Former CFA board member taking on James Merlino, man who fired him, in Monbulk

A former CFA board member seeking to unseat the man who fired him — Emergency Services Minister James Merlino — is urging voters not to forget the fire services fiasco.

Liberal Monbulk candidate John Schurink was on the CFA board until it was sacked by Emergency Services Minister James Merlino. Picture: Jason Edwards

A former CFA board member seeking to unseat the man who fired him — Emergency Services Minister James Merlino — is urging voters not to forget the fire services fiasco.

Liberal candidate for Monbulk John Schurink hopes his campaign, focused on Labor’s plan to break up the CFA, will convince Monbulk voters to end Mr Merlino’s 16-year hold on the seat.

Mr Merlino sacked the entire CFA board after it refused to ratify a workplace deal that Mr Schurink said would have given the militant United Firefighters Union too much control of the organisation.

MERLINO: CFA BOARD SACKED FOR BEING ‘UNWILLING TO END DISPUTE’

“I decided that when there is something that is not right, you can either do something or do nothing,” Mr Schurink said.

“That was the catalyst.”

Shortly after he was sacked, Mr Schurink — who was also an intensive care paramedic for more than 27 years — joined the Liberal Party.

Mr Schurink, still the ­Sassafras CFA brigade captain, ­described Labor’s plan to split the fire services into career and volunteer-only brigades — a reform led by Mr Merlino — as “madness”.

Liberal candidate John Schurink is running against James Merlino, who sacked him from the CFA board. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Schurink said the issue must be properly investigated by a royal commission and he hoped his campaign would put the issue back on the public agenda.

The move by former emergency services minister Jane Garrett, who quit her post rather than sign off on the CFA workplace deal, to campaign for Labor on Wednesday in the high fire-risk town of Olinda, was a sign that the CFA issue could be biting, he said.

Voters were also concerned about cost-of-living pressures and planning challenges in Kilsyth, Mr Schurink said.

But he acknowledged he faced an uphill battle to win Monbulk.

Mr Merlino, who is also the Deputy Premier, has held the seat since 2002 — now on a margin of 5 per cent.

Labor has ploughed $55 million into schools in the Monbulk electorate, $20 million into an Angliss Hospital upgrade and $10 million for Maroondah Breast Cancer Centre since 2014.

“This is my fifth election and every single one has been a contest. I know this one will be no different,” Mr Merlino said.

“I am raising my family in this community and I want to see it improve for future generations.”

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