Victorian fire services split Dan’s last roll of the CFA dice, says Matthew Johnston
TODAY Daniel Andrews will announce the CFA will no longer be an integrated agency including volunteers and career firefighters. This is the Premier’s last roll of the dice, writes Matthew Johnston.
Opinion
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THIS is the last roll of the CFA dice for Dan Andrews.
Almost a year ago, after personally intervening and siding with United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall over his own minister when it came to a new EBA, the Premier memorably declared: “This dispute had to come to an end and I ended it.’’
When that agreement was blocked by new laws created by the Turnbull Government, the Premier turned his mind to dismantling the CFA — an agency that has served Victorians well for decades.
One MP put it well at the time the idea was mooted: “Is there anything the Premier won’t do for Peter Marshall?”
Today, he will announce the CFA will no longer be an integrated agency including volunteers and career firefighters. Volunteers will be split off and told to stand alone, while all paid firefighters will be brought under a new Fire Rescue Victoria with god-knows-what industrial arrangements.
Andrews is risking reigniting the political fire that has been smouldering under this issue for years, and which his colleagues desperately wanted him to put out long ago.
The Premier will try to spin this as the only way to solve a bitter industrial war and overcome federal legislation that supposedly stops any EBA being signed at the CFA.
Does anyone really believe that this is the only way out?
Already the messages are being laid on thick that this is all about “modernising” the force. I’m sure the UFU, well known for its diversity and embrace of change, will set about doing that quick smart.
One pro-split source said that there had been so many reviews into Victoria’s fire services in the past few years it had become ridiculous.
Interestingly, not one of those — including the 2009 Bushfires Royal Commission or last year’s Fire Services Review — recommended this model.
The fact the restructure may take two years to sort out — if laws make it through state parliament — has some Labor MPs already worried about seats in the bush if there is political backlash.
“You can forget about them now,” one said.
It’s a political gamble on which Andrews has staked his future, and still the biggest burning question is, why?
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