Union boss Peter Marshall calls for investigation into Andrews government advisor

The United Firefighters Union boss has called for a senior Andrews government advisor to be “urgently” investigated for “political interference”.

Firebrand union boss Peter Marshall has launched yet another scathing attack on the Andrews government by referring a ministerial staffer to the Victorian Ombudsman over “political interference”.

The United Firefighters Union has called on Deborah Glass to “urgently investigate the conduct” of Simon Monk, a senior state government adviser to Attorney-General and Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes.

Mr Marshall has alleged Mr Monk instructed Fire Rescue Victoria not to take part in a Federal Court case earlier this month. He claims it amounts to political interference into how the fire services operate.

It’s the latest attack on the Andrews government and comes less than a fortnight after Mr Marshall lashed Daniel Andrews as being the mastermind behind a push to have him booted from Labor’s Socialist Left faction.

United Firefighters Union chief Peter Marshall.

While Mr Marshall said he didn’t care about those expulsion threats, he has been at war with the government over its decision to extend presumptive cancer legislation to mechanics and equipment mainten­ance workers attending fires.

His plea to the Ombudsman comes after UFU-instigated proceedings in the Federal Court earlier this month against the CFA. The union had sought an injunction against the introduction of a new workplace agreement clause that would allow CFA members to perform incident-management functions at the scene of emergencies.

Fire Rescue Victoria, which is made up of paid firefighters, currently has a secondment agreement with the CFA to provide operational career firefighters.

Mr Marshall claims FRV had indicated it proposed to send a lawyer to the Federal Court hearing, but alleged Mr Monk instructed the organisation not to appear.

Simon Monk is a senior advisor to Attorney-General and Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes (pictured). Picture: Andrew Henshaw

In his letter of complaint, Mr Marshall accused Mr Monk of acting “without any lawful authority in subverting the ordinary administrative functions of FRV”.

“I wish to make a complaint that Monk has acted quite improperly in effectively coercing FRV to act to its prejudice in relation to its right to vindicate its rights under the secondment agreement and its interests in preserving the intended demarcation of firefighting functions,” he said.

“It is extraordinary that, on the one hand, the minister’s office accepts one fire service agency engaging legal counsel to try and support the breach of the secondment agreement yet, on the other, the other fire service agency, which is directly affected, is instructed that it is not permitted to engage legal counsel to attend the court hearing to defend the (secondment) agreement.”

Ms Glass is probing claims that the public service has been stacked with government cronies.

A government spokeswoman said: “As this matter is currently before the Federal Court, it would be inappropriate to comment.”