United Fire-fighters Union of South Australia

11/06/2026

We were grateful today to have the Minister for Emergency Services Rhiannon Pearce MP accept the invitation of the UFUSA State Council to attend its June meeting, and for her generosity in time in hearing directly from serving Firefighters and Officers issues currently affecting them.

State Council members spoke at length with great passion about subjects impacting our members including (but by no means limited to) difficulties in processing pays, allowances and leave entitlements within the MFS, the provision of suitable personal protective equipment, difficulties meeting increased Firefighting demands within expanding communities, the state of our stations, regional firefighting and difficulties with the current budget settings for emergency services.

Of course no one meeting can solve every issue, however we do value the Minister's preparedness to give a not small part of her day to talking to our union's elected representative body, and her commitment to engage in ongoing direct dialogue to attempt to work through matters raised.

No one could ever doubt that our Firefighters love their job and the communities they serve, and their commitment to providing the best service possible. It is in that spirit we are always prepared to meet, and cooperate, with Government to improve that service.

04/06/2026

4 June 2026

For immediate release

South Australian budget neglects Fire Services

The United Firefighters Union of South Australia Inc expresses its concern at the continued neglect of Fire and Emergency Services contained within the Malinauskas Government’s latest South Australian State Budget.

The Metropolitan Fire Service is already stretched to its breaking point. The budget papers reveal a Government target that areas staffed by a full time MFS crew should see a MFS arrival within seven minutes of call out ninety percent of the time. In the last year that target was met only 75% of the time.

In the regions, the situation is even worse with a response time target of 11 minutes being met only 63 percent of the time, short of the target by 27 percent.

This occurred notwithstanding Firefighters achieving an average ‘out the door’ time after receiving a call of 106 seconds, well within the target of 120. The resourcing of the MFS, including station numbers and locations, mean that the time for travel to incidents from stations simply cannot be conducted within the targets.

Despite these troubling figures, there is no meaningful increase to the funding of the Metropolitan Fire Service and the budget papers reveal the Government’s intention to cut the full time equivalent staffing within the Metropolitan Fire Service.

Much of the budget focus from Government has been on building new houses and opening up land in areas previously undeveloped. With any consideration it must become quickly apparent that to properly provide fire and emergency services to an expanding population across a broader geography more resourcing must be required. Inevitably this must include more Stations and more Firefighters. No plans to meet this demand or provide this resourcing exists. Instead, South Australia will remain significantly behind the Australian national average in per capita funding and hold unchallenged the dubious title as the worst funded Fire Services in Australia.

Quotes attributable to United Firefighters Union of South Australia Acting Secretary Peter Russell:

“The South Australian Government is taking the worst funded Fire Service in Australia and making its situation worse.”

“It beggars belief that the Government could approach a MFS which is not meeting their targets for response times despite the exceptional efforts of its Firefighters, and which has been plagued by administrative dysfunction resulting from a shoe string budget including large scale underpayments of wages and failures to provide training and decide that the solution is to further cut the existing staff.”

“As the Government carries out a policy agenda of opening up new land for development, and building new houses across a greater geographical area, we face a very real risk that those new home buyers will not receive responses from emergency services in time when they need it unless the Government accepts that it needs to fund its Fire Services.”

04/06/2026

Acting Secretary Peter Russell spoke to media following today's release of the South Australian budget.

The UFUSA is extremely concerned that the budget represents a continuation of the ongoing neglect of our Fire and Emergency services.

Increases to the funding level of the MFS are nominal at best and unlikely to meet increasing costs, and despite having already run a razor gang through the organisation the budget papers reveal that the Governments plans are to further reduce the current number of full-time equivalent employees in the metropolitan fire service. Further cuts from a service that is already unable to handle administrative functions like paying its employees their entitlements correctly and on time.

Much of the budget focusses on the Government's plans for building new houses, including in previously undeveloped areas of the greater metropolitan area. No additional funding has been allocated to ensuring that our Fire Services can properly protect these communities. There are no new stations, there are no more Firefighters. More must be done with less.

South Australian first time homeowners deserve to know that they are protected by a first class properly funded Fire and Emergency Service. What is the Government's plan?

