Matt Johnston: Daniel Andrews’ bizarre UFU Stockholm syndrome
THERE are early indications that more MPs have had enough of the UFU after seeing this week’s performance, but will they demand a change in Daniel Andrews’ blind obedience, asks Matt Johnston.
Opinion
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A FEW months after Labor was elected in 2014, a private memo sent to Premier Daniel Andrews by one of his advisers discussed how to handle United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall.
After running through promises Labor had made to the UFU, and how the government was tracking towards them, the advice came to “political considerations”.
It noted that Marshall had already “crossed the line” as to what was considered acceptable behaviour, and that he had “leaked many conversations and letters to the media”. The advice said the UFU boss should be reminded to act respectfully.
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Three years later, we are so far past the “line” Marshall crossed, it’s disappeared from sight.
His performance on ABC Radio on Wednesday, when he suggested he had a secret deal with Andrews, was carefully orchestrated to cause maximum damage.
“There were a number of promises and they will come out in near future,” he said calmly. “You will know what they are in good time.”
Incredulous program host Raf Epstein used the opportunity to ask about rumours that Marshall has a recording of the Premier saying something disparaging.
“You’ll have to ask Dan Andrews that,” he said.
Andrews said it was rubbish.
This wasn’t a newbie union hack who had been a long-time listener but first-time caller, stumbling into admissions about secret tapes. This was a clever and militant union leader who has run a scorched-Earth policy for decades to get what he wants for his members.
Perpetually framing every issue related to the fire services in a certain manner, Marshall has convinced nearly all his members that it’s “us against them” when it comes to government, media, other unions, or even the handful of firefighters who have dared question his methods. There is no middle ground.
Some Labor figures have considered cutting ties with Marshall in the past.
Marshall, himself, has run away from Labor before and into the arms of the Greens, when former premier Steve Bracks was refusing to mollycoddle him.
No one thinks the UFU will do that again, because as multiple Labor ministers said today: “We have given him everything he ever wanted.”
Even some other union leaders have had enough, but it’s doubtful that will translate to anything more than comrades giving a wet lettuce leaf beating at Trades Hall on a week night.
One minister described Marshall’s performance as “sabre-rattling”. Another said it was “bizarre” he effectively announced his political blackmail strategy.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said it sounded like “holding the government to ransom”.
In a week that Guy should have faced more scrutiny for changing party policy on an injecting room trial without discussing it with shadow ministers responsible, it was another gift for the Coalition.
Some MPs think the real reason Marshall is ranting again isn’t what it seems — that a government panel has chosen a UK firefighter to be the head of the MFB.
One minister said it would be funny if it wasn’t so stupid that the UFU was accusing this government of backing a “union-busting” candidate.
The question on most voters’ lips is not what Andrews does next about this, or about what the UFU says about the government tomorrow. It’s why the hell is our government still drowning in this mess three years after it first bubbled to the surface.
Many Labor MPs believe they can cling on to power at the next election by sandbagging seats, and think they are not travelling too badly despite the fact that the fire services and other self-inflicted wounds continue emerging.
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Others think that seats will fall in November — including in some surprising places — and Andrews is wounded.
All dream of being in a government where they don’t have to placate this rabid union every few months, which can’t see how good it has things. Can anyone remember the paramedics union, the nurses union, or the police union were running riot this term?
Some MPs realise their dream can become reality if they want it to be.
There are a growing number of people willing to go to war with the UFU, if that’s what it takes. At the moment, not many, if any, appear to have the gumption.
Andrews certainly doesn’t.
He’s had three years of pain, what’s another six months?
It’s a political Stockholm syndrome that’s reached bizarre levels.
What shouldn’t be forgotten is that Emergency Services Minister James Merlino had an opportunity — no matter how hard it would have been — to stop the government-appointed panel’s choice for chief officer, Dan Stephens. The UFU wanted a different man. It didn’t get its way.
There are some early indications that more MPs have had enough of the UFU after seeing this week’s performance.
Whether they’re willing to stick their head above the parapet and demand a change in the Premier’s blind obedience is questionable.
Until that happens, we await the next Marshall moment.
— Matt Johnston is state politics editor
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