Report on Government Services 2024

An emergency event is an event that endangers or threatens to endanger life, property or the environment, and requires a significant and coordinated response. A fire event is an incident that is reported to a fire service organisation and requires a response. Fire events include (but are not limited to):

• structure fires (that is, fires inside a building or structure), regardless of whether there is damage to the structure
• landscape fires, including bushfires and grass fires, regardless of the size of the area burnt
• other fires, including vehicle and other mobile property fires, and outside rubbish fires.

Other events that require an emergency response from fire services or state and territory emergency services include road crash rescue, floods, storms and other natural disasters.

Fire service organisations and state and territory emergency services (STES) are some of the primary agencies involved in providing emergency services for fire and other events. The role of these organisations varies across jurisdictions but commonly includes prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities.

Each state and territory government operates multiple emergency service agencies, which service different populations and geographic areas according to specified governance arrangements (see table 9.1 below). Fire service and STES organisations work closely with other government departments and agencies that also have responsibilities in the case of fire and other emergency events.

This section covers the finances and activities of urban and rural fire service organisations and STES. For selected tables and jurisdictions, the fire service organisation data includes finances and activities of the relevant land management agencies.

Nationally in 2022-23, the total revenue of fire service organisations was $5.5 billion (including Western Australia STES), a real increase of 5.4% from 2021-22.

STES revenue (excluding Western Australia) was $437.3 million, a real increase of 14.1% from 2021-22. This was driven by a $36.3 million increase in government grants and appropriations in Victoria. A single department is responsible for both fire and emergency services in Western Australia and revenue cannot be separately reported for their state emergency service (including volunteer marine rescue) (table 9.2).

Funding models to resource fire service organisations and STES organisations differ across jurisdictions. For fire services in four jurisdictions (New South Wales, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory), nearly 50% or more of revenue was from government grants in 2022-23. In the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, the proportion was over 90%. Levies were the largest source of revenue (over 60%) in 2022-23 in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania (table 9A.1).

For STES in 2022-23, state or territory government grants provided over 90% of revenue for Victoria, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Levies were the largest revenue source in New South Wales and South Australia (over 80%) (table 9A.2).

• the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, which provide assistance with relief and recovery efforts following an eligible natural disaster. In 2022-23, the Australian Government provided $2,432.7 million in cash payments to states and territories (Australian Government 2023). This figure differs from the estimate in table 9A.3, which reflects payments to states and territories on an accrual basis. Allocations vary across jurisdictions and over time depending on the timing and nature of natural disaster events
• the Preparing Australian Communities Program Local, which supports projects that mitigate or reduce the risk, impact and consequences associated with large-scale natural hazards. In 2022-23, the Australian Government spent $27.9 million on this fund (table 9A.3)
• the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund, which supports initiatives to reduce the risk and limit the impact of disasters in line with the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework. In 2022-23, the Australian Government provided $20.9 million in funding under this program (table 9A.3)
• the Emergency Response Fund, which complements existing sources of funding for emergency response and disaster recovery. In 2022-23, the Australian Government committed $325.0 million from the Emergency Response Fund (table 9A.3).

In 2022-23, the Australian Government also provided $1.4 billion in financial support to eligible individuals affected by a disaster (table 9A.3).

Human resources

Nationally in 2022-23, 23,480 full-time equivalent (FTE) paid personnel were employed by fire service organisations, with the majority (75.4%) being firefighters. A large number of volunteer personnel (188,067 people) also participated in the delivery of services in 2022-23, a decrease of 2.7% from 2021-22. Nationally, the numbers of volunteer personnel (both firefighters and support staff) have decreased by almost 16% over the reported time series (table 9A.4).

For STES, the majority of personnel were volunteers. In 2022-23 there were 24,703 STES volunteers, similar to 2021-22. There were also 2,703 paid staff in 2022-23. The proportion of volunteer and paid personnel and the nature of their roles varied across jurisdictions (table 9A.5).

Demand for emergency services

Fire service organisations and STES provide emergency response and rescue services for a range of fire and other emergency events. Nationally in 2022-23, fire service organisations attended 413,570 emergency incidents, of which 79,063 were fire events. Fire service organisations also responded to other incident types including road crash rescues, floods and storms, and other hazardous conditions. The number of emergency incidents that fire service organisations responded to over the past five years increased by 5.7% (table 9A.6).

