By Victoria Stone-Meadows and Derek Schlennstedt
The Victorian Government has vowed to separate volunteer and paid firefighters into two different authorities.
State Emergency Services Minister, James Merlino, announced on Friday 19 May that paid firefighters from the CFA and Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) would move to the newly created Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV), leaving the CFA to continue as a volunteer-only organisation.
“We’ll enshrine the CFA as a volunteer firefighting service under law and unite our career firefighters under one organisation,” Mr Merlino said.
The new FRV body will be responsible for fighting fires in Melbourne and major regional towns, bringing together career CFA members and MFB firefighters.
Volunteer CFA stations across the state will be unchanged under the new model, with the 1220 CFA brigades continuing to serve their communities.
The State Government also announced FRV will take over the areas currently covered by integrated stations, and boundaries will be redrawn by a new Fire District Review Panel.
The proposal has been met with criticism from the State Opposition and has divided CFA volunteers.
State Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has called the announcement part of a “political fix” that aims to “destroy the CFA”.
“Victorians still ask that question why? Why is the State Government so hell-bent on destroying the CFA?” Mr Guy said.
Mr Guy did acknowledge that $56.2 million for training and recruitment and $44 million for new stations is welcome funding for the organisation. “Yes, greater monies for the CFA is good news. Yes, presumptive rights legislation is a good step forward,” he said.
Of the 35 integrated stations that are to be affected by the changes, none are within the Yarra Ranges.
However, chief executive officer of Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV) Andrew Ford said the changes would damage the state’s capacity to provide surge capacity during major events such as the Black Saturday Fires.
The Black Saturday Royal Commission also warned that expanding the MFB boundary would “probably decrease the critical surge capacity of the CFA“.
John Schurink, a Dandenong Ranges CFA member for 34 years, said the proposed changes could result in a mass exodus of volunteers from the integrated fire stations.
He said it would effectively make volunteers at those stations redundant.
“Surge capacity is something that’s vital for our organisation,“ he said.
“Personally, along with my colleagues behind me, we’ve been to Adelaide, Sydney, Wye River, Wangaratta.
“The role of a volunteer, from a separate organisation in the same station, will continue to dwindle, and they will drift away as there will be nothing for them to do.“
Both Mr Guy and Mr Battin claimed that fire services in NSW – which the proposed FRV restructure is modelled on – have less volunteers than Victoria’s CFA.
However, annual reports from the CFA show that the organisation has 54,530 volunteers and the Rural Fire Service in NSW has 74,162 volunteers.
Mr Merlino also hit back at the claims from the Opposition, and said that Mr Guy – in relation to the CFA – could not be trusted.
“Matthew Guy continues to say anything so he can keep using firefighters as political footballs … one thing is clear: you can’t trust a single word Matthew Guy says.”
