News

SitRep 32/2026

October 2, 2026

NOTICE OF 2026 AGM

The Union’s 116^th Annual General Meeting will be held later this month and into next month.

The first of the 2026 AGMs will be held on Saturday 31 October 2026 at 1000hrs at City of Sydney Fire Station 001, with the final meeting held on Monday 9 November 2026 at 1000hrs at Kogarah Fire Station 021.

A reminder for all Country and Retained Sub-Branch members to please email written notice of your intention to hold AGMs, together with all details, to office@fbeu.net by no later than 12 October, to allow members to be informed in time. At least seven members will need to be present to reach a quorum. Please ensure all AGMs are registered with the FBEU Office by email by the deadline. Emails or texts to Delegates or SCOM members may not reach us in time.

All other meetings must be held after 31 October 2026 at 1200hrs and conclude before 9 November 2026 at 0800hrs.

Dates, times and locations of the other meetings will be sent in a Notice of AGMs next week.

2026 AGM Agenda

 

1. Acceptance of minutes of the 2025 AGM
2. State Secretary’s Report

Members should be aware that SGMs may be called to be held concurrently with AGMs, to discuss the Award and other issues. We will provide notice if SGMs are going ahead.

2027 AWARD NEGOTIATIONS – UPDATE

Award negotiations have kicked off over the last week, with the Department finally confirming they have bargaining parameters.

The parties have agreed to enter into mutual gains bargaining and plan on holding intensive meetings over the next month with an aim to progress as much as possible on key items prior to FBEU AGMs in October, the subsequent Christmas period, and then moving into Government caretaker period prior the state election next year.

Meetings will be held practically every day between FBEU officials and the Department over the next month, with key items focus areas being:

• Rescue & Specialist Qualifications
• Permanent Relieving Model
• Work Value and Relativities, and
• Retained Reform

These focus areas are being negotiated through smaller working parties being established on each of these topics.

We will give members an outline of where bargaining ends up at the end of this month at our AGMs. As a collective, we will determine next steps from there.

RESCUE INCIDENT DATA COLLECTION

This week, the Department made administrative changes which revoked the rescue allowance from GLR qualified Permanent Firefighters who are attached to RCR fire stations. We advocated for the Department not to take this action. This follows the IRC’s Award decision, which we fiercely argued against.

We have warned the Department that following through with this would degrade rescue capability, lead to rescue qualification shortages, and deliver poorer community safety outcomes. They have decided to progress the decision anyway.

This is despite the fact that Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell is the President of the Australasian Rescue Organisation, which is billed as the “peak body in Australasia for the development and exchange of information, knowledge, and skills across all facets of rescue.” The fact he is overseeing one of the biggest attacks on his own rescue operators in decades is not lost on us, and should not be lost on any member.

When crews identify that other rescue agencies have responded to an incident involving a rescue component, without the minimum crewing of 2 rescue operators, without the required equipment, without the required qualifications, or with a significant delay, or any other issue with their response, they are to radio Comms asking them to tag the incident with “rescue problem”.

While we consider our next steps, we are asking all members who respond to any incident with a rescue component, to nominate a member of the crew to fill out a survey form about the incident, providing details about the incident, other rescue agencies, and the outcomes of the incident. You can view the survey here. Please bookmark this link and use it for all incidents with a rescue component. You can view a PDF of the survey here so you know what data we’re interested in.

We expect that this data will show that other rescue agencies are unreliable, frequently offline, and regularly slow to respond, and when they do respond, it is with below minimum crewing and without adequate equipment to perform their duties. We also expect to find that FBEU members are performing this work, as per our Act which guarantees our response.

In the absence left by the Commissioner, the FBEU will need secure data to convince Government and the IRC that Fire and Rescue NSW should be the default rescue agency across the state, with all our highly skilled rescue operators properly remunerated for obtaining and maintaining their qualifications, no matter where they are, because we know those skills are saving lives every day.

In Unity,

Leighton Drury
State Secretary

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