Volunteers fire up again

Divisions re-emerge in amalgamation

ANGRY volunteer firefighters say they have been betrayed by the State Government and sidelined in the organisation they are supposed to run.

From next week the CFA’s career staff will be merged with the MFB to form a new service — Fire Rescue Victoria.

But a bitter dispute is poised to boil over, with many of the 54,000 volunteer firefighters fed up over a lack of consultation ahead of the change.

They say the move will leave them subject to the paid firefighters’ enterprise agreement and union interference.

They fear the reforms will turn the CFA into a “second class service” and fear volunteers will leave the organisation in record numbers.

And there are concerns dysfunction between the groups could prove fatal in emergency situations.

Volunteers Fire Brigades Victoria chief Adam Barnett said volunteers felt let down.

A major point of anger is a proposal that FRV officers seconded to the CFA will wear FRV uniforms instead of CFA uniforms. days of dispute, but equally we must think long and hard about whether we can continue to turn a blind eye to the continued attacks on your goodwill and good faith, and allow volunteers to continue to be taken advantage of,” he wrote this month.

“Regrettably it appears that decision makers are sending a terrible message as they return to their divisive, polarising and exclusionary ways of old.

“CFA volunteers and the communities they protect deserve so much better.

“They deserve to be treated with respect by those who are there to govern on behalf of all of us.”

Mr Barnett said the Government betrayal risked “breaking the hearts and backs of stalwart CFA volunteers.”

“These are the same volunteers who put their lives on the line during this year’s devastating bushfires and whom we owe so much. For many this may well be the last straw,” he said.

District 23 VFBV Council spokeswoman Mary-Anne

Egan said the reform had increasingly turned into a return to the old division between the CFA and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.

Police and Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville maintained engagement with volunteers had been a key focus of the reform.

Ms Neville said there had been 54 engagement workshops between February and March with more than 1330 volunteers and staff attending.

“Our focus is on supporting volunteer firefighters — not those seeking to criticise the CFA and questioning the dedication of volunteers,” she said.