Times have changed but even though women firefighters are not uncommon these days, the Fire and Emergency Service is still primarily a male domain and highly reliant on men volunteering to support their communities, it’s not just those engaged as paid professionals.

This is another industry and one of several on the periphery of the government health mandates that has over 1,000 operational staff sitting at home waiting for the restrictions to go away so they can get back to what they enjoy doing.

But the situation still applies … if you want to serve your community, get jabbed or get lost.

Their interest is in going to work or serving their community as a volunteer. Many if not most have no idea this situation is driven by a remote board, that is disconnected from the industry – “we don’t read their emails” is the general level of interest, let alone being able to name anyone responsible for the decision making at that level that’s causing this issue.

There is a significant disconnect here.

The current covid policies have affected the FENZ operations and ability to maintain their normal operations but the board is not being questioned over the degree of support they apply to the Government’s increasingly unrealistic position.

This is also stopping new volunteers getting involved.

Here we have men wanting to be constructive members of society and not able to do so.