ACT government launches campaign to attract more female firefighters to counter sexism

Mr Corbell said the move would focus especially on increasing the number of women firefighters in the territory, with women making up just 2 per cent of firefighters at the moment.

In the Emergency Services Agency overall, women make up 19 per cent of full timers and 27 per cent of volunteers.

Mr Corbell’s department has investigated bullying claims in the fire service but so far he has refused to release the report, saying numbers are so low that releasing the finding risks identifying the women involved and making things worse for them.

But earlier this month in response to a question from Liberal Assembly Member Giulia Jones about “bullying, sexist and misogynistic” behaviour, Mr Corbell confirmed the problem.

“It is true that, regrettably, there have been a number of reports of bullying and sexist behaviour in the ACT Fire and Rescue Service and that my directorate, at my instruction, conducted an investigation into those matters,” he said.

In the meantime, Mr Corbell has announced $160,000 (a reallocation of existing money) to attract women to emergency services, to ensure the agency “builds a workforce that better reflects the community it serves, and provides an inclusive environment that respects and values all of its members”. Rather than the “generic” recruitment campaigns run to date, recruitment would target women, he said.

United Firefighters Union ACT branch secretary Dave Livingstone said the union supported more women and more diversity among the ranks of firefighters, but was concerned that numbers not be boosted by lowering standards.

“Every time we’ve talked about the fact there are far fewer women in the service than men the discussion that comes out of it is, should we lower recruitment standards, fitness standards particularly, but regardless of gender, sexuality, race, they’ve still got to drag their fellow firefighter out of a burning building,” he said. “We think recruitment standards are sacred and they should be.”

Mr Livingstone didn’t doubt that women could meet fitness standards, and said the key was properly targeting women in recruitment drives. Firefighters were chosen through “recruitment colleges”, in which 16 people were trained at a time. The past three colleges had trained about three women out of a total of 38 firefighters, but he would not support women-only colleges, he said.

Mr Corbell said no reduction in fitness standards was proposed – although he noted that the fitness tests required at recruitment were not repeated during a firefighters’ career.

“I really don’t think women are concerned about the fitness issue because I would suggest and argue that there are many young women out in the community who have excellent levels of fitness and would be very suitable to perform the hard physical duties that firefighters have to perform,” he said. “The broader problem is the fire service has traditionally been seen as a male vocation and that needs to be changed. It is one of the few vocations left in our community that is dominated by men and it’s time to start taking steps to provide greater diversity.”

He also pointed to the slow turnover among ranks of the fire service, with people staying in the job for life, which meant change came slowly.

Mr Corbell said it was yet to be determined whether women-only recruitment colleges would form part of the strategy.

“The first step is to raise awareness and get fit young women considering firefighting as a career,” he said.

The agency would consult with staff and volunteers in workshops.

Mr Livingstone said the government had refused to give the union a copy of the bullying report.

“What that says to me is the government went looking for a culture of severe sexual-based bullying and harassment and they didn’t find it and now they’re trying to hide it from us,” he said. “We don’t believe there’s a culture of misogyny or bullying and harassment in the fire service.”