Row inflames the country

THE union takeover of the Country Fire Authority has become a national issue during the federal election campaign, with Labor leader Bill Shorten ducking for cover.

Premier Daniel Andrews is under attack over the CFA dispute. Picture: Hamish Blair

THE union takeover of the Country Fire Authority has become a national issue during the federal election campaign, with Labor leader Bill Shorten ducking for cover.

Mr Shorten has suddenly found himself dragged into what has become a political stitch-up as Premier Daniel Andrews tries to force the CFA into accepting union control over its management decisions.

Mr Andrews’s stealthy attempts to pay back his election debts to the hardline United Firefighters Union are now out in the open for all to see. But the containment lines the Premier has tried to put around a dispute, which has become a raging political issue, have failed.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has stepped in to back the CFA and its 60,000 volunteer firefighters while Mr Shorten is desperately trying to pass it off as a state issue to be amicably resolved between the Victorian Government and the CFA.

The time for that has long passed. There is nothing amicable about the standoff between the CFA board and the UFU hardliners who want power of veto over CFA management decisions and the use of its resources.

United Firefighters Union members handed out how-to-vote cards on behalf of Mr Andrews and Labor in the last state election and the union wants to cash in its IOUs. The price is control of the CFA, one of Australia’s greatest volunteer organisations.

There is no way Mr Shorten can avoid the political bushfire heading his way as the CFA board refuses to agree to the demands made in a 400-page document that have the support of informal and possibly biased Fair Work Commission recommendations.

One of Mr Andrews’s problems is that like the CFA board, his Emergency Services Minister has refused to agree to the union demands. As the responsible minister, Jane Garrett must sign off on any agreement.

Ms Garrett has resisted doing so since the state election and must either cave, which she has shown no sign of doing so, or be sacked by the Premier, who may also sack the CFA board if it continues to resist.

Mr Andrews’s behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings have now burst publicly, much to Mr Shorten’s embarrassment. The attempts to unionise the CFA have provided a clear point of difference between Labor and the Coalition. Mr Shorten’s only way to extinguish this political fire is to hose down the Victorian Labor Premier. If he doesn’t he faces a campaign conflagration.

SERVE FOR WHINGERS

NICK Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic have only themselves to blame for their absence at the Rio Olympics in August.

Australia will be better off without two spoilt, arrogant young men who have chosen to make themselves unavailable to avoid being officially dumped from the Rio tennis squad.

Tomic, who risks squandering his considerable talent, uses the excuse that the Olympics clash with a tennis tournament in Mexico.

Kyrgios, a worse sook, wimps on about pulling out with a “heavy heart” because the Australian Olympic Committee has not “reached out” to him.

Kyrgios and Tomic thought they could see rejection coming at them like a Novak Djokovic serve and have proved themselves too precious to accept that their behaviour generally is unacceptable — although even Djokovic threw a racquet at the French Open.

Kyrgios is ranked 19th in the world and Tomic 22nd. Tomic, who is 23, has earned $4 million in prizemoney and Kyrgios, who is 21, has earned $2.6 million.

They have pulled in much more than that in sponsorship deals but sponsors are coming to realise there is such a thing as bad publicity.

Tomic didn’t attempt a return on match point at the Madrid Masters, pointing his racquet handle at the net and later telling journalists: “Would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million.’’

Kyrgios has done much the same, reversing his racquet, not playing a shot and letting a match slide.

Then there was the crude on-court comment to grand slam winner Stan Wawrinka and this week the bullying shout to a ballboy for a towel for which he got a code violation.

Unless these tennis bad boys change, they will find themselves out of the game as they get older, rich but short of sporting glory.

To be chosen to compete at the Olympics means you must want it with every fibre of your being. Kyrgios and Tomic are entitled to show frustration, that’s human.

But they have to keep it in check. Australians love a winner, which Kyrgios and Tomic sometimes are, but the sports public hates a whinger, which they nearly always are.

They may think their antics are amusing or that it shows they’re bigger than the game. They’re not, but how long is it going to be before they realise that?

These two young men may come to regret not playing for their country at an Olympic Games. Or perhaps that’s the kind of who-gives-a-ball-toss character they want to project. But it isn’t tennis. It’s just tiresome.