Although under a compromise reached yesterday, the RFS will remain a separate legal and financial entity and an independent public sector organisation, the Rural Fire Service Association (RFSA) has indicated that it will be watchful to ensure the service does remain autonomous.

A greater degree of State Government control has not benefited health services. On the contrary, regionalisation has undermined the community’s incentive to work for and support their local hospitals. It is hard to see how it would work for the RFS.

Attempting to run an organisation comprising mainly unpaid volunteers by the rules of the public service bureaucracy seems like another recipe for disaster.

Apart from firefighters on the front line, the RFS depends on a host of behind-the-scenes volunteers who are fundraising and providing essential back-up services.

If the State Government were to lose the services of this volunteer army, the cost of replacing them with paid firefighters - and the additional stress on other emergency services - would be immense.

The RFS needs a management structure that recognises the value of volunteers and is able to respond quickly to the needs of the local area - an area that the RFS volunteers are part of and understand best.

It cannot achieve this if it is swallowed into a “super ministry”. The RFSA is wise to be vigilant.