Union-friendly CFA deal demanded by Andrews ‘to cost $700m’

Dumped CFA chairman says signing the union-friendly deal demanded by the Andrews government would cost up to $700m.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

Dumped Country Fire Authority chairman John ­Peberdy says signing the union-friendly agreement demanded by the Andrews ­government would cost the ­organisation up to $700 million, according to its own figures, far more than the $150m touted by the Premier’s office.

His costing of the deal comes as the government narrowly averted a brawl on who was selected to replace Jane Garrett in the ministry, with cabinet secretary Marlene Kairouz elected unop­posed when the Left realised it was a few votes short of getting candidate Gayle Tierney up.

Ms Kairouz takes on liquor and gaming licensing and consumer affairs, the balance of Ms Garrett’s portfolio.

Ms Garrett’s Left grouping is furious with Ms Kairouz for taking “their” spot, but will keep its powder dry.

The explosive claims from Mr Peberdy came in a radio interview yesterday in which he also flagged safety concerns and said that the agreement could see ­professional firefighters refusing to work under the direction of ­volunteers in rural areas.

“Well we’re getting to the stage where the EBA really says ... ­career firefighters only report to career firefighters. They don’t ­report to volunteers,’’ he said.

“If a volunteer is running an ­incident and the career people ­arrive then the volunteer would have to hand over to the career firefighter.

“You really want the first ­people there to take control and get on with the job. And that may be a volunteer brigade, even in an area where there isn’t integrated station. Now, we think there are safety issues around that that are important.”

He also challenged the cost of the so-called integrated model where CFA professional and ­volunteer firefighters share quarters as well as the financial impact of implementing the agreement. “I challenged our management on the numbers because the numbers are varied between $140m and $1.2 billion and the figure that I’ve been given by our chiefs at the CFA has been about six to seven hundred million,” he said.

The government disputes his view on the agreement and maintains the deal has been remodelled considerably and does not hand control to the union and that the integrated model doesn’t compromise rights of volunteers.

It also disputes the costings, with a spokeswoman for Treasurer Tim Pallas saying “the government’s costings have gone through rigorous financial analysis and there is adequate provision to account for the EBA within the budget”.