The Tasmania Fire Service has terminated about 350 volunteers for failing to complete mandatory child safety training, representing roughly 10% of its active volunteer workforce.
The volunteers were dismissed after repeatedly ignoring reminders to complete two modules of the “Keeping Children Safe” training package, which became a government-wide requirement under the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Act 2023.
Training records show volunteers were given multiple warnings through various communication channels since March 2024.
Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Jeremy Smith sent final notices in October and December 2025, giving volunteers a chance to explain why they shouldn’t be terminated.
“This training is essential to avoid placing Junior and Cadet Members of the TFS at risk, as well as those children and young people in the community that we serve,” the commissioner wrote in termination letters sent this month.
United Firefighters Union secretary Leigh Hills said the terminations could compromise the service’s ability to respond to emergencies.
“If we lose a significant number of volunteers, then that inhibits the service’s ability to respond,” Hills told Pulse.
He said the mass dismissals have raised concerns about emergency response capabilities, particularly in rural areas around Devonport and Burnie on the north west coast.
“We need to make up that in other ways and that’s potentially increasing the number of career staff in those areas where possible.”
Hills said some volunteers struggled to access the online training modules, with hard copies unavailable at regional training centres when requested.
“A lot of them don’t have access to internet or IT systems,” he said.
“It’s about ensuring that they’ve got paper, hard copies of the training package that they’re able to complete.”
The union acknowledged the service’s difficult position in balancing legislative compliance with maintaining emergency response capacity.
Hills encouraged the fire service to explore all options to bring terminated volunteers back online once they complete the required training.
