CFA assistant chief officer for the south-west region Rohan Luke said changes, which will split paid firefighters away from the CFA, rendering the organisation volunteer-only and establishing a new Fire Rescue Victoria body for paid firefighters, will bring benefits.

“From a community point of view, there will be no difference,” he said.

“Essentially, in the way we operate and the service provided, you’ll see no difference. So at the moment we have volunteer and career firefighters responding together to incidents, and that will be the same. There will be an arrangement in place that will allow CFA to focus on CFA business and supporting volunteers in a volunteer-based firefighting organisation and there will be systems to allow Fire Rescue Victoria to grow as its own entity.”

A draft bill was introduced to the lower house by Emergency Services Minister James Merlino on Wednesday.

Mr Luke said benefits included a $100 million investment in CFA that would allow the organisation to shift its focus to providing more accessible training programs.

“Having said that, they will still train together,” he said. “On a daily basis, there will still be an expectation that CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria work together. Our members continue to focus on why we’re here – and that’s to serve the community – and we need to and will keep doing that.”

Mr Luke also welcomed presumptive cancer compensation rights for both career and volunteer firefighters that will be tied with the other legislative changes.

However, south-west CFA volunteers representative Owen O’Keefe said the split would diminish the roles of volunteers, and CFA staff supporting the changes before they pass through parliament was an “insult to democracy”.

Mr O’Keefe said there was no evidence to back claims the split was the best option for public safety, and said it appeared to be a “rushed” solution to resolve a long-running enterprise bargaining disagreement between the state government and paid firefighters.