By Kieran Rooney
Victorian firefighters union boss Peter Marshall ordered Metropolitan Fire Brigade staff to gather and leak sensitive information and details of a bullying probe against him, with an anti-corruption report finding the union had unprecedented control over the organisation.
The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) on Wednesday released its special report – titled Operation Turton – into the unauthorised access and release of sensitive information by staff at the MFB.
United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall speaking at a rally outside parliament in 2016.Credit: Justin McManus
Throughout the probe, IBAC heard allegations that the United Firefighters Union had “unprecedented” influence over the operation and decision-making of the fire service, which prevented the service from functioning properly.
IBAC identified five incidents in which MFB information was accessed or disclosed without approval and said the staff involved were “motivated to misuse MFB information to further the interests of the Victorian branch of the UFU or its secretary, Peter Marshall”.
Investigators also found Marshall had inappropriately sought assistance from employees to gather information about a potential WorkSafe probe into his own behaviour and the contracts of senior MFB executives – some of which he passed on to then-emergency services minister Lisa Neville.
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes on Wednesday said the report highlighted behaviour that needed to be stamped out.
The report found there was a culture of mistrust between MFB employees and management.Credit: Paul Rovere
“It’s a wake-up call for anybody that might consider that it’s not a big deal to give sensitive information to someone, and perhaps this will encourage people to think twice about acting against the interests of their employer, or indeed themselves as an individual,” she said.
The MFB merged with the paid section of the Country Fire Authority in 2020, forming a new entity, Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV).
“FRV has gone from strength to strength in the time that I’ve been minister, in relation to their culture, identifying their flaws and responding appropriately,” Symes said.
“The report covers conduct [that] has different management now and a different organisation, a culture that has been accepted that needs improvement, and that work has been under way.”
The fire service alerted IBAC to concerns in 2018, alleging Stephen Trakas – a network administrator employed by the MFB – had been accessing internal email accounts without permission.
The scope of the probe was expanded in 2019 to include further allegations involving Marshall and other MFB employees Vasiliki Pyliotis and Kirstie Schroder. Pyliotis, Schroder and Trakas all have current roles at FRV.
IBAC found Trakas had accessed MFB email accounts – including those of the CEO and senior executives – on 19 occasions without permission, and had let Pyliotis use his computer to forward an email she “did not want to come from her mailbox”.
It also found that in 2019, Marshall began asking staff to dig up information about rumours that he was under investigation over bullying allegations made against him by a former MFB chief executive.
Marshall passed some of the information to then-emergency services minister Lisa Neville.Credit: Jason South
Phone calls intercepted by IBAC show Marshall contacted Schroder asking for information and the two agreed to call Pyliotis to “discreetly” conduct internal system checks to find more details.
A phone call between Pyliotis and Marshall showed an unnamed colleague had checked incoming emails, but could not find any relevant information. Marshall, Schroder and Pyliotis remained in contact for weeks over the matter.
In another batch of intercepted calls from May 2019, Schroder told Marshall the fire service was extending the contracts of executive directors and that “it wouldn’t hurt” if Neville told the MFB not to sign any new contracts.
“Mr Marshall agreed and then passed this information to the [then] minister for emergency services,” the report says.
Schroder told the commission in evidence that she did not support the contracts and wanted the minister to be aware of the situation.
Under questioning, Neville agreed Marshall had provided her with information about the extensions, which she did not view as confidential.
In the fifth instance investigated, IBAC found Marshall received an unauthorised copy of an internal presentation about a software program that he also passed on to Neville.
The chief executive of the MFB at the time told IBAC he later attended a meeting with Neville where they discussed the software and the minister said the MFB couldn’t have it. He told IBAC he believed Marshall had influenced Neville’s decision to stop the purchase.
In response, Neville told IBAC it was appropriate to discuss the document because her approval was needed to buy the software. She also said she refused it because the purchase conflicted with government policy and a looming reform of the state’s fire services.
The commission said its investigation had exposed issues in the fire brigade’s culture, including a gulf between management and staff, and barriers in reporting misconduct.
“One of these barriers was the restrictive industrial relations requirements of the current operational enterprise bargaining agreement, which mandates not only consultation but also agreement by the union with any changes management wishes to make,” the report says.
“While union representation is a fundamental right of employees in our society, IBAC repeatedly heard throughout its investigation that the influence the UFU had over the day-to-day operation and decision-making of MFB was unprecedented and hindered its proper functioning.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Marshall accused IBAC of a “witch hunt” and called on it to be investigated. The statement called the report a work of fiction and a “gross miscarriage of justice”.
Marshall said IBAC was “more interested in investigating how a firefighter union secretary was provided information that was relevant to the fire service than investigating the significance of the issues themselves”.
Throughout the statement and in the report, he argued that the behaviour of MFB executives and the issues he received information on were of more importance than how he obtained information.
“These are the real breaches of public trust that should have been investigated, and instead the focus of investigation was how a PowerPoint document was provided to the union.”
Fire Rescue Commissioner Gavin Freeman said the agency would begin immediately responding to the behaviour of those named in the report who were still employed.
“It’s important we follow the principles of natural justice and allow our internal processes to be applied in response to the findings,” he said.
Freeman said FRV accepted the report’s recommendations, which included strengthening the security of IT systems and reviewing processes for internal complaint and sharing information with unions.
The three-year process of merging the MFB with parts of the CFA was a bitter political battle, with some volunteers warning they would quit if they were no longer able to attend incidents alongside paid firefighters.
It was also part of a long-running saga over firefighting in Victoria that has plagued the Andrews government since 2016. Volunteer anger over a new workplace agreement for the CFA’s professional firefighters became an issue in the 2016 federal election.
That same year, the late Jane Garrett sensationally resigned as Victoria’s emergency services minister after then-premier Daniel Andrews sided with the UFU in the industrial dispute.
The state’s integrity watchdog is yet to release its finding from a separate investigation, Operation Richmond, that looked into the Andrews government’s dealings with the UFU.
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