Emergency services Inspector General appointed

Former Queensland Fire Service deputy Commissioner Iain MacKenzie has been appointed as the new Inspector General of Emergency Management role, Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services Jack Dempsey announced today.

Mr Dempsey said the Inspector General role was a recommendation of the recently completed Police and Community Safety Review to ensure police and emergency services work together efficiently and ensure all emergency responses meet high standards.

“Mr MacKenzie has more than 30 years’ experience in emergency management in Queensland and has played a number of pivotal leadership roles in most major operational disaster responses in the past decade,” Mr Dempsey said.

“By implementing the recommendations of the review undertaken by widely respected former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, the Newman Government is delivering on its commitment to revitalise frontline services,” Mr Dempsey said.

“For years the former Labor Government left police and emergency services languish in inefficiencies and the Keelty Review has identified ways to remove those barriers.

“Once fully implemented, the Police and Community Safety Review will ensure all police, emergency services workers and volunteers will be able to spend more time on the frontline rather than battling bureaucracy.”

Mr MacKenzie said he was honoured to be appointed Queensland’s first Inspector General Emergency Management.

“I am looking forward to developing a new framework for disaster management to ensure response efforts are shared across all emergency services,” Mr MacKenzie said.

“In the coming months I will also be looking at solutions to improve ways emergency services work together, especially during disasters, and will be developing standards and processes to be used in post- event reviews.”

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Lee Johnson thanked Mr MacKenzie for his contribution to fire services in Queensland.

“Mr MacKenzie provided outstanding leadership during his more than seven years as Deputy Commissioner of the former Queensland Fire and Rescue Service,” Mr Johnson said.

“Iain was instrumental in achieving the accreditation of the QFRS Urban Search and Rescue capability and played key coordination roles with the Australian Government for the deployment of the Queensland Task Force to provide international aid to Samoa, Indonesia, New Zealand and Japan.

[ENDS] 6 December 2013

Media Contacts: Lea Emery 0417 226 114