In 2022-23, STES organisations (excluding Queensland) attended 95,411 incidents, the majority of which were storm and cyclone events (54.2% or 51,746 events). The number of incidents requiring STES attendance over the past five years has increased by 36.4% (table 9A.7).

‘Response times by geographic area’ is a proxy indicator of governments’ objective to provide fire services in an equitable manner.

‘Response times by geographic area’ is defined as the time taken between the arrival of the first fire crew appliance (that is, fire engine, truck or other fire emergency vehicle) at the scene of a structure fire and:

• initial receipt of the triple zero (000) call at the communications centre (including call taking time), by remoteness area. Response time (including call taking time) reflects jurisdictions’ overall responsiveness to the notification of a structure fire
• dispatch of the responding fire crew (excluding call taking time), by remoteness area. Response time (excluding call taking time) reflects service organisations’ responsiveness to the notification of a structure fire.

Response times are measured for emergency calls only.

Response times are calculated as the time (in minutes) within which 50% of first responding fire crews arrived at the scene of a structure fire and the time (in minutes) within which 90% of first responding fire crews arrived at the scene of a structure fire. The diagram below illustrates the steps involved in responding to an emergency from the initial receipt of an emergency call.

Many factors influence response times by geographic area including:

• land area
• population size and density
• dispersion of the population (particularly rural/urban population proportions), topography, road/transport infrastructure and traffic densities
• crew configurations, response systems and processes, and travel distances - for example, some jurisdictions include responses from volunteer stations (often in rural areas) where turnout times are generally longer because volunteers are on call as distinct from being on duty.

Similar response times across different geographies suggest equitable access by area. Low numbers of structure fire incidents often exist in remote and very remote locations. This can contribute to large fluctuations in response times in these areas.

In 2022-23, the time within which 50% of the first responding fire crew appliances arrived at the scene of a structure fire within major cities ranged from:

• 6.2 to 9.2 minutes including call taking time
• 6.0 to 7.6 minutes excluding call taking time (table 9.3).

In 2022-23, the time within which 90% of the first responding fire crew appliances arrived at the scene of a structure fire within major cities ranged from:

• 9.3 to 13.6 minutes including call taking time
• 8.8 to 11.4 minutes excluding call taking time (table 9.3).

Response times are generally longer for all jurisdictions in regional and remote areas, compared to major cities (table 9.3).

‘Response times’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to provide emergency services that are accessible and responsive.

‘Response times’ is defined as the time taken between the arrival of the first fire crew appliance (that is, fire engine, truck or other fire emergency vehicle) at the scene of a structure fire and:

• initial receipt of the triple zero (000) call at the communications centre. Response time (including call taking time) reflects jurisdictions’ overall responsiveness to the notification of a structure fire
• dispatch of the responding fire crew. Response time (excluding call taking time) reflects service organisations’ responsiveness to the notification of a structure fire.

See Response times by geographic area for further information on the scope and calculation of response times.

Shorter response times suggest that services are more accessible and responsive.

In 2022-23, the time within which 50% of the first responding fire crew appliances arrived at the scene of a structure fire statewide ranged from:

• 6.4 to 9.8 minutes including call taking time
• 4.3 to 8.1 minutes excluding call taking time.

In 2022-23, the time within which 90% of the first responding fire crew appliances arrived at the scene of a structure fire statewide ranged from:

• 11.2 to 17.9 minutes including call taking time
• 8.6 to 15.7 minutes excluding call taking time (figure 9.1).

‘Accidental residential structure fires’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to contribute to the community’s management of risks through the promotion of risk reduction and mitigation activities.

‘Accidental residential structure fires’ is defined as the rate of accidental residential structure fires per 100,000 households, by selected equity groups.

Accidental residential structure fires are fires that are not deliberately lit and could have been reduced or prevented with effective education programs.

For the first time, this report includes data on the rates of accidental residential structure fires for the following selected equity groups:

• people from regional and remote areas according to ABS remoteness area classifications
• people living in low socio-economic areas according to ABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSD) quintiles.

