I understand what your saying and respect your service to the community however I respectfully disagree with some of the above comments. if a Jewish Ambulance Service(PRIVATE organisation for a specific community group) has been granted access to the NSW Government Radio Network for many many years now; the argument about legal hurdles and Government Red tape is a non existent argument....JAFO wrote:News or what ever your name is . . .news wrote:WA Fire & Emergency Services (DFES) units might all be govt owned but are not forced or controlled by state govt. Many units are funded by local govt(124 units in WA) including a very large amount of assets. The final decision on what the unit does sits with the local govt not DFES.
There are many stations where BFS, SES and paid firefighters co-exist in the one building just fine.....
P.S Due to social media policy, I can't make further comments
NSW is not that different from WA, in that up to 10 - 15 years ago the NSW RFS and SES were all mostly funded and controlled by Local Councils, with a big portion of the RFS Zone funding being collected through Local Councils through the Bush Fire Levey placed on Council Residents Rates, with State Government funding and providing State, Regional and Zones Staff to provide Service Administration, Logistics and Training support.
So the VRA, is solely automatic from any Government Bodies . . . the ability to have them come under a Government Authority or Group is not as clear cut as you may think it is.
The is a "Non Government Organisation", apart from the yearly Grant from the NSW Government that only just covers Squad Insurances (including mine), the VRA has NO State or Local Government funding provided at all officially, all funding for the Service Administration, Logistics and Training support is funded through Squad Membership Fee's, ponsorship's (NRMA was a big Sponsor a few years ago), Community Grants etc . . . all the VRA Policies, Procedures, Guidelines and SOG's to comply with State Government Acts & Regulations have been developed over the years by the elected VRA Squad Volunteer's into the State Managment Group . . . no Paid Staff at all.
So again, the ability to have them come under a Government Authority or Group is not as clear cut as one would think it should be, and even the idea of the VRA being granted access to the RFS Radio Network would have thrown up some legal hurdles and Government Red Tape, not to mention funding issues arrangements of radio equipment etc. But given the VRA's recent intervention within the RFS with regards to Rescue Accreditation . . . maybe some kind of MOU or Cooperation between the two have been formulated to benefit both Orginisations that is exceptable to the Government.
It's great that the VRA are a community group that has elected Volunteers to the "state management group". I would argue why this is even an acceptable in 2017. Why should the community and other organisations be expected to fundraise and find money to pay for a service that should be provided by the state government as a basic community service when there are very well paid staff in government that can easily cover these duties in addition to what they are doing now ?
I struggle to understand why should a volunteer group funded partly by bunnings sausage sizzle donations and a lot of volunteer training/office/admin time have to go and gain road rescue accreditation to save rural community lives when we have from memory something like 26 fixed speed cameras generating $19.729 million dollars in NSW state government revenue(FY2016)?.
Cheers, News