Jack Rush leads Coalition team to rebuild CFA to protect volunteers
The Victorian Coalition is drawing on the skills of a Black Saturday Royal Commission lawyer and others to devise a plan that revives the CFA as an independent firefighting force.
JACK Rush, the lawyer who picked apart the failings of the 2009 Black Saturday fires, has agreed to chair the Victorian Opposition’s CFA Advisory Committee, tasked with developing a plan to rebuild the volunteer firefighting force.
Opposition emergency services spokesman Nick Wakeling said the Coalition had formed the advisory committee as part of its strategy to revive the CFA in the wake of the Andrews Labor Government’s carve up of the fire services.
He said the formation of the committee built on the consultation the Liberal-Nationals had already started with CFA brigades and volunteers through the Rebuild the CFA website, where volunteers have the opportunity to provide direct feedback on the reforms.
“The Committee will play a critical role in helping shape the CFA as a truly independent, volunteer-based organisation,” Mr Wakeling said.
The Committee will seek and review CFA volunteer and key stakeholder feedback, before ultimately providing recommendations to the Coalition on the redevelopment of the CFA.
Mr Rush said the process provided “a critical opportunity to promote the interests of a most precious resource, volunteer firefighters and to ensure the future of the state’s largest fire agency – the CFA.”
Mr Rush will be joined on the committee by:
CRAIG Lapsley, former Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner
JOHN Peberdy, former member and acting-chair of the CFA Board
EV Duke, former member of the SES board
ADAM Barnett, Chief Executive Officer of Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria
In the meantime CFA volunteers’ ageing pumpers and tankers are set to get even older, after the Andrews Government’s 2020 State Budget fell short of meeting their replacement target.
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria’s most recent analysis showed the CFA needs to replace close to 120 trucks a year to ensure no vehicle in the CFA’s fleet of 2406 tankers and pumpers is more than 20 years old.
But in last week’s budget the Government said it would replace just 50 appliances over the next four years.
Earlier this year The Weekly Times reported then CFA chief officer Steve Warrington had called on the Government for an extra $200 million to upgrade the CFA tanker fleet.
Victoria, like other states, once had a 20-year CFA truck replacement policy.
But over the past 15 years that policy has been eroded by underfunding to the point where the oldest CFA tanker in service is more than 30 years old.
Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville’s spokeswoman said the Government had “provided an additional $126 million (over four years) for CFA to support volunteers, training and equipment.
“This includes funding for the replacement of 50 firefighting appliances and 16 new stations.
“This is in addition to CFA’s normal base fleet replacement budget which delivers between 20 to 30 appliances per year, depending on the needs of that year.”
The shortfall in truck funding sits in stark contrast to the government’s investment in the newly formed career-only Fire Rescue Victoria Service, which is set to cost Victorian taxpayers more than $1 billion a year to run.
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