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Greg Mullins AO AFSM is an Australian firefighter. He is a former Commissioner of Fire and Rescue New South Wales, a Climate Councillor with the Climate Council and a founding member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action.
Firefighting is a family profession. Greg Mullins' father, Jack, was also a firefighter who served with Terrey Hills RFS for 61 years. [1] This meant Mullins started fighting fires from a young age. He describes, "I fought my first large fire on 1 October 1971 with Dad – a huge fire was scorching its way from Bobbin Head through to Duffys Forest – and joined the local bushfire brigade the year after." [2] From that moment onwards he said, "I was hooked." [3]
Aged 13, Mullins joined the Duffys Forest bushfire brigade as a volunteer. He served there for six years before joining FRNSW full-time in 1978 where he was first stationed in Manly. Mullins came to serve as Station Officer in 1990, District Officer (Inspector) in 1992, and a Superintendent in 1995. He was then appointed as Assistant Commissioner in 1996, becoming the youngest person ever to hold this position. [4] In 2000, he became the Director of State Operations. He regularly represented Australia emergency services internationally, covering issues such as terrorist attacks, urban search and rescue, and climate change. [5] [6]
Mullins was appointed as Commissioner in July 2003, a position he held until retiring in January 2017. He retired as the second longest serving Fire Chief in New South Wales since the organisation began in 1884. He was also the first person to fill both roles of Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive Officer. During this time, he was responsible for more than 6,800 firefighters based at 337 fire stations, 400 support staff, and 6,000 volunteers. [7]
One of Mullins' main goals as Commissioner was to increase how many women were in the brigade. When he first joined "only men could fight fires". In 1985, women were then "allowed" to join. [8] However, there was for a long time a low uptake of female firefighters. Mullins' parents had demonstrated for equal rights for women in the 1960s and 70s, and Mullins introduced equal male female recruitment. [9] The class of 2016 reached this goal with equal numbers of men and women. [10]
Since retirement, Mullins has rejoined the volunteer bushfire brigade of Duffys Forest where he started in 1972. [11]
Reflecting on his time during office, Mullins believes that current serving fire chiefs are gagged from speaking out in some ways. He stated that when he was in the role, "some things were out of bounds and often climate change was one of those issues, even to the point of having to work around it when preparing documents, and I think that is a tragedy." [12] He has also stated, "when I was commissioner I was constrained in talking about climate change because it was very inconvenient to some politicians...I was spoken to by my minister at the time and senior officials saying not to buy into that, just don't, it's not your job, just fight the fires." [13]
Mullins has received the following awards:
Mullins is a founding member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) which was launched on 10 April 2019. ELCA is a group of experienced ex-fire and emergency chiefs in Australia. They have a particular interest in addressing the underlying causes of allegedly extreme weather events, focusing especially on "climate change". [20]
As Mullins explained, "Across our careers, we have observed the climate changing for the worse, and natural disaster risks escalating in tandem with increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The science is clear, simple, and cannot be disputed – intensifying extreme weather is being driven by the warming atmosphere and oceans, and since the year 2000 there has been a significant increase in the frequency and number of serious weather events. Our group, which launched with 23 members last year and now counts 33 former fire chiefs among our ranks, has made repeated, and detailed recommendations to the Federal government on how to better prepare Australia for worsening bushfire danger." [21] Mullins also stated, "We are deeply concerned about the lack of climate action at a national level and felt obligated to speak out." [22]
During the bushfires that raged during Black Summer, Mullins, along with other members of ELCA, frequently appeared in the media.
Mullins and other members of ELCA tried to meet with Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, for multiple months in the lead up to summer to “warn the prime minister about what veteran firefighters, climate scientists and meteorologists all identified as a looming bushfire disaster.” [23] He has also stated that they "knew that a bushfire crisis was coming". [24]
Throughout summer, Mullins consistently linked the cause of the bushfires to climate change. He has stated, "We have to talk about climate change because our bushfire season in Australia has changed forever". [25] He called for the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels as the driver behind climate change and the bushfires, "if we are to have any hope of coping with the increasing bushfire threat, we must deal with the underlying driver – by phasing out fossil fuels, banning new coal, oil, and gas projects, and reaching net zero emissions as fast as possible." [26]
Mullins has also pushed back on what he perceived to be a lack of leadership from the Federal Government and a reluctance to speak about climate change. He stated, "This government fundamentally doesn't like talking about climate change. We would like the doors to be open to the current chiefs, and allow them to utter the words 'climate change'. They are not allowed to at the moment." [27]
In response to the fires, Mullins chaired The National Bushfire and Climate Summit, hosted by ELCA, in June and July 2020 to discuss how to protect Australia from escalating fire danger. [28] The Summit culminated in the release of The Australian Bushfire and Climate Plan. This provided 165 practical recommendations about how to combat bushfires in Australia and improve Australia’s effective bushfire readiness, response, and recovery. [29] Mullins stated, "Australia's strategy has to go beyond the fire prevention and fighting process itself". [30] Instead he argues, "the Federal Government must tackle the root cause of climate change by urgently phasing out fossil fuels to reach net zero emissions." [31]
Mullins has also been a Climate Councillor with the Climate Council since 2018.
