Letters to the Editor
15 June, 2026
Letter to the Editor - RFS 'Red Fleet'
To the Editor, There’s a saying that you can’t keep drawing water from the same well forever. Lately, it feels like governments at every level have forgotten that.
To the Editor,
There’s a saying that you can’t keep drawing water from the same well forever.
Lately, it feels like governments at every level have forgotten that.
The NSW Government has announced it’ll take ownership of the NSW Rural Fire Service’s Red Fleet of more than 6,000 firefighting vehicles from local councils. As someone involved in emergency services, I think that’s a good thing. Every volunteer deserves to know that when the pager goes off, they’re climbing into a vehicle that’s safe, properly maintained and backed by a modern replacement program. Anything that improves safety, reliability and operational readiness is a positive step.
But it also raises a fair question. If councils are being relieved of the costs and responsibilities that come with owning the Red Fleet, will residents and businesses see any benefit? Or will those savings simply disappear into the system while ratepayers continue to face higher bills?
That question is particularly relevant in Wingecarribee, where the Council is grappling with financial sustainability challenges and considering long-term increases in rates, water and sewer charges. At the same time, the NSW Government is reviewing five options to replace the current Emergency Services Levy with a new property-based funding model.
On their own, each of these decisions can be explained. Taken together, however, they point to a broader problem. Whenever governments face financial pressure, the answer increasingly seems to be the same: ask the public to pay more.
The people carrying those costs aren’t figures in a budget paper. They’re local families paying mortgages, renters trying to get ahead, farmers, retirees, small business owners and young people wondering whether they’ll ever be able to afford a home of their own.
What concerns me about these issues is what they may mean for volunteers.
Regional emergency services depend on volunteers, not as an optional extra but as the foundation of the system. Governments simply couldn’t afford to replace them with paid staff. These are ordinary people who leave family dinners, weekends away, birthdays, sporting events and annual leave behind when someone they’ve never met needs help. They already give their time, their skills and often their own money.
They’re facing the same rising costs as everyone else. Fuel. Insurance. Rates. Groceries. Housing. If the result of these reforms is that volunteers are expected to contribute even more financially while continuing to provide the labour that keeps emergency services operating, many will feel they’re being asked to give twice.
I’ve seen volunteers step away over the years. Not because they stopped caring. Life got in the way. Work commitments, family pressures and the cost of living all compete for the same limited time and resources. That’s why this discussion matters.
The scientific evidence tells us Australia is likely to face more frequent and severe weather extremes in the years ahead. More bushfire danger. More floods. More storms. That means we’ll need more volunteers, not fewer.
So how do we encourage young people to join emergency service organisations when many are already struggling with housing affordability and rising living costs? How do we ask people to give more when they feel they’re already being stretched in every direction?
The challenge is obvious. At the very time Australia is likely to need more emergency service volunteers, many of the people we rely upon are facing increasing financial pressures and demands on their time. That’s not a sustainable equation.
Emergency services don’t turn up because a levy was paid. They turn up because somebody answered the pager.
If we continue increasing the burden on the same people while relying on a shrinking pool of volunteers to respond when disaster strikes, eventually the well will run dry and the bucket will come up empty, no matter how high a levy, rate or charge governments impose.
When that happens, the consequences won’t be measured in impersonal dollar figures or budget papers. They’ll be measured in the things that matter most: homes lost, businesses destroyed, wildlife habitat damaged and lives lost.
Ben Gifford
Bundanoon
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