Daniel Andrews plays politics with cancer to split fire services
DANIEL Andrews is playing a shameful political game with cancer in order to ram through his legislation to split the state’s fire services.
Opinion
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HERALD SUN EDITORIAL: DANIEL Andrews is playing a shameful political game with cancer in order to ram through his legislation to split the state’s fire services.
If you thought this Victorian Premier could not possibly stoop any lower in his dogmatic push to deliver more power to the United Firefighters Union and undermine volunteer CFA members, his decision to fold a cancer compensation bill into legislation to establish a new Fire Rescue Victoria agency shows there are no limits to his arrogance, contempt and autocracy.
It is perhaps Mr Andrews’s most shameful act in a shameful two and a half years in power.
Daniel Andrews is terrific at portraying himself as an open and inclusive politician on Facebook, but it is a carefully crafted image which is very different from the man our real Premier is.
There is no hiding the Premier’s atrocious tactics by linking the proposed legislation, the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2017, to create the FRV and expand the metropolitan fire district to include outer suburban and regional areas now serviced by 35 integrated CFA stations.
The motive behind this heartless legislative trick to tie the fire agency bill with new laws enshrining crucial cancer compensation is the Andrews Government’s need to win crossbench support in the Upper House to establish the FRV and relegate CFA volunteers to the fringes.
Facing 16 Coalition MPs in the Upper House, Labor needs support from independents or Greens.
The Herald Sun urges all five crossbenchers and the five Greens members to reject this sullied tactic by Mr Andrews to blackmail support for the establishment of Fire Rescue Victoria, or deny more effective cancer compensation to career and volunteer firefighters.
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