South Australians deserve better.

12/05/2026

Acting Secretary Peter Russell spoke with David & Will this morning after the ABC's report on the Barry review into regional Firefighting, and our members experiences.

UFUSA members are not suprised about the state of regional firefighting, they've been living with the difficulties for far too long. We cannot fund our Fire Service at sixty percent of the national average (per capita), and think that does not have a significant impact upon Firefighters and community.

11/05/2026

We welcome the ABC's report into SAMFS's regional resourcing.

We simply cannot accept a circumstance where our Fire Service is funded at pennies to the dollar needed whilst facing cost cutting pressure, and imagine that this is not going to impact upon community service and safety.

It is not acceptable for a Government who acts as employer to Firefighters to require them to work under these conditions.

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"UFU secretary Peter Russell said the union asked the MFS to commission a review following members' complaints.

He believed the MFS "wants to improve conditions" but needs a "not-insignificant funding injection … to provide a safe level of service".

"Regional resourcing has been a problem for a very long time and it's led to significant member dissatisfaction," he said.

"I've had reports from retained stations saying there are reasonably long-serving retained members that have never had proper structural firefighting training," he said, referring to live drills.

"There are periods up to five years where they haven't had road crash rescue training [refreshers]. There is constant stopping and starting for HAZMAT training, where they begin, never finish it, the course changes, and they start again."
The Productivity Commission found that funding per head of population for SA firefighters is $154 — the lowest in the country compared to the national average of $250.

"Although we have the best firefighters, they're not being given the best opportunities for training, because we're told the MFS can simply not afford it," he said.

"That eventually has to present a community risk … it's a reality that if the government doesn't reconsider the funding, there will eventually be a catastrophic event that could have been prevented."

An ex-fire chief found SA's Metropolitan Fire Service risks being "completely dysfunctional" due to below-minimum training and facilities, according to Freedom of Information documents.

05/05/2026

UFUSA is grateful that the Malinauskas Government has made the introduction of a bill to expand by a further four cancers the diseases which are presumed to be caused by firefighting for workers compensation purposes one of it first priorities in the new parliament.

These laws reflect that the science that occupational firefighting causes cancer is long settled, and are critical to ensuring that Firefighters who suffer these horrific diseases can focus on getting the appropriate care quickly rather than being stuck in long legal battles around causation.

We call upon all parties and independents to ensure that the bill passes the parliament quickly, and with unanimous support.

05/05/2026

Every year the United Firefighters Union of SA participates in the Mother's Day Classic to help raise funds and awareness to fight breast and ovarian cancers.

Tragically, every day in Australia 63 people diagnosed and 12 lose their lives to breast or ovarian cancer.

Please consider joining our team or donating through the below link.

Team United Firefighters Union of SA are taking part in the Mother’s Day Classic to help raise funds and awareness for breast and ovarian cancer research. We're going to put our foot down on Sunday May 10 2026. Please join us, or donate now and show all women that you’re running, walking and sta...

04/05/2026

May 4th is International Firefighters' Day. It's a day to commemorate and pay respects to Firefighters for their sacrifice and bravery and to remember our comrades who have lost their lives resulting from their service.

Today, as all days, we remember those from our firefighting family who have been taken from us far too soon.

01/05/2026

Happy May Day!

The United Firefighters Union of South Australia recognises and celebrates that today is May Day. It is the workers day, and is an important opportunity for our movement to celebrate the value of common struggle and solidarity, and our power when we stand together.

In our own union, it’s well worth reflecting on the events of the past year on this day: this was a year in which Firefighters stood together and committed to a campaign against a powerful and popular Government that was not engaged in respectful enterprise bargaining. UFUSA members stood strong together, committed to action, took that action and won. And there is no surprise in that: the workers united will never be defeated!

The importance of workers collective action, solidarity and strength does not end with an enterprise agreement. It could not be more important in this era of unaffordable housing, sky rocketing fuel costs caused by wars, and cost of living crises that workers stand together to fight for a fairer world.

Solidarity comrades, and happy May Day.

04/03/2026

Congratulations to UFUSA members who have received the first of their hard won SAMFS enterprise agreement pay rises today.

You deserve every cent!