle, and do the jobs that paid services don't provide in the bush.
Could you please explain to us why is it that volunteers are so often the first called to road collisions, frequently spending long hours directing traffic (the police's job), standing around waiting for tow trucks to travel from over an hour away (whilst chatting to the local one that drove past empty at the time), or dealing with hazmat implications (surely the EPA's job), performing the clean up (the Sunraysia Highway is a VicRoads highway for goodness sake), and running around looking for fires in the various bits of Crown Land in the area (FFMV territory in other words).
I will confess I've been contemplating this letter to you for sometime now, but this morning, I heard on the radio a question as to who was paying for the fuel in the trucks to attend a protest over an issue that is seeing mass stand downs of volunteers, and some people pushed very close to the edge in times that are already hard enough and I thought fair enough. I'd be more than happy to put my hand in my pocket and pay the fuel bill for our brigade attendance, if somebody would explain to me how I bill the government for the time the volunteers spend doing paid agencies jobs for them.
If we could all come to some arrangement that says that volunteers are valued, and their time is worth the money that your government is attempting to wring out of them over and above the time and commitment they already are asked to provide 365 days a year, then maybe, just maybe, your unfair and unreasonable fire services levy would be slightly more palatable. Add a per diem for private vehicle use to travel to meetings, mandatory training, and all the other impositions placed on your volunteers, and you might, just might, have a few after this exercise in alienation.
Finally I refer you to the CFA Act and the Volunteer Charter, this link might help:
At some stage, if you have the time, I'd dearly like to know where "fairness" came into this levy. Can't see it, and have looked very very hard.
Karen Chisholm
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