The Country Fire Authority (CFA) is a volunteer fire service responsible for fire suppression, rescues, and response to other accidents and hazards across most of the state Victoria, Australia. CFA comprises over 1,200 brigades organised in 21 districts, and shares responsibility for fire services with Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV), which employs full-time paid firefighters in major urban areas; and Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV), which manages fire prevention and suppression on Victoria's public lands. CFA operations and equipment are partly funded by the Victorian Government through its Fire Services Levy, and supplemented by individual brigades' fundraising for vehicles and equipment.
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service is a volunteer-based firefighting agency and statutory body of the Government of New South Wales.
Fire and Rescue New South Wales, an agency of the Government of New South Wales, Australia, is responsible for firefighting, rescue and HazMat services in the major cities, metropolitan areas and towns across New South Wales. Fire and Rescue NSW is the fourth largest urban fire service in the world, with over 6,800 firefighters serving at 335 fire stations throughout the state, supported by 465 administrative and trades staff and 5,700 community fire unit volunteers. FRNSW are also the busiest fire service in Australia, attending over 124,000 incidents a year.
Philip Christian Koperberg, is the Chairman of the New South Wales Emergency Management Committee, responsible for advising the New South Wales government on emergency response strategies, since 2011.
Shane Alan Fitzsimmons is the Head of Resilience NSW and was previously the Commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service between September 2007 and April 2020.
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) is the primary provider of fire and emergency services in Queensland, Australia. The QFES was established in 2013 to improve the coordination and planning of emergency services, adopting an "all hazards" approach to emergency management.
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Mark Crosweller has served as head of Australia's National Resilience Taskforce, part of the Department of Home Affairs, having been appointed there following his service as the Director-General of Emergency Management Australia. He previously served as the third Commissioner for the ACT Emergency Services Agency responsible for the ACT Fire Brigade, ACT Ambulance Service, Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service. He was appointed to this position in 2009 and left in 2012 for the Emergency Management Australia role. Crosweller had earlier been an Assistant Commissioner in the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
The Climate Council is Australia's leading climate change communications non-profit organisation formed to provide independent, authoritative information on climate change and its solutions to the Australian public. It advocates reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It was created by former members of the Climate Commission after it was abolished by the Abbott government in 2013. It is funded by donations from the public.
The 2013 New South Wales bushfires were a series of bushfires in Australia across the state of New South Wales primarily starting, or becoming notable, on 13 October 2013; followed by the worst of the fires beginning in the Greater Blue Mountains Area on 16 and 17 October 2013.
The bushfire season in the summer of 2014–15, was expected to have the potential for many fires in eastern Australia after lower than expected rainfall was received in many areas. Authorities released warnings in the early spring that the season could be particularly bad.
Craig Lapsley is a former senior public servant in Australia who provided active service to the Victorian Country Fire Authority, the New South Wales Fire Brigades, the Victoria State Emergency Service, and Emergency Management Victoria. Lapsley served as the inaugural Emergency Management Commissioner of Emergency Management Victoria between July 2014 until August 2018, with overall responsibility for coordination before, during and after major emergencies including management of consequences of an emergency.
A major bushfire occurred in southern Queensland, Australia, in October 1993, and several major bushfires occurred in New South Wales from December 1993 to January 1994. 3 people were killed in New South Wales by the fires and more than 29 were injured. More than 70,000 ha were destroyed in New South Wales.
Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) is a fire and rescue service in the state of Victoria, Australia, that provides firefighting, rescue, HAZMAT and Emergency Medical Response services in areas of metropolitan Melbourne and major regional centres throughout Victoria.
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The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, was a period of bushfires in many parts of Australia, which, due to its unusual intensity, size, duration, and uncontrollable dimension, is considered a megafire. The Australian National University reported that the area burned in 2019/2020 was "well below average" due to low fuel levels and fire activity in unpopulated parts of Northern Australia, but that "Despite low fire activity overall, vast forest fires occurred in southeast Australia from southeast Queensland to Kangaroo Island."
The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, also referred to as the Bushfires Royal Commission, was a royal commission established in 2020 by the Australian government to inquire into and report upon natural disaster management coordination as it related to the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season. The Commission was charged with the responsibility of examining the coordination, preparedness for, response to and recovery from disasters, as well as improving resilience and adapting to changing climatic conditions and mitigating the impact of natural disasters.
Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) is an organization of ex-fire and emergency chiefs in Australia. They have a particular interest in addressing the underlying causes of extreme weather events, focusing especially on climate change.
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