Household rates for equity groups are calculated using ABS Census estimates of households (occupied private dwellings) and thus rates are only available for Census years.

A low or decreasing incidence of accidental residential structure fire indicates greater community preparedness. Similar rates across remoteness areas and SEIFA IRSD quintiles suggests similar levels of community preparedness across equity groups. Higher rates might indicate opportunities to improve community preparedness for particular equity groups.

The rate of accidental residential structure fires per 100,000 households should be interpreted with caution. In particular, rates are affected by differences across jurisdictions in distinguishing accidental residential structure fires from structure fires resulting from other causes.

Nationally, in 2022-23, the rate of accidental residential structure fires was 55.5 per 100,000 households, a decrease from 68.6 in 2021-22 and the lowest rate over the past 10 years (85.6 per 100,000 households in 2013-14) (figure 9.2).

The most recent data available on the rate of accidental residential structure fires per 100,000 households, by selected equity groups, is for the period 2021-22. Nationally, in 2021-22, the rates of accidental residential structure fires were:

• higher for households in major cities (83.0 per 100,000 households) compared to remote and very remote areas (67.2 and 38.4 per 100,000 households, respectively)
• higher for households in the lowest socio-economic areas (96.0 per 100,000 households) compared to the highest socio-economic areas (63.2 per 100,000 households) (table 9A.11).

‘Confinement of structure fires to room/object of origin’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to contribute to the community’s management of risks through the promotion of risk reduction and mitigation activities.

‘Confinement of structure fires to room/object of origin’ is defined as the proportion of structure fires confined to the room, part room or object of origin, by ignition type.

Structure fires include building fires and fires in buildings confined to non‑combustible containers. Structure fires without a value attributed to confinement are excluded.

The ignition types reported separately are all; accidental; incendiary and suspicious; and other.

A high or increasing proportion of structure fires confined to the room, part room or object of origin is desirable.

Nationally in 2022-23, 76.3% of structure fires were confined, a decrease from a slight ten year high of 78.6% in 2020-21. The rate of confinement in 2022-23 was highest for accidental structure fires (83.5%) and lowest for structure fires by other ignition types (56.8%). The rate of confinement for incendiary and suspicious structure fires in 2022-23 was 66.1% (figure 9.3).

‘Households with a working smoke alarm’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to contribute to the community’s management of risks and its preparedness.

‘Households with a working smoke alarm’ is defined by the proportion of all households with a smoke alarm that is operational/has been tested (manually in the past 12 months).

A high or increasing proportion of households with an operational smoke alarm indicates greater community preparedness.

Data is not yet available for reporting against this indicator.

Administrative data on accidental residential structure fires by smoke alarm status is available in table 9A.12. Nationally in 2022-23 (excluding New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory), 22.7% of accidental residential structure fires had a complete Australian Incident Reporting System (AIRS) smoke alarm operation code. The smoke alarm operated in 64.6% of these fires, but in other instances was not present (23.8%), did not operate (5.9%) or the fire was too small to activate the smoke alarm (5.8%) (table 9A.12).

Refer to Accidental residential structure fires for more information.

‘Workforce sustainability’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to provide emergency services that are sustainable.

Firefighter workforce sustainability concerns the capacity of the firefighter workforce to meet current and projected demand.

‘Workforce sustainability’ is defined by two measures:

• ‘workforce by age group’ - the proportion of the firefighting workforce (headcount) in 10‑year age groups (under 30, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59 and 60 years and over)
• ‘workforce attrition’ - the proportion of the firefighting workforce (FTE) who exited the organisation.

The firefighting workforce comprises any person employed or remunerated by the fire service organisation who delivers or manages a firefighting service directly to the community and who is formally trained and qualified to undertake firefighting duties. It includes permanent, part-time and other employees. It excludes the support workforce (non-firefighting staff).

A low or decreasing proportion of the workforce in younger age groups and/or a high or increasing proportion of the workforce in older age groups suggest potential workforce sustainability problems as older age workers enter retirement. High and increasing levels of staff attrition also suggest potential workforce sustainability problems.

Nationally in 2022-23, 64.6% of the firefighter workforce (headcount) was aged under 50 years. This proportion has decreased over the reported time series (67.9% in 2014-15) (figure 9.4).

