SES units in flood-hit NSW raised alarm in 2020 that restructure threatened ‘future of the service’

SES units wrote a formal complaint in 2020 that warned that veteran members had withdrawn from active units ‘as a result of recent developments’. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

State Emergency Service units in some of the hardest-hit flood areas in northern New South Wales had warned the closure of regional offices in 2020 would reduce their ability to respond to natural disasters.

Communication between the SES units and senior levels of the organisation reveals tension about a restructure which was blamed on NSW government budget cuts.