A QUEENSLAND Rural Fire volunteer representative group claims brigades are already breaching newly-enacted national workplace health and safety laws and are at risk of prosecution due to inadequate equipment.
Changes to workplace health and safety laws were rolled out across the State this month, as the federal government enforces uniform rules for all States and Territories, so volunteers travelling interstate to aid in emergencies are not faced with contradictory legal obligations and regulations.
Among the contentious issues raised by the new laws is the nationwide redefinition of volunteers as 'workers', which already applies in Queensland, making volunteers liable to the same penalties for breaches of legislation as any employee in a workplace situation.
Under the uniform penalties, which have so far only been enacted in Queensland and NSW, individual volunteers could face fines of up to $300,000 and five years imprisonment (officers could face fines of $600,000) for serious breaches of the legislation.
However, Rural Fire Brigades Association of Queensland chief executive officer Dick Irwin said brigades across the State are already liable for prosecution, with the poor state of equipment and stations creating a "major problem" for any volunteer, especially brigade officers.
"It is going to catch a lot of people unaware and the ongoing concern will be with the officers in charge and whether they allow equipment to be used that may not meet the WHS standards," he said.
"There is already equipment in these stations that does not meet workplace health and safety standards and, should someone get hurt using it and lay a claim, the first officer could be deemed liable and face severe penalties.
"Volunteers provide their time without any expectation they will be held liable for prosecution and penalties.
"I think it will make some people have a rethink about being in the service, if they believe they could be prosecuted."
Mr Irwin said while the State governments enacted the new laws, they were not ensuring that volunteers were being provided with adequate funding and equipment to enable community organisations to comply with the rules.
"In the last two years, there have been inspections at stations and the department has come up with shortfalls in buildings and the equipment.
"But there is always an expectation by government that volunteers will bring any inadequate station up to standard and look after any equipment shortfalls.
"You would not expect that of urban fire fighters. We are being treated like second-class citizens."
In a report analysing the impact of the new legislation on emergency service volunteers, Australian National University college of law senior research fellow Michael Eburn wrote that - even without these laws - volunteers could still be criminally responsible for gross failure to take reasonable care for safety.
"The reality is that volunteers who act with consideration for their safety and the safety of others, and apply the training and procedures of their service, will face no greater risk of legal liability under this law than they do under the current law," he wrote, adding he expected prosecutions against individuals would be unlikely.
State Emergency Service Condamine region controller Billy Power, who oversees about 30 volunteers across the Western Downs, said the State government should better inform volunteers about any implications these changes to the law could have on their activities.
"It would be nice to get a phone call or letter to know what has changed," he said.
"It sounds very frightening to me. Workplace health and safety will bring this country to its knees - you can't do anything any more because we are wrapped in cotton wool."
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