Nationally in 2022-23, the firefighter workforce (FTE) attrition rate was 2.7%, an increase from 1.9% in 2021-22 (figure 9.5). Headcount attrition rates are also provided in table 9A.4.

‘Expenditure per person’ is a proxy indicator of governments’ objective to provide emergency services in an efficient manner.

‘Expenditure per person’ is defined as total fire service organisation expenditure per person in the population.

All else being equal, lower expenditure per person suggests greater efficiency. However, efficiency data should be interpreted with caution. High or increasing expenditure per person may reflect deteriorating efficiency. Alternatively, it may reflect changes in aspects of the service (such as improved response times), increased resourcing for fire prevention or community preparedness, or changes in the characteristics of fire events (such as more challenging fires).

Expenditure per fire is not used as a measure of efficiency because an organisation that works to reduce the number of fire incidents could erroneously appear to be less efficient due to fixed capital and labour costs.

The role of volunteers needs to be considered when interpreting this indicator. Volunteer personnel provide a substantial proportion of fire services (and emergency services more generally). While training and equipment costs associated with volunteers are included in the cost of fire service provision, the labour costs of providing fire services would be greater without volunteers (assuming these functions were still performed).

Time series data for real recurrent expenditure and capital costs (including associated costs for the user cost of capital) for each jurisdiction is reported in table 9A.14. Information on the treatment of assets by emergency management agencies is presented in table 9.5 in the Explanatory material.

Nationally in 2022-23, total fire service organisation expenditure per person in the population was $226, an increase from $214 per person in 2021-22 (figure 9.6). This is the highest level in the past 10 years except for the 2019-20 Australian bushfires year ($235 per person). Expenditure data disaggregated by labour, capital and other costs is available in table 9A.14.

‘Deaths from fire and other events’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to reduce the adverse effects of emergency events on the community (including people, property, infrastructure, the economy and the environment).

‘Deaths from fire and other events’ is defined by three measures:

• fire death rate - deaths, per million people, where the underlying cause of death was fire related to smoke, fire and flames, and including all (structure and landscape) fires
• landscape fire death rate - deaths, per million people, resulting from landscape fires only as confirmed by a coroner or inquest or provisionally by the incident controller or by media reports
• exposure to forces of nature death rate - deaths, per million people, resulting from exposure to forces of nature, including flood, earthquake and excessive natural heat.

Annual fire and exposure to forces of nature death rates can be volatile because of the small number of fire and exposure to forces of nature deaths and the influence of large irregular events.

No deaths or a decreasing rate of fire and exposure to forces of nature deaths is desirable.

Nationally in 2022, the annual fire death rate was 5.0 deaths per million people (129 fire deaths) (figure 9.7).

Nationally in 2022-23, the landscape fire death rate was 0.1 per million people (2 landscape fire deaths) (figure 9.7).

Nationally in 2022, the exposure to forces of nature death rate was 3.1 per million people (81 exposure to forces of nature deaths) (figure 9.7).

Road traffic death rates are reported as contextual information in table 9A.16. Further information on road deaths (per 100,000 registered vehicles) and traffic accident hospitalisations are available in the Police services section of this report.

‘Injuries from fire and other events’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to reduce the adverse effects of events on the community (including people, property, infrastructure, the economy and the environment).

‘Injuries from fire and other events’ is defined by two measures:

• total fire injuries - rate of hospitalised fire injury cases per 100,000 people (annual data)
• extreme weather-related injuries - rate of hospitalised injury cases per 100,000 people resulting from extreme weather-related events, reported separately for heat, bushfire, cold, rain and storms (sum of three years).

Estimates of injuries from fire and other extreme weather-related events are based on hospital separations data in the National Hospital Morbidity Database. Data excludes admitted patients transferred from another hospital, patients who died in hospital and patients admitted for rehabilitation.

Numbers and rates of fire injury hospitalisations are disaggregated by the following selected equity groups:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• people from regional and remote areas (based on the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard remoteness area structure)
• people from low socio-economic areas (based on the ABS Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage, with quintile 1 being the most disadvantaged and quintile 5 being the least disadvantaged).

