About Us

Steve O’Mal­ley — 
Mel­bourne Fire Brigade

Steve O’Malley AFSM is a Lead­ing Fire­fight­er with the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Fire Brigade (MFB) ful­fill­ing the cur­rent role of Fire­fight­er — Diver­si­ty and Inclusion.

Steve has been an oper­a­tional Fire­fight­er for more than 31 years and is a grad­u­ate in the study of Human Rights. 

As well as ful­fill­ing his cur­rent role Steve is also:

• Board and Hon­orary Life mem­ber of Women and Fire­fight­ing Aus­trala­sia (WAFA)
• Foun­da­tion mem­ber of the Emer­gency Man­age­ment Vic­to­ria ​‘Gen­der and Dis­as­ter’ taskforce
• MFB Fam­i­ly Vio­lence & Equal Oppor­tu­ni­ty Con­tact Officer
• Co-Coor­di­nates the ​‘Diver­si­ty Stream’ of the annu­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Con­fer­ence in Melbourne
• Train­er and Facil­i­ta­tor of the Gen­der and Dis­as­ter Pod’s Gen­dered Vio­lence and Lessons in Dis­as­ter train­ing package 
• White Rib­bon Ambas­sador since 2007 and a for­mer mem­ber of the Nation­al Ambassador’s Ref­er­ence Group, White Rib­bon Indige­nous and Tor­res Strait Islander and Cul­tur­al­ly and Lin­guis­ti­cal­ly Diver­si­ty fam­i­ly vio­lence ref­er­ence groups

In 2005 he was award­ed the MFB’s Medal for Long and Good Ser­vice and the Nation­al Medal for Ser­vice. He received the Vic­to­ri­an Award for Excel­lence for Ser­vice to Victoria’s Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Com­mu­ni­ty in 2008, on Aus­tralia Day 2010 he became a recip­i­ent of the Aus­tralian Fire Ser­vice Medal (AFSM) and more recent­ly a recip­i­ent of the Nation­al Emer­gency Medal for sus­tained ser­vice dur­ing the 2009 Vic­to­ri­an Bush­fires. Steve was the recip­i­ent of the 2014 Chief Officer’s Schol­ar­ship, return­ing from a trip to inves­ti­gate the Fire Brigade’s role in the pri­ma­ry pre­ven­tion of vio­lence against women in the UK.

Steve’s activ­i­ties in rais­ing aware­ness of gen­dered vio­lence have a direct cor­re­la­tion with Emer­gency Ser­vices strate­gies in mit­i­gat­ing risk to the com­mu­ni­ty. He is often relied on to present on diver­si­ty and inclu­sion strate­gies with­in the emer­gency ser­vices sec­tor, and on var­i­ous gov­ern­ing bod­ies and work­ing groups.

‘My advo­ca­cy and agency has been a dri­ver in both my per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al life. I feel that the com­bi­na­tion of pro­fes­sion­al acu­men and per­son­al enthu­si­asm has estab­lished me as a leader in equi­ty and inclu­sion prac­tice in the Emer­gency Man­age­ment sector’.

‘My pur­pose has been, and still remains, the elim­i­na­tion of gen­der based vio­lence through gen­der equi­ty. This will only be achieved through the con­tin­u­a­tion of valu­able, inno­v­a­tive and strate­gic part­ner­ships both with­in and out­side the emer­gency man­age­ment sector’. 

Jour­nals and Articles

• Asia Pacif­ic Fire mag­a­zine arti­cle in capac­i­ty as WAFA Board member.

http://​apf​mag​.mdm​pub​lish​ing​.com/​w​o​m​e​n​-​a​n​d​-​f​i​r​e​f​i​g​h​t​i​n​g​-​a​u​s​t​r​a​l​a​s​i​a​-​2​0​1​6​-​r​i​g​h​t​-​p​l​a​c​e​-​r​i​g​h​t​-​time/

• Aus­tralian Jour­nal of Emer­gency Man­age­ment — ​“Victoria’s gen­der and dis­as­ter task­force – a ret­ro­spec­tive analy­sis” https://​knowl​edge​.aidr​.org​.au/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​a​j​e​m​-​j​u​l​-​2​0​1​8​-​v​i​c​t​o​r​i​a​-​s​-​g​e​n​d​e​r​-​a​n​d​-​d​i​s​a​s​t​e​r​-​t​a​s​k​f​o​r​c​e​-​a​-​r​e​t​r​o​s​p​e​c​t​i​v​e​-​a​n​a​l​ysis/
• The White Rib­bon Cam­paign and Emer­gency Man­age­ment – Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Emer­gency Ser­vices journal 

https://​issuu​.com/​c​o​u​n​t​r​y​w​i​d​e​a​u​s​t​r​a​l​/​d​o​c​s​/​n​e​r​_​s​p​r​i​n​g​_2017