25 June 2001 Media Statement
Lottery Grants Board – One-off Technology Grant
The Lottery Grants Board has decided to lighten the administrative load on the country’s volunteer fire fighters with a
special one-off technology grant of $81,511, Board chairperson and Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins announced
today.
The grant will enable the United Fire Brigades Association to establish a nationwide computer network, which will
provide a significantly improved method of recording and monitoring the service and training records of volunteer fire
fighters, he said.
“Currently the information is collected in a paper-based system and then manually loaded into a computer database which
is very labour intensive and inefficient."
Mr Hawkins said an added advantage to volunteer brigades is they will be able to access their own records and produce a
wide variety of reports that currently require a lot of manual effort to produce.
The grant had been made as part of the Lottery Grants Board’s continuing commitment to the International Year of
Volunteers, he said.
ENDS