James Campbell: Labor’s fire services saga another Dan mess we can’t forget
Dan Andrews was warned against handing power of the CFA to the firefighters union — and as the wages bill soars and volunteer numbers plummet, we’re reminded how much worse things can still get under Labor.
James Campbell
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In 2016 Daniel Andrews was warned by many people, including his Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett, that if he pressed ahead with an enterprise agreement that handed power over the CFA to the state’s firefighters union it would lead to an explosion in costs and a mass exit of volunteers.
Almost a decade later it is clear the dire warnings were, if anything, understated.
As the Herald Sun reported on Wednesday, according to the latest figures from the Productivity Commission, since Labor came to power in 2014 the number of operational volunteers in Victoria has fallen by almost 8000 from 36,823 to 28,906.
The collapse in the numbers of volunteers has been accompanied by a massive increase in the wages bill.
According to the PC, despite its size Victoria now has the highest number of paid firefighters in the nation — which are costing us $1.2bn a year — $230m more than NSW spends – and roughly twice what it was costing when Labor took the reins.
If anything, however, the PC numbers understate Labor’s mismanagement of the fire services because they include Forest Fire Management Victoria, which includes Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Parks Victoria and Melbourne Water, which is covered by the Australian Workers Union.
If you just look at the two fire services covered by the United Firefighters Union – the CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria, which was created by hiving off bits of the CFA and adding them to the MFB – the picture is even worse.
Back in 2014, when Daniel Andrews took control the total wage bill for the roughly 4000 firefighters and non-firefighters employed at the CFA and the MFB was about $440m.
Nine years later, in 2023, at $1.02bn the total wages bill for FRV and CFA is almost two-and-a-half times what it was back in 2014.
Oh and staff numbers at the two agencies have shot up to 5796.
In other words, just as Jane Garrett warned, the wages bill has exploded and the number of volunteers has collapsed.
This might be a disaster for the state’s finances but from the UFU’s point of view of course it’s a triumph because, whatever they might say about them in public, volunteer firefighters will always be scabs to the union.
Compared to some of Labor’s other cost blowouts and failures, of course, the fire service mess is small beer but it’s good to occasionally revisit these things to remind ourselves that as bad as this government might seem in the moment, over time the reality invariably ends up being worse.
Originally published as James Campbell: Labor’s fire services saga another Dan mess we can’t forget
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