News

Audit Report on the RFS

December 6, 1998

On Wednesday, the NSW Audit Office announced the release of a Performance Audit Report titled: Rural Fire Service – The Coordination of Bushfire Fighting Activities. 

“This Report presents the findings of a performance audit to assess the extent to which bushfire management and coordination within NSW is conducted in an effective, efficient and economical manner. Bushfire management embraces both fire suppression and fire prevention activities.” “The NSW rural fire fighting model has several agencies providing emergency response to fire incidents. The largest agency is the Rural Fire Service (RFS) which is a separate agency from the NSW Fire Brigades. The RFS has primary responsibility for fire response in rural areas; this responsibility may be for village (that is building) protection as well as forest and grassland fires. Two land managers, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and State Forests are also rural fire fighting authorities. “

Hmmm.

On a somewhat related matter, we note that today’s edition of The Australian has attributed Commissioner Koperberg with offering that volunteers are trained to the same level as salaried firefighters “and in some cases higher.” According to Phil, “Most volunteers will be more specialised in terms of bushfire fighting” (see “Valour under fire” page 11). If nothing else, our RFS Commissioner remains a man with a fine sense of humour.

To view or download the full report on the net, see:

Rural Fire Service – The Coordination of Bushfire Fighting Activities