Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Chief Fire Officer Mark Spain explains why the Humpty Doo fire station is closed amid a 24 hour fire ban

Transcript

NT Chief Fire Officer Mark Spain explains why the Humpty Doo fire station is closed amid a 24 hour fire ban · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And joining me in the studio to talk a little
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: bit more about this is Mark Spain, who is the
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: chief Fire Officer for the Northern Territory. Good morning to you, Mark.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, firstly,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: that fireban is in place today, what are the conditions
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: looking like for the morning.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: At this time? It's a four hour window Kati this afternoon,
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  Speaker 2: so and it predominantly affects the Bachelor region or they
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: it encompasses the Darwen area as well, So it is
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a concern to us, but we'll have resources available now.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously it's a concern, you know, for the very obvious
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  Speaker 1: reasons that you don't want to see any of those
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  Speaker 1: fires out in that area. But it's also a concern
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  Speaker 1: because this morning we're learning that the Humpty Dew fire
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  Speaker 1: station is closed. Why is that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's we had a number of vacancies on shift.
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  Speaker 2: Within the shift environment, I have to what they call
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  Speaker 2: emergency response areas, so I have to maintain a minimum
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  Speaker 2: staffing crew and that's particularly being Darwin, Marara, Berrima and Palmerston.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Hump you do is there? We try to fill up
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  Speaker 2: Monday to Friday when we can. However, due to significant
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  Speaker 2: vacancies this morning, I had to make a very decision
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  Speaker 2: based on risk that I'd have to close that HEMP
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  Speaker 2: to do station.
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  Speaker 1: So, hump, you do stations not open on the weekends.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's open Monday to Friday, including public holidays, from
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  Speaker 2: eight o'clock in the morning to eighteen hundred hours in
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  Speaker 2: the afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So it does usually open from Monday to Friday.
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  Speaker 1: It's not open today, and it does sound as though
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  Speaker 1: it's due to some staffing issues filling those rosters now.
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  Speaker 1: Erin early from the union had said earlier that there
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: were no calls made to try and fill that roster
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  Speaker 1: and that this is simply a cost cutting measure.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure where Arena's getting her intel from. However,
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  Speaker 2: from the watch commander, there was two calls made last
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  Speaker 2: night to all firefighters that were eligible for the overtime,
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  Speaker 2: and another round of calls this morning in order to
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: try and meet our obligations and serve and protect the community.
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  Speaker 1: So there were phone calls made to try and fill
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  Speaker 1: those positions.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, there were. And then the other alternative was I
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  Speaker 2: had to move from some day work firefighters into fill
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the short forms because we actually could not fill those
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: with those eligible firefighters. And then as a result, I've
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  Speaker 2: had to hold over one fire station officer today who
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  Speaker 2: worked last night, but he'll receive an eight hour break
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  Speaker 2: on tonight's shift.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So it does sound as though there's some
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  Speaker 1: different things that you're trying to juggle there in terms
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: of their overtime and in terms of your staffing levels.
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  Speaker 1: But you are telling me right now that there was
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  Speaker 1: definitely calls made last night to try and fill those positions.
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  Speaker 2: Based on the conversation I had with the watch commander
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  Speaker 2: who was on duty last night and earlier this morning,
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  Speaker 2: it confirmed there were two phone calls to all the
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  Speaker 2: relevant firefighters eligible for overtime last night. Our gain followed
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  Speaker 2: up with calls today. There was one member who took
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  Speaker 2: over time last night and then this morning at five
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  Speaker 2: point thirty, unfortunately, he became sick and had to not
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: turn up.
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  Speaker 1: And so what's ago If the calls were made, and
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you know you tried to fill those fill those jobs
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  Speaker 1: or fill those positions so that you could open the
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  Speaker 1: humpty do fire station today, what's the goo? How come
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  Speaker 1: no one could do it?
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sure, Katie. Well, the shift crews will ring
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: them up and they'll either say no, they're not available.
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  Speaker 2: They don't really give a reason that they're on their
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: time off and they say not available, then we have
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: to come up with some other contingencies.
