PRESS RELEASE: VMR Squadrons Looking for Certainty
Volunteer Marine Rescue Queensland today requests clarity from the Minister around the future of the Blue Water Review.
In particular, VMR Squadrons are seeking certainty around legislative protection for the service their volunteers provide to the marine and island communities of Queensland.
State President of VMR Graham Kingston said today “While the SES and Rural Fire Services are protected by special legislation, marine rescue organisations have no such indemnity protection as emergency service volunteers, despite serving the community in the same way.”
“One of the recommendations of the Blue Water Review working group last year was that VMR and Coastguard together would become part of the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) organisation, meaning that we would be afforded protection under legislation – the same as SES and RFS”.
After two years of work by QFES and the Blue Water Review Working Group, the initiative now languishes before Cabinet, with no information forthcoming around outcomes or prospects for the future. Marine rescue organisations are an essential and invaluable part of the emergency services community in Queensland, often performing rescues in terrible conditions and at considerable risk. That must be recognised by government, and marine rescue organisations must not be left to languish on the shelf.
Other volunteer agencies such as the State Emergency Service (SES) and Rural Fire Service (RFS) are protected by the Fire and Emergency services act 1990 (QLD) and the Disaster Management Act 2003 (QLD). Surprisingly, at this point in time, marine rescue organisations are not afforded the same protection. Indeed, the word “marine” is only mentioned once between these two acts and even then, only in reference to other legislation.
Marine Rescue Queensland is aware of the Civil Liability Act 2003 (QLD) which was designed to protect operational volunteers in Queensland. However Marine Rescue Queensland respectfully points out two potential problems with this act. Firstly, it does not protect the volunteer bodies themselves, only the individual volunteers. The second point rests around the application of the legislation and definition of activity conducted in good faith, given not one word of it has ever been tested in court. VMR fears that volunteers may well be forced to face the trauma of an experimental court case to find out if the legislation even applies to a particular situation. SES and RFS volunteers are never at risk of being placed in this position.
What does it say about the value of our volunteers’ efforts when the Government refuses protective legislation to just one section of the emergency services volunteer portfolio in Queensland?
A major part of the Blue Water Review was to examine the lack of legislation surrounding operational marine rescue organisations.
It is now the time that all emergency services in Queensland were treated the same way, and afforded the same protections.
