What is the new Marine Rescue Queensland?

Under the change, various volunteer marine rescue services and coast guard stations will merge under a new entity called Marine Rescue Queensland (MRQ).

At launch, 35 staff will support the day-to-day activities of MRQ members.

But what is it, and what changes does the new MRQ service bring?

Marine Rescue Queensland is a new entity created by the Queensland Government to manage volunteer marine rescue services throughout the state.

Its aim is to bring consistency to the state’s marine rescue services – Australian Volunteer Marine Rescue Association Queensland and the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard – under a single marine rescue service.

Under the new structure, the Queensland Government will provide Marine Rescue Queensland with the vital funding it needs. This will free up volunteers to focus on helping boaters rather than having to spend time and resources raising the money they need to provide their services.

MRQ was officially launched on July 1 with the first two units – Mackay and Gladstone – making the changeover at the start of this month.

The gradual transition to MRQ, adding all 25 member organisations, will take up to 18 months.

MRQ will replace a collection of 25 independently run volunteer marine rescue and coast guard services spread along 2700km of Queensland’s coastline.

The process of moving marine rescue volunteer units to the new MRQ structure will take anywhere between a year to 18 months. This staged introduction ensures there is no disruption to rescue services, compared with if the entire state moved across to the new structure at the same time.

MRQ is now a part of the Queensland Police Service. Under the new structure, Queensland’s water police will coordinate the state’s water-based disaster and emergency service responses, including marine rescues when it needs to become involved.

Under the new arrangement, MRQ will have its own legal framework, budget and chief officer meaning it will have a degree of separation from police.

Volunteer marine rescue services will still be able to operate independently to help anyone who gets into trouble out on the water.

MRQ volunteers will not hand out boating safety infringement notices.

Under the current structure, volunteer marine rescue groups have been responsible for raising most of the money they need to provide their services.

That means fundraising, whether it’s raffles, sausage sizzles, events, tin-shaking, or applying for various grants to improve equipment and pay for the fuel used to hit the water.

In contrast, MRQ will provide annual funding that will be distributed between all the rescue services depending on need, meaning they will no longer need to divert energy to keep the doors of the rescue service open.

This financial year, $27 million was dedicated to MRQ, of which around $20 million will go straight to the member rescue services to buy the gear they need, supplies and rescue resources.

In theory, that’s around $20 million that MRQ volunteers will not have to fundraise this financial year.

For boaters in need of help out on the water, nothing should change.

They will still be able to log on and off with rescue services, get assistance in an emergency via phone or VHF radio, and wave to volunteers as they pass, heading out on, or coming back from, jobs.

For volunteers, the benefits are noticeable. As well as being able to focus on rescues without worrying about how they will fund them, volunteers will also gain a range of protections including access to health and safety programs.

There’s one, and it’s a big one. During the transition phase, boaters may experience a very different hip-pocket impact depending on who comes to their aid.

Under the old structure, a paid membership with a volunteer marine rescue group ensured that if you did get into trouble out on the water, you wouldn’t be hit with a bill for providing the service – a stranded boat 50 miles offshore needing a tow back in can burn through a lot of a rescue service’s fuel budget.

Under the new structure, MRQ members don’t necessarily need to charge for their services given that Queensland taxpayer dollars, not volunteer-driven fundraising, is supporting them.

Anyone on the edge of the zone between an MRQ service and a marine rescue service using the old fundraising model could face two outcomes – a free pick-up from the MRQ service, or unless they’re a member, a big bill from the service still under the old fundraising framework. It all depends on who answers the call.