Board games begin in CFA battle

JAMES Merlino barely had time to get the press release about his appointment of Jane Garrett’s post ready before he announced he would move to sack the board of the CFA, write James Campbell.

The Emergency Services Minister, James Merlino replaced Jane Garrett. Picture: Alex Coppel

THE BATTLE for the CFA now moves to the courts.

On Friday Daniel Andrews lost his Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett and replaced her with Deputy Premier James Merlino.

The new minister barely had time to get the letterhead made up for the press release before he announced he would be moving to sack the board of the CFA, in part because it had “indicated its refusal to support the agreement”.

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That may be so, but even if the board had changed its mind and accepted the EBA before the Friday 5pm deadline set by Andrews and Merlino, it wasn’t in a position to do so, because the Supreme Court had blocked the CFA from signing up until June 22.

Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria was able to get its injunction preventing it being signed until Tuesday week because it wasn’t opposed.

The reason it wasn’t opposed was because the people at the CFA giving instruction to the lawyers going up against VFBV don’t want this agreement any more than the volunteers do.

That’s why by then the Government will be desperate to have someone else — probably an administrator — in charge at the CFA as soon as possible. The day the matter returns to court is also the first day of the last sitting week of state parliament before the winter break.

It’s not going to be much fun for the government. Expect volunteers to rally across the state in the next week.

It will be interesting to see how quickly Merlino moves to appoint a new board. Under legislation, four of the nine- member CFA board must be nominated by a panel put up by VFBV.

They have 30 days to choose that panel. Expect them to take their time.

In the meantime does Merlino allow the board to be constituted with other appointees? Will any be nominated by the UFU? A seat — or seats — on the CFA board has long been a UFU goal.

Is this another dream of theirs that Merlino is going to make come true?

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