Fire or life threatening emergencies: 000
Emergency Information: 13 3337
SES Emergency Assistance: 132 500
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) administers the following Acts on behalf of the Minister for Emergency Services:
DFES is coordinating a review of the Fire Brigades Act 1942, the Bush Fires Act 1954 and the Fire and Emergency Services Act of 1998.
The Western Australian Cabinet has approved the consolidation of these three Acts. As a result, the existing Acts will be repealed and replaced with one comprehensive consolidated piece of legislation. It is currently referred to as the Consolidated Emergency Services Act or the CES Act.
The CES Act will lay a strong and integrated foundation for effective emergency services management in the future. It will also improve community safety and provide better support for emergency services workers.
To determine the scope of the proposed CES Act, DFES conducted extensive consultation with state agencies, local government, volunteers and industry during a legislation review that resulted in over 5,000 comments submitted. These submissions assisted in developing drafting instructions, which Cabinet subsequently approved.
The drafting instructions have been provided to Parliamentary Counsel’s Office (PCO) to draft the Exposure Draft Bill. During this phase of the project, there is extensive communication between DFES and PCO.
Once the Exposure Draft Bill is released, an extensive public consultation period will be undertaken. Feedback from the consultation period will be considered and used to inform any necessary changes to the proposed legislation before submission to Parliament. Once submitted to Parliament, the Bill will be debated for Parliamentary approval (Royal assent) to publish the Act.
The development of new legislation is a lengthy and complex process guided by governmental and Parliamentary processes.
It may take several years to develop the new CES Act and the supporting regulations. This timeframe will allow for a thorough consultation process to be undertaken.
The declaration of an emergency situation is made in response to exceptional circumstances that pose a threat to public safety. An emergency situation declaration facilitates a high-level coordinated response during extreme situations. It allows for the mobilisation of resources and the deployment of personnel and equipment to respond to the emergency.
Once an emergency situation has been declared, responders can take actions to protect lives and property. This may include evacuating people from the area, providing medical aid, or clearing debris. Declaring an emergency situation is a serious step, but it is often necessary in order to save lives and property during an emergency.
An emergency situation declaration may:
Emergency services volunteer employers play a vital role in keeping Western Australians safe. Without their support, many incidents and emergencies would not receive the support and response required.
It is encouraged that employees are released during business hours to respond to an incident. However, employers have the final say on whether an employee may leave work, even during an emergency situation declaration.
An emergency situation declaration is prescribed under the Emergency Management Act 2005 and the Fair Work Act 2009. This means specific criteria must be followed by employers who release employee/s to help. This includes the legislative requirement to pay your employee/s their base salary or wage for the days they are deployed under a declaration.
If you release an employee, this should be done under a prior arrangement, so the employee knows the conditions under which they are leaving. This can be a combination of paid leave, unpaid leave and flexi-time.
