Federal election 2016: heat still burns in CFA-union battle

Premier Daniel Andrews and Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett have compromised over plans to unionise the CFA.

Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett.

A dramatic showdown between Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews and his Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett over plans to further unionise the Country Fire Authority has ended in a last-minute compromise that keeps her in the cabinet, for now.

But the CFA row threatens to roll on, with brigades stepping up criticism of the Andrews government and federal Labor figures ­attacking state Labor’s handling of it. McEwen MP Rob Mitchell, holder of the nation’s most marginal seat, yesterday urged the state government, the union and the CFA to resolve an “unwanted distraction” in his quest to retain the bushfire-prone electorate.

“At the end of the day people are just saying we need this sorted out,’’ he said. “I think you get everyone in the room and say ‘let’s go through this page by page and get it sorted out and do it behind closed doors’.”

After a marathon cabinet meeting that began amid expectations Ms Garrett would resign over the issue, she released a statement at 6.30pm saying “good progress has been made” in resolving the row since Mr Andrews returned from the US.

But the degree of compromise entailed was heavily disputed last night; some claiming a major backdown and others saying cabinet had endorsed most of the Fair Work Commission’s contentious enterprise bargaining agreement recommendations.

“Andrews has blinked,’’ a source close to the dispute said last night, “but how much we are able to unwind this is the big issue now. The one thing that’s sure is that the United Firefighters Union will go absolutely feral over it.”

In her statement last night, Ms Garrett said: “The government will continue to work on resolving outstanding issues with the EBA, including the monitoring of the agreement by the Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley and the Fair Work Commission.

“The government understands the concerns expressed by some CFA volunteers and others in the community about the ­impact of any agreement on volunteers.”

Ms Garrett’s statement capped a day of drama that began with the CFA board’s refusal to sign the proposed agreement with the UFU, noting that “unlawful” clauses had “no place in modern day workplaces and are out of step with today’s society”.

One senior federal ALP source, speaking before news of the uneasy peace broke, said Ms Garrett had been betrayed and the state government had done itself terrible damage in regional and suburban areas. Labor figures were also confused about why Mr Andrews staked so much to defend the position of a non-affiliated union that has previously donated to the Greens and is run by a militant leader, Peter Marshall.

The main contentious clauses are those giving the union a dispute resolution officer, which critics say would be an effective right of veto over CFA management’s decisions, and a requirement that seven professional firefighters be dispatched to fires in areas where there are so-called integrated stations staffed by both professional and volunteer fire fighters.

Volunteer CFA brigades across the state have warned the row is driving a wedge between them and their professional colleagues and souring a relationship that has ­always been difficult.

The latest Labor figure to publicly weigh into the discussion was veteran former emergency services minister Andre Haermeyer who revealed he had almost quit over a similar issue under the Bracks government.

Ms Garrett has steadfastly ­opposed the endorsement of the ultra-militant United Firefighters Union’s demands in the proposed enterprise bargaining agreement.