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Speaker 1: And joining me in the studio to talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about this is Mark Spain, who is the

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Speaker 1: chief Fire Officer for the Northern Territory. Good morning to you, Mark.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, firstly,

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Speaker 1: that fireban is in place today, what are the conditions

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Speaker 1: looking like for the morning.

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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

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Speaker 2: it encompasses the Darwen area as well, So it is

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Speaker 2: the short forms because we actually could not fill those

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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

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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

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Speaker 2: turn up.

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Speaker 1: And so what's ago If the calls were made, and

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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

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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

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Speaker 2: time off and they say not available, then we have

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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

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Speaker 1: sick and that kind of thing.

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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

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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

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Speaker 2: United Workers Union saying that they needed four days notice

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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

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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,

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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

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Speaker 1: account that obviously that is that there is that fireband

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Speaker 1: in place, and you've said that there is going to

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Speaker 1: be that four hour window of the savoh it is

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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

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Speaker 1: though the community is going to be okay should a fire,

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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

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Speaker 2: available to me at the moment. We also have aircraft

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Speaker 2: through the bushfires NT on standby, of which will deploy

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Speaker 2: asap should it be required.

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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

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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

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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

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Speaker 2: to throw everything out I can.

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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

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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.

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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

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Speaker 1: time this morning at very short note. Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for chatting with us.

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Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Thank you,