Coastal Patrol-

NSW Combined Marine Emergency Services
MEDIA RELEASE

From: Ken McManus, PR & Marketing Officer RVCP
Date: 16 March 2007

NSW Marine Rescue Services in need of Emergency Rescue

In 2006 volunteer marine rescue organisations performed 63% of all marine rescues in NSW. In some areas with no Water Police presence volunteers did 100% of the rescues.

Marine rescue volunteers also provide 100% of coastal radio services for recreational boating since the Telstra network was closed in 2005.

There are three volunteer marine rescue organisations in NSW with over 98 accredited Radio Bases and Rescue Vessels (86% of the State’s Marine Emergency Resources).

Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol,
Australian Volunteer Coast Guard
NSW Volunteer Rescue Association (Marine).

At a nominal rate of $20 per hour Marine Rescue Volunteers gave the NSW Government over $28 million worth of skilled personnel hours in 2006. If that was costed at skilled rates the value to the Government would be around $75 million for labour alone - capital and operational costs are on top of that. But the Government has seen fit to provide a trifling $1.24 million for all three organisations combined for capital and operational costs for the entire state.

Given the ever-increasing cost of compliance & regulation, fuel, compulsory training, uniforms, membership fees, maintenance, replacement of vessels and upkeep of buildings & equipment, this figure is hopelessly inadequate to provide the proper standard of marine rescue services with modern, purpose-built rescue vessels and equipment expected by the public. It also places the lives of dedicated volunteers at a heightened risk, and the Government seems to be unconcerned about this.

Even on a shoestring budget with corner-cutting and cost-reducing strategies Coastal Patrol volunteers alone needed over $3 million just to operate in 2006 and 90% of this had to be raised by the volunteers themselves. This does not include any critical fleet replacement needs.

Despite this, the Minister for Emergency Services, Tony Kelly, has been quoted as saying that “[government funding] had increased by more than $1 million in 12 years”. He neglected to state that the initial funding from government twelve years ago was close to zero dollars.

He also failed to state that this amount was directly provided by the NSW boating community.

In the March 2007 edition of Afloat magazine, editor, Robin Copeland, referred to analysis of the NSW Maritime Annual Report by the Boat Owners Association pointing out that in 2006 “NSW Maritime experienced a surplus of $59 million on total revenue of $138 million. When you deduct from this, the rental income of $44 million from waterfront leases, less $10 million for employee related expenses nominally attributed to the administration of waterfront leasing, Maritime derived a surplus of around $25 million from non-property functions.”

This surplus, raised directly from the boating community, (less the paltry $1.24 million to volunteers) goes straight into the government coffers.

Those who use small boats for work and recreation would be better served if the government returned $7.6 million of this to fund volunteer marine rescue in this state as proposed in a detailed submission prepared by the NSW Volunteer Marine Rescue Council in December 2005.

This budget would provide NSW with a volunteer marine rescue service that meets the standards the state government is obliged to provide its citizens. And what have we heard from the Government relating to this request? Absolutely nothing!!!

The Water Police simply do not have enough resources to handle crime, security and marine rescue, so Macquarie Street is dependent on volunteers to fill the void.

As a group of skilled and dedicated volunteer marine rescue practitioners we want Macquarie Street to realise that marine rescue in NSW desperately needs this critical funding just to maintain the level of service expected from us by the Public and the Government of NSW. We cannot stress enough that we want to serve the people of this state and its many visitors with a first class, first world, professional service and it would be distressing to all of us to see this jeopardised.

The three volunteer marine rescue organisations in this state have provided governments of both persuasions with a virtually cost-free service. This cannot continue.

Macquarie Street, the marine rescue services you depend on to rescue your constituents now need their own emergency rescue. Give us the funding we need to serve the people of New South Wales.