Victorian union bosses turn on UFU in support of Jane Garrett

LATEST: AN URGENT trial has been set in a United Firefighters Union member’s bid to challenge Labor’s preselection of Jane Garrett for parliament’s Upper House.

AN URGENT trial has been set in a United Firefighters Union member’s bid to challenge Labor’s preselection of Jane Garrett for parliament’s Upper House.

Lawyers for firefighter Geoff Barker today successfully expedited the case to a Supreme Court trial, to be held over half a day on October 18.

Mr Barker is suing the Australian Labor Party, saying he had hoped to put his name forward in the contest for the Upper House Eastern Victoria seat, but missed the nomination deadline by 7 minutes.

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He seeks to void the endorsement of Ms Garrett, the Emergency Services Minister, as Labor’s lead candidate for the region and reopen nominations.

Michael Pearce SC, for Mr Barker, told the court today there was an “urgency” to get the trial listed as the election approaches.

He said there were questions around whether the preselection vote taken by the administrative committee was conducted in accordance with the law.

Legal sources close to Mr Barker say it was a “rigged process”.

Luck was on their side, Judicial Registrar Julie Clayton said, with the court able to accommodate the trial Thursday week.

The trial will be heard by Justice Maree Kennedy.

The move comes after the Herald Sun reported Victorian union bosses had turned on one of their own, saying United Firefighters Union bullying and harassment of former emergency services minister Jane Garrett must end.

The Herald Sun revealed leaders from across the union movement have voiced fury at UFU “blowhards” and “wreckers”, the final straw being one UFU member’s Supreme Court ­action to torpedo Ms Garrett’s preselection for parliament’s Upper House.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary Luba Grigorovitch — touted as a ­future MP — hit out at party “wreckers who are just trying to blow things up”.

She said her rare public stand against another union was due to embarrassment that leaders had “allowed this hatred to continue for so long”.

“It is bullying and harassment … it is not OK and we in the movement need to stick together and unite against this kind of behaviour,” she said.

Premier Daniel Andrews, who abandoned Ms Garrett two years ago at the height of the Country Fire Authority crisis, last night emphatically endorsed her Upper House nomination.

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The union salvo, seven weeks out from November’s state election, is intended to cauterise a festering wound within the ALP, but it risks stoking government tensions with firebrand UFU boss Peter Marshall. He did not comment last night, but one of his UFU allies, Chris Cleary, doubled down on the UFU campaign by calling Ms Garrett “a rat” on social media

Mr Andrews said: “Jane is a valued member of my Labor team and will make a strong and important contribution in the Upper House representing the people of Eastern Victoria.”

The Supreme Court action, by fireman Geoff Barker, seeks to void Ms Garrett’s ­endorsement as Labor’s lead Eastern Victoria region candidate and reopen nominations.

According to documents filed by his lawyers, he missed last month’s nomination deadline by seven minutes. He argued he experienced “technical issues” sending documents and had been busy working a 14-hour night shift.

United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Ms Garrett has been a continual target of senior UFU members since June 2016, when she quit as emergency services minister over a CFA workplace agreement.

She alleged she’d been bullied by Mr Marshall, calling what she said was his threat that firefighters would campaign to bury an axe in her head “highly distressing”.

Mr Marshall has denied wrongdoing.

Trades Hall president Shaun Reardon, an assistant state secretary of the CFMEU, said the campaign against Ms Garrett must end.

It was “unfathomable that anyone claiming to be a trade unionist could contemplate these ridiculous attacks on the Labor Party so close to elections … (and) to think that two or three factional blowhards can continuously be ­allowed to do this much ­damage is staggering,” he said.

Ms Grigorovitch said: “While the rest of us are trying to retain government on a state level and win government on a federal level, we have these wreckers of the party who are just trying to blow things up.”

Jane Garrett has been a continual target of senior UFU members since June, 2016. Picture: David Caird

The state secretary of the Right-wing Transport Workers Union, John Berger, said unions should concentrate on “beating the Tories, not fighting each other”.

“This garbage needs to stop and be called out for what it is,” he said. “It is obvious that this UFU member is simply taking instructions.”

Before Mr Barker’s court action, Mr Marshall had urged Labor powerbrokers to block Ms Garrett’s switch from her Lower House seat of Brunswick, and demanded that the ALP audit Labor fund­raisers.

Health and Community Services Union secretary Lloyd Williams said the court case “appears to be part of a continuing personal attack and vendetta” and “it is an unwelcome and continuing distraction less than two months from the state election.”

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