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  Speaker 1: The Chief Minister had said on the show earlier this
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  Speaker 1: morning when I asked her about the situation, that her
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  Speaker 1: understanding is that there were you know, people have been
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: sick and that kind of thing.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a number of factors involved in it, and
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  Speaker 2: we've currently got a recruit school on at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: So therefore, they did their forteen our night exercise last night,
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  Speaker 2: so a couple of those training instructors weren't available today.
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  Speaker 2: They're having a well earned break from that exercise. We
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  Speaker 2: have a number of people who are online duties who
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  Speaker 2: can't perform operational duties. And also I'm working closely with
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  Speaker 2: the Minister Katie Warden in relation to our staffing allocation
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  Speaker 2: as it is, So that's an ongoing process all right.
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  Speaker 1: So, Spainy, the big question I suppose from the union,
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  Speaker 1: or based on what the union had said, is that
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  Speaker 1: this is a cost cutting measure. Is it a cost
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  Speaker 1: cutting measure? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: No, I think Arena has lost their way a little
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  Speaker 2: bit there. I absolutely have the community in my mind
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  Speaker 2: the whole time, but I can only do what I
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  Speaker 2: can with my finite resources. Absolutely not. We would have
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: filled that station if we could. As I said, We've
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  Speaker 2: tried several times to do that. I've had to manage
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  Speaker 2: to bring day workers across to fill that, which is
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  Speaker 2: unusual because I had also had received a text from
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: United Workers Union saying that they needed four days notice
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: so they didn't have to take today's over time. But
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  Speaker 2: I think most of them have got the right idea
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: to protect the community.
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  Speaker 1: I think the biggest question that everybody's wondering this morning
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  Speaker 1: is the community safe.
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  Speaker 2: As I said, Katie, we've got our volunteers, but mindful
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  Speaker 2: of the fact that our volunteers they also have work.
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  Speaker 2: But we will be able to respond. I have a
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  Speaker 2: number of resources valid to me. I have the Deputy
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  Speaker 2: Chief Fires out at Bushfires int as a liaison officer,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: so we'll jump onto things fairly quickly.
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  Speaker 1: As of all right, So I mean just taking into
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: account that obviously that is that there is that fireband
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: in place, and you've said that there is going to
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: be that four hour window of the savoh it is
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: mainly the Bachelor region, but based on the fact that
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  Speaker 1: Humpty Do is not open, you still do feel as
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: though the community is going to be okay should a fire,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Should there be a fire and you need resources out there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I certainly can't say that hand on heart, but
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  Speaker 2: what we'll do is I'll throw everything I can that's
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: available to me at the moment. We also have aircraft
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: through the bushfires NT on standby, of which will deploy
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: asap should it be required.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Do you think that you're going to run into this
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  Speaker 1: situation again? I mean you know again there's going to
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  Speaker 1: be people listening thinking, oh, if this can happen to
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  Speaker 1: Humpty Do, could this happen at one of our other
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  Speaker 1: stations around Darwen.
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  Speaker 2: Once again, I'm not quite sure why so many of
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  Speaker 2: my firefighters weren't able to do the overtime under normal circumstances.
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  Speaker 2: I've had no real issues up until today, but at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, it is what it is
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  Speaker 2: and I've got to try and manage. You can't say
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: it won't happen again. We'll try every effort to keep
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  Speaker 2: it open, but certainly I'll say very clearly it's not
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: a cost saving measure. I only have finite resources and
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  Speaker 2: I only have very small crews, So therefore I want
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to throw everything out I can.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Do you think that there's a situation here or there
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  Speaker 1: could be a situation where these games being played.
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  Speaker 2: All I'll say is there's an enterprise agreement bargaining going
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: on between a government and the United Workers Union.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So I'm not too sure where to go
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  Speaker 1: from there, but so so there could.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Be Yeah, this was played out about four or five
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  Speaker 2: years ago where I had to bring in over time,
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  Speaker 2: rest relief, over time from my firefighters. But I'm pretty
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  Speaker 2: reluctant to go We'll avoid that at all costs because
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  Speaker 2: of fatigue for my own fire fighters. As Areta said,
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  Speaker 2: you know you've got to look after our firefighters as
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  Speaker 2: well as a community.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Mark Spain, we are going to leave it there,
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  Speaker 1: Chief Fire Officer for the Northern Territory. I appreciate your
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: time this morning at very short note. Thanks so much
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: for chatting with us.
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  Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Thank you,