Fire Rescue Victoria: CFA carve up leaves volunteers in limbo

Volunteers fear they will be left battling for resources and funding as the Andrews Government moves to carve up the CFA.

Left short: Bealiba CFA volunteer Nifty Gordon fears more volunteers will walk away. Picture: Zoe Phillips

FIRE Rescue Victoria is set to become a $1 billion behemoth, devouring the Metropolitan Fire Brigade’s 2388-strong workforce, 1371 CFA car­eer firefighters and 38 integrated stations — from Mildura to Morwell.

The new career-firefighter-only FRV service is due to be formed by June 30 next year. But volunteers say they’ve heard nothing from the And­rews Government on FRV’s formation, with many fearing the CFA will struggle to compete with the billion-dollar body for resources and funding.

“There’s going to be a huge rationalisation of the CFA,” one group officer said.

“As soon as this goes through, they’re (the United Firefighters Union) going to say ‘all these new areas should be FRV’.

“The union knows what it wants, they’re just not telling us how much they’re going to screw us over.”

While the Government has promised no job losses, volunteers doubt the CFA would hold on to its 1401 support and administrative staff after its 1371 career firefighters are shifted into FRV.

Bealiba CFA volunteer Nifty Gordon said: “It’s not just the funding. It will lead to more people walking away”.

Since the Government began its push to split the CFA, operational vol­unteer numbers have fallen from 40,311 in 2015 to 34,482 as of October 1. “We will go back to the 1920s,” Mr Gordon said. “All those years of training and experience will be lost and we’ll be back to having even more big fires.”

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Volunteer brigades were already battling for resources, with many struggling to replace ageing tankers.

“CFA’s capital and fleet budgets are chronically underfunded and get worse year after year,” Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria chief executive Adam Barnett said.

“Victoria cannot continue to take advantage of the goodwill of volunteers to use ageing equipment. When they are out putting their lives on the line to protect the community from the ravages of fire, they deserve to be equipped with modern and safe trucks that offer them the best protection.”

Mr Barnett said CFA volunteers were already required to operate fire trucks that paid firefighters refused to use.

The Weekly Times has previously reported volunteer resourcing is set to be further undermined by the CFA split, as it loses $247 million in fire services property levies to FRV.

The CFA group officer, who did not wish to be named, said the UFU would push for further boundary reform to give the FRV greater territory and control.

He said FRV and the UFU takeover of major peri-urban areas and regional towns would be used to justify gaining a greater slice of government and fire services property levies that Victorians pay on their rates bills.

The 2019 Victorian Budget has projected the FSPL bill would jump from $709 million this year to at least $776 million by 2022-23.

The Government is already chipping in another $400 million to the fire services, which generate another $60 million from servicing fire suppression equipment.

FRV is set to gain the bulk of future FSPL revenue, grants and servicing revenue, generating an income of close to $1 billion in 2020-21.

The Government has refused to answer questions on the financial allocations for each fire service.

But Emergency Volunteer Awareness Campaign director Garth Head expected the CFA’s $656 million budget to be cut by at least $300 million once FRV was formed.

A spokeswoman for Emergency Service Minister Lisa Neville said: “The community can be assured that both agencies will have the funding they need to provide a world-class fire response for all Victorians. We’ve been working closely with fire agencies and all relevant stakeholders on the commencement of Fire Rescue Victoria in the middle of next year.

“The development of proposed organisational structures for both FRV and CFA is a critical part of this work, and will reflect the essential volunteer role CFA will play in fire response under the new arrangements.

“Funding and additional resources for both agencies will be determined as part of this process.”

The Weekly Times understands CFA chief officer Steve Warrington has called on the Andrews Government for an extra $200 million to upgrade volunteers’ ageing firefighting fleet, a third of which cannot respond to major bushfires.