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MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 

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The Management Committee consists of the elected positions and current officer bearers listed below. All officer bearers are either current serving or former Queensland State Emergency Service Volunteers. All management committee roles are volunteer positions and receive no remuneration.

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President

Justin Englert

Justin has volunteered with the Queensland State Emergency Service  for 23 years, beginning with the Eastern Group, Brisbane City Unit, where he served as Deputy Group Leader for Training. After relocating to Mackay, he became Deputy Local Controller and later Local Controller of the Mackay City Unit. Following the 2008 council amalgamations, he was appointed the inaugural Local Controller of the Mackay Regional SES Unit, a position he held for eight years.

From 2016 to 2024, Justin served two terms as a Mackay Regional Councillor, where he established Queensland’s first Local Government SES Strategic Directions Group — a pioneering framework that formalised collaboration between council officers and the SES. The group developed key performance measures, improved governance, and strengthened support structures for volunteers, creating a model that has since informed best practice for collaboration between State and Local Governments.

A strong advocate for training and capability development, Justin has served as a senior instructor and operator across all SES functions (excluding RCR) and has deployed across Queensland in support of other SES units. He also founded the Mackay Emergency Services Cadet Unit, helping to inspire and prepare the next generation of emergency service volunteers.

He believes the future of Queensland SES volunteers lies in building capacity through comprehensive training, operational engagement, improved resourcing, and strong organisational structures.

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Vice-President (Corporate Advocacy)

Paul Kretschmann 

Paul joined the Queensland State Emergency Service in 2018 as a member of Southern Group within Brisbane City Unit and is currently an active Leading Field Operations member. In additional to activating regularly to Brisbane Region flood, storm and land search responses, he has deployed multiple times to fire, flood and cyclone events across Queensland and Northern New South Wales. Further to his operational experience, he is a TAE qualified facilitator and recently completed a three year tenure as the Group Leader of Southern Group.

His professional background includes tactical to executive level experience across Logistics, Security, Crisis & Emergency Management disciplines in both the commercial and public sectors. With a particular focus on the aerospace industry, he has worked across Australia, the Middle East and South East Asia. As a volunteer, Paul has previously held Sub-Branch level Board and Vice-President appointments in the Returned and Services League of Queensland.

Paul is passionate about ensuring that change and competing priorities that impact SES are always considered through the lived experience of SES volunteers and the communities they represent. Sustainment of morale and constructive partnerships through strong advocacy will ensure SES operational outcomes are sustained through harnessing the enormous pool of talent and commitment our SES volunteers demonstrate when serving their communities in times of need.

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Vice-President (Member Advocacy)

Ron Milne

Ron joined the State Emergency Service in July 1977 in Roma. Since then, he has served in Rockhampton, Blackwater, Gladstone and Brisbane. He has held several positions in his SES career as noted below:

  • Roma: General member

  • Blackwater: Local Controller Duaringa Shire

  • Rockhampton: Regional Training Officer (volunteer), Group Leader Rockhampton

  • Townsville: Senior Field Operations Member

  • Gladstone: Senior Field Operations Member

  • Brisbane: Deputy Local Controller, Group Leader

  • Brisbane Southern Group: Leading Field Operations Member (current)

Ron’s SES training includes Vertical Rescue, Road Accident Rescue, Foldboat Operations, Land Search, Storm Damage, Comms, EOC, IMT, General Rescue and Chain Saw. Ron has been a trainer since 1989. He contributed to the development of the original Vertical Rescue Reference Manual and in 2006 Ron was the chair of the group which rewrote this manual.

Ron has been a member of the QLDSESVA since 2016 and is employed as a teacher and has worked at several different schools throughout his career.

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Secretary

Jenny Crump JP(Qual), FAIES 

Jenny has been with the SES for the past 19 years within the Brisbane Unit and has recently transferred to Petrie Group within the Moreton Bay Unit.

During this time Jenny has been on several deployments throughout the State where she has assisted with disaster recovery in many regional communities. In the Brisbane region, Jenny has been on many activations over the years assisting with storm damage, land searches, forensic searches, and community events. 

Jenny holds a TAE and spends several weekends during the year training SES members in Working in an EOC, AIIMS 16 hours, Land Search, Storm Damage, First Aid, Safety Officer, Height Safety and Chainsaw.

Jenny joined the Australasian Institute of Emergency Services (AIES) QLD/NT Division in April 2010 and was elected to the position of QLD/NT Treasurer which she held for 4 years. In 2014 Jenny was then elected to the position of QLD/NT Secretary/Treasurer and has held that position for the past 11 years.

In 2017, Jenny was appointed as the AIES National Treasurer and currently remains in that position.

In 2016, Jenny joined the Qld SES Volunteers Association and in 2017 was nominated to the position of Merchandise Officer which she currently still holds. Since February 2024, Jenny has held the position of State Secretary of the QLD SES VA.

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Treasurer

Stephen Kelly CertIIHort CertIIIHort CertIIICaLM CertIIILCon ERDC PDC, BA BCom (UQ), CA 

Steve is a former member of the QLD SES, an Honorary Life Member of the QLDSESVA and is passionate about supporting all volunteer members of the QLD SES. 

Steve is a Chartered Accountant with over 35 years experience in the fields of accounting and finance and has held roles in private and publicly listed companies and large government corporations, mainly in the mining and infrastructure industries.

Steve currently runs his own small business in the horticulture / landscaping industry.

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Immediate Past President

Eddie Cowie ESM

Eddie has been an SES volunteer in Queensland for 30 years this November (joined 1986) and has held many different qualifications and positions including VR and VR Instructor, RCR and numerous other qualifications and is employed in his current position as the Local Controller for Rockhampton/Livingstone SES Units. Eddie has a passionate drive for continuous improvement of all things SES and has been one of the driving forces in establishing the QLD SES Volunteer Association, so to advocate these improvements. 

In 30 years of QLD SES and employment within QLD Ambulance and Police, many changes have occurred that are for the better, however many more improvements can happen that allow for the betterment of our local communities and the state of Queensland, however this can only occur with the right partnerships. The former vice president of the SESAQ Eddie saw the need to establish the direct link to the National SES Volunteer Association and moving forward with improvements, thus one reason for the change to the ‘Queensland State Emergency Service Volunteer Association’.  ”We need to have a strong team of volunteers within our Association not afraid of the hard work ahead, and committed to challenge what we as SES volunteers know will improve our response for the State of Queensland in the many SES Functions we perform” 

Along this journey we will stay ‘non-political’, and objectively look at the bigger issues concerning QLD SES and across Australia in an attempt at benchmarking what works well in other SES States and Territories while still advocating for what we need now. 

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