Board Communiqué Dec 2010
December 2010 
The following is a report on Board activities since the Assembly Conference held in Darwin on September 11.
AAVFBA Business Planning Workshop:
As directed by the Assembly, a business planning workshop was conducted in Sydney on 13 November 2010 to establish the AAVFBA Strategic Plan 2010 - 2015. Representatives from all member associations, including the UFBANZ, participated, and the Plan has been subsequently adopted. It was agreed that the Plan be posted on the website and that quarterly reports on its achievement be also posted.
Meeting with Federal Attorney General:
A meeting with the Attorney General, the Hon Robert McClelland, was conducted in Canberra on November 30 in Canberra, following on from the previous meeting in Sydney on December 9, 2009. At the meeting, the Government's recent amendments to tax legislation extending or restoring access to tax deductible donations to all volunteer fire brigades was applauded, noting that the AAVFBA had lobbied extensively for such a change over the past year. Following discussion, the AAVFBA was invited to submit to the Assistant Treasurer a proposal to grant Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) and Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status to volunteer fire services and to volunteer fire brigade associations at the national and state level.
In addition, arising from the discussion were three other actions to be undertaken, namely submissions to the Federal Government: to restore paid leave to public sector employees for emergency fire service under the National Employment Standards within the Fair Work Australia Act; to rationalise liability protection across states and territories to optimise protection to volunteer fire fighters; and to review a number of road safety issues related to volunteer fire fighting, eg driver fatigue, speed reduction etc, to optimise best practice across states and territories wherever practicable.
Other issues:
A new Board has been established following the recent annual general meeting and a special general meeting. Previous office holders of the Board have been written to thanking them for their assistance to the Assembly. The Assembly website has also been updated with this information.
Conference 2011:
The next Assembly Conference to be held in Sydney in late August in conjunction with the planned AFAC Conference.
If you have any comments or questions as a result of this communiqué, please do not hesitate to contact any of the Board members or Russell Cook: mob 0413108823