Supreme Court upholds suppression on union sex discrimination report

The full extent of bullying and sexual discrimination in Victoria's fire services may never come to light after its union succeeded in keeping a controversial report secret.

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission had pushed to make public its report on systemic bullying in the state's firefighting services, but it was stymied by legal challenges from the United Firefighters Union.

The Court of Appeal on Thursday found the Human Rights Commission did not have the legal power to conduct the review into the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and Country Fire Authority.

Credit: Jason South

The human rights commission investigation was ordered by the state government.

Earlier this year The Age reported leaked details of the commission's report, which uncovered “everyday sexism” and a “hyper-masculine culture” in the brigade.

Shortly after the judgment was delivered on Thursday, UFU boss Peter Marshall released a separate report that the union commissioned into workplace culture at the fire services. It found firefighters do not tolerate "discriminatory or improper behaviour".

Mr Marshall said the union-commissioned survey captures the true extent of bullying and harassment.

The human rights commission expressed dismay at the court's decision, saying discrimination and harassment plagued fire services across Australia.

The UFU cited concerns about whether the commission had the legal jurisdiction to conduct the investigation and its methodology.

United Firefighters Union’ chief , Peter MarshallCredit: Eddie Jim

Two of the three Court of Appeal justices found that because the brigade and Country Fire Authority did not request the review, the commission did not have the power to launch the investigation.

They also rejected the argument that the commission has "research and advocacy functions" that should enable it to conduct the review.

However, the judgment did not uphold the union's argument about the investigation's methodology.

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Kristen Hilton said she was surprised and disappointed by the decision.

“We conducted the review at the request of government and were actively supported by the leadership of the MFB and CFA in doing so,” she said. “Thousands of people participated in the process and it is a real blow that these stories will not be heard.”

Asked if there would be an appeal to the High Court, Ms Hilton said the commission would consider Thursday's judgment carefully.

Ms Hilton said she could not comment on the report but she knew that sexism, discrimination and inequity were “real problems” and continued to cause harm in the fire services.

The union commissioned Newcastle University to review workplace culture at the fire services.

“Like all workplaces there are some problems and this report identifies those. We don’t shy away from that challenge,” Mr Marshall said. “But they’re not to the large extent that certain people have alleged.”

The report included responses from 885 union members, including 47 women. The vast majority were professional career firefighters.

Just under a third of respondents, 31.8 per cent, said they had been bullied.

The survey showed that 24 men and women believed they had been sexually harassed in their careers. However, almost half of the women who responded, 48.9 per cent, said they had been exposed at least once to sexual harassment during their time on the job.

The survey was limited to union members.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the government made no apology for referring the matter to the commission, and vowed to press ahead with "important cultural change" in emergency services. “We thought it was very serious,” he said.

But Opposition attorney-general John Pesutto said the government could have remedied the “technical issue” when the union first raised it last year.