Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you. Minister, I want to go to the position of the new Fire and Emergency commissioner, in a statement that you made in January where you said, ‘It’s really important we put our operational leaders in charge of what they are doing. And because they, the Chief Fire Officer, will be the commissioner, they will have significant powers, significant control, autonomy of the service as well. So that is good thing around budget and finance, things around hiring and human resources so that they can set the direction we need to go in’.
I know my colleague, Ms Badger, asked you some questions in relation to this matter the other day. Are you able to tell the Committee which powers of employment have been delegated to the new commissioner?
Mr ELLIS – Yes. I mentioned to Ms Badger the other day, there has been a change in terms of our approach to the legislation. So, you know, I am on record of strongly supporting a model where the commissioner would be in charge – the commissioner of Fire and Emergency Services, and then the state fire and emergency committee would then advise. That is the strong feedback we had strongly from among our stakeholders is that they really valued the commission model that effectively the commissioner then reports to.
We’ve taken that on board and that will mean we will maintain a commission arrangement in the legislation that we propose to parliament. That’ll have some changes to our approach and we’ll be consulting broadly on that over coming weeks, and it will ensure that the views of our stakeholders, many of whom have representatives on the commission currently, are respected and that we work through that. I’ll pass over to the team and also recognise the secretary of DPFEM Donna Adams as well at the table.
CHAIR – I don’t think he’s chucked the ball at you necessarily, commissioner. He was just introducing you.
Ms ADAMS – Perhaps I’ll be introduced as Donna Adams, the secretary of the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management, and if I –
Mr ELLIS – Is that what I said?
CHAIR – I think you did.
Ms ADAMS – I think you did.
Mr ELLIS – Yes.
Ms ADAMS – If I understood the question from Monday, it was around the employment functions of the TFES commissioner, and I previously stated that the head of the state service has employment functions for SES 3s and 4s, so that’s actually removed from the department. SES 1 and 2 sits with me as secretary, and all other positions below that are delegated to the TFES commissioner.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you, secretary. Minister, can I ask is this delegation in writing, the employment delegation that will sit with the commissioner, and if it’s in writing can it be provided?
Mr ELLIS – Yes. I mentioned that the legislation we’re preparing for consultation. That will mean significant change –
Ms O’CONNOR – So no delegation yet?
Mr ELLIS – in regard to the delegations, I’ll pass back to the DPFEM.
Ms ADAMS – This is a standard HR delegation where the HR matrix of all of our delegations and who has the authority. Absolutely, we can provide that.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you very much. To confirm, the new commissioner will have delegation powers of employment, be able to recruit and manage. That’s good.
Ms ADAMS – For a point of clarification, that has always been the case as well with the previous chief officer. So there actually hasn’t been any change in that.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thanks, secretary. Does this delegation include and will it include in the new legislation employment powers in the state emergency service?
Mr ELLIS – Working on the legislation currently, but I’ll pass back over to the team around the arrangements currently with the SES.
Ms ADAMS – I suspect that at the moment, it currently does, because SES are state service employees. I would think the practical arrangement would be that Mick Lowe would obviously talk to the chief officer because that’s the reporting guidelines to determine whether there needs to be recruitment of positions or not. Whether it needs to be described in statute through the reform, we’re certainly going on a fairly extensive consultation process to make sure we get governance right and the intent of the new reform to create the entity.
It’s about giving a formal authority to the entity of TFES and obviously describing what the commissioner’s powers are. There are some pieces of legislation, as an example, the State Service Act, that we’ll obviously have to work our way through to ensure that we’ve got things in place. But I think the secretary’s responsibilities are fairly well enshrined. It’s about ensuring the delegations are in place.
Mr ELLIS – Some of the complexities in the current arrangement is we’re talking State Fire Commission, but under the current arrangements, that’s only fire rather than SES in terms of the way that it’s structured. These are just all the things we’re having to work through to ensure there’s some strong consistency there.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you. Minister, do you have a semi‑regular engagement with the United Firefighters Union or have you met with them?
Mr ELLIS – I spoke with Leigh, gosh, I’m going to say earlier –
CHAIR – Be careful. Get the date right.
Mr ELLIS – I reckon on Friday last week. It would be around Friday.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay. Thank you, minister. They would have raised with you over the journey a number of workplace health and safety concerns that they have had, interactions with WorkSafe Tasmania, some real worries about the safety of equipment that needs upgrading. What’s your response to those OH&S issues which have been put forward by the union representing –
Mr ELLIS – Yes, it’s important. Both the union and also our volunteer associations as well because they’re all firefighters, all exposed to similar hazards. And it’s certainly an area that we needed to improve, and under Commissioner Smith’s leadership as the new commissioner or acting commissioner, we’ve seen strong improvement in that space. I might pass to Commissioner Smith in terms of the provisional approvement notices and some of the processes we’ve gone through to improve.
CHAIR – We’ve still got a couple of questions, so as brief as you possibly can, thank you.
Mr SMITH – Thank you, and through you, minister. The TFS has got a really well established work health and safety committee structure where issues can be raised and managed and worked through. I’m not aware of any outstanding equipment that needs upgrading immediately. Certainly, we’ve got a program of works for both our PPC equipment, fire appliances, et cetera in place. But more than happy to identify if we need to work through some issues with them.
Mr GARCIA – Through you, minister. The commission has a responsibility for the work health and safety of the organisation.
Ms O’CONNOR – Yes.
Mr GARCIA – So we take that seriously, and we’ve got in place a governance structure. The union is on the commission. They are aware of the activities that have taken place. In terms of the PINs, they have reduced substantially. There’s been substantial work put into the governance and ensuring that those PINs are being addressed, the HSRs, you know, that are effectively being conversed with. I think our systems now are much stronger than they previously were. We –
Ms O’CONNOR – What timeframe – sorry, Mr Garcia.
Mr GARCIA – In terms of how long that’s been? In the last –
Ms O’CONNOR – How long has this shift been –
Mr GARCIA – I’d say in the last six to eight months.
Ms O’CONNOR – Okay.
Mr GARCIA – Yes. Significantly so.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you.