No fire or extreme weather-related injuries or a decreasing number and rate of injuries is desirable.

Nationally in 2021-22, there were an estimated 2,192 hospitalised fire injury cases (table 9A.17), equating to a rate of 8.5 per 100,000 people (table 9A.17). Rates were higher for non-Indigenous people, people living in major cities and people living in the lowest socio-economic areas (quintile 1) (figure 9.8a).

Nationally, for the three-year period 2019-20 to 2021-22, there were an estimated 2,744 hospitalised extreme weather-related injury cases, equating to a rate of 10.7 per 100,000 people over the three-year period. Most extreme weather-related hospitalisations were the result of heat (78.1%), followed by bushfire (10.9%), cold (7.0%), and rain and storms (4.0%) (figure 9.8b).

‘Value of asset losses from fire and other events’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to reduce the adverse effects of events on the community (including people, property, infrastructure, the economy and the environment).

‘Value of asset losses from fire and other events’ is defined by two measures:

• fire events - the estimated monetary value of the damage to domestic (household) property and contents caused by fire and firefighting operations based on insurance claims, reported separately for bushfire and non-bushfire events
• other major weather events - the estimated monetary value of the damage to domestic (household) property and contents caused by other major weather events (e.g., flood, storm) based on insurance claims.

These measures comprise the value of all insurance claims, including those for major events (defined as total claims greater than $100 million). As a result, there is potential for volatility across the time series due to the unpredictability of major events.

The value of household insurance claims from fire events and other major weather events reflects efforts to reduce the likelihood, effect and consequences of emergencies on communities. Lower or decreasing asset losses from fire and other major weather events is desirable.

Data should be interpreted with caution as insurance claims may not reflect actual asset losses due to:

• under insurance - insurance payouts are limited by the estimated value of assets a policy holder provides when taking out insurance (and not all assets lost in fire and other major weather events are insured)
• new for old policies - new for old policies replace an old asset with a new equivalent
• excess policies - small losses from fire and other weather events are not recorded where no insurance claim is made. Policy holders might not make an insurance claim for small losses given the requirement for policy holders to pay an excess.

Data reflects approximately 70% and 80% of the potential domestic and commercial insurance markets, respectively.

Nationally in 2022-23, the value of household fire event claims per person in the population was $29.37 (excluding bushfire event claims), this figure increased slightly to $29.45 including bushfire event claims (figure 9.9).

Nationally in 2022-23, the value of other major weather event claims per person in the population was $81.42 (figure 9.9).

The average value of the 6,596 total fire event insurance claims (including bushfire event claims) for households was $117,288 in 2022-23. The total value of household asset losses from all fire events was $773.6 million in 2022-23 (table 9A.19). Supporting data on commercial fire event claims (reported separately for bushfire and non-bushfire events) is available in table 9A.19.

The average value of the 33,266 other major weather event insurance claims was $64,293 in 2022-23. The total value of household asset losses for other major weather events was $2.1 billion (table 9A.20). Supporting data on commercial major weather event claims is available in table 9A.20.

Some negative values are reported in average and total value of claims (tables 9A.19–20). Negative values are the result of delays finalising insurance claims for large events, insurers revising their reserves, and third-party recoveries.

The bushfire events captured across the reported time series are:

• the ‘Black Summer’ bushfires - November/December 2019
• Pinery Bushfires - November 2015
• New South Wales Bushfires - October 2013.

a Market value is the current (net) value market selling price or exchange value; deprival value may be either the depreciated replacement cost of an asset of a similar service potential or the stream of its future economic benefits. b The assets used by the NSW Rural Fire Service are largely vested in local government. Accordingly, although issues such as asset depreciation and useful lives may be guided by Service policies, local government policies will prevail in other areas. c Treatment includes all four response agencies: the ACT Fire and Rescue, the ACT Rural Fire Service, the ACT State Emergency Service and the ACT Ambulance Service. Assets have been manually apportioned. Apportionment process varies from previous years. d Estimated as 1/depreciation rate. Asset lives for some assets have been grouped with other classifications. e For some jurisdictions, office equipment includes furniture and fittings. f For some jurisdictions, other equipment includes information technology. na Not available.

Source: State and territory governments (unpublished).