Former CFA CEO Lucinda Nolan gives evidence at parliamentary inquiry

FORMER CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan says she couldn’t sign a new workplace agreement backed by Premier Daniel Andrews because it would hamper emergency response decision-making.

Former CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan. Picture: Mitch Bear

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FORMER CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan says she couldn’t sign a new workplace agreement backed by Premier Daniel Andrews because it would hamper emergency response decision-making.

Ms Nolan, who quit the CFA in June over the bitter industrial relations stoush, said the EBA she was asked to endorse was “destructive and divisive” because it introduced about 50 new “veto clauses”.

She told a parliamentary inquiry into fire preparedness that legal advice showed this would “hamper the ability of the organisation” to make strong decisions in a “timely and agile” manner.

This was because the 50 new clauses required consultation and agreement before management could act, rather than just requiring consultation.

Ms Nolan said this could open the floodgates to constant Fair Work Commission battles over whether there had been enough consultation, let alone whether agreement could be reached.

“We would say they (those clauses) were vetoes in disguise,” she said.

Labor MP Harriet Shing asked Ms Nolan if she had ever said an EBA tactic would be to “destroy the union”, a question the former top cop and CFA chief executive said was “nonsense”.

“It has never become personal from my point of view,” she said.

Ms Nolan said she and other CFA members had sought advice far and wide about the implications of the proposed pay deal, and therefore could not sign off on the agreement endorsed by the government.

“My integrity was called into question and I was not going to sign that EB,” she said.