Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews blinks first in CFA standoff
DANIEL Andrews’s ministers sat around the Cabinet table, waiting for the Premier and the Emergency Services Minister. The pair were in an anteroom trying to sort out a deal that would allow Jane Garrett to avoid having to resign.
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AT 2pm, Daniel Andrews’s ministers sat around the Cabinet table, waiting for the Premier and the Emergency Services Minister.
The pair were in an anteroom trying to sort out a deal that would allow Jane Garrett to avoid having to resign.
Those close to the minister believe she woke on Monday expecting to — and being fully prepared — to quit the ministry.
She truly believed the Premier wouldn’t budge and it was going to be her last day in the ministry. But after she hung tough it was, in fact, her boss who blinked.
Earlier in the day, Ms Garrett had made it clear to the Premier she would not be a part of any Cabinet decision that ticked off on the EBA agreement. She was not going into Cabinet until she knew the controversial CFA deal was off the table.
Ms Garrett’s position had been fortified by the backing of the CFA, whose board had met in the morning and unanimously reached a blunt conclusion by 10.52am.
“The board is not able to approve the EBA in its current form,” the CFA said in a statement.
“We have serious concerns many of these proposed clauses are unlawful and we have legal advice that indicates CFA would be in breach of its statutory obligations.
“Many of these clauses have no place in modern-day workplaces and are out of step with today’s society.”
CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan, who had rushed back from Prague at the weekend to be at the meeting, met Ms Garrett just after midday.
Ms Nolan, a 30-year Victoria Police veteran who has been in the CFA’s top job for only a year, had made it clear she wasn’t agreeing to a deal that she believed would hand the United Firefighters Union far too much power.
As she walked into 121 Exhibition St to see Ms Garrett, Ms Nolan told the Herald Sun the CFA had legal advice saying it would be unlawful for the Premier — through his Emergency Services Minister — to order the CFA to sign the proposed EBA.
Doubtless, Ms Garrett conveyed this to the Premier when they met later at 1 Treasury Place. For 40 minutes, Cabinet waited for Ms Garrett and Mr Andrews to emerge. When the pair walked into Cabinet about 2.40pm, Ms Garrett had won. Cabinet would not be asked to endorse the deal.
The losers were ungracious in defeat. Planning Minister Richard Wynne teed off on Ms Garrett, accusing her of disloyally leaking. He was followed by Lisa Neville and Jacinta Allan.
The last pair had good reason to be unhappy. Last Friday, they were part of a Cabinet subcommittee that had agreed to push the deal through. If Ms Garrett had gone along, this meeting would have been a formality.
Instead, Ms Garrett had dug her heels in. Worse, she won.
The so-called “leaders” who had ticked this deal off against the advice of the minister and the CFA — Neville, Allan, Tim Pallas, James Merlino, Robin Scott and Jill Hennessy — looked pretty silly.
Ms Garrett, who has spent months prosecuting the case against the UFU’s demands, having declared their claims “over the top, unaffordable and (would) compromise community safety”, has been vindicated.
Who knows what changed the Premier’s mind?
Perhaps it was the volunteer firefighter anger pouring into MPs’ offices. Perhaps it was the fact the deal had become a federal election issue.
Perhaps it was the prospect of Ms Garrett sitting on the backbench as a martyr.
Whatever it was, Daniel Andrews blinked.
TIMELINE
8am: CFA board meets to consider its next move.
10:52am: CFA board rejects EBA deal.
12:06pm: CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan meets with Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett.
1:50pm:Ministers arrive at Treasury Place tight-lipped.
2:00pm:Cabinet scheduled to meet.
2:40pm:Delayed Cabinet meeting starts after talks between Mr Andrews and Ms Garrett.
5:00pm:Ministers leave meeting but remain tight-lipped.
6:20pm:Ms Garrett releases a statement saying “good progress has been made” and the government would work to finalise a deal in “coming days”.
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