Volunteer firefighters have urged candidates in this Saturday’s state election to promise not to pursue Labor’s stalled plan to split the CFA.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV) chief executive Andrew Ford said CFA volunteers were deeply concerned that any attempt to retry the plan to split the CFA into paid and volunteer sections “would cause more unnecessary damage to the reputation of the CFA and morale of its incredible paid and volunteer firefighters.”
The plan was defeated in state parliament at Easter this year with the help of the vote of James Purcell, who was then the Upper House Member for Western Victoria.
Mr Ford said many people who could see the dangers in the plan to split the CFA and fought against it now mistakenly believed the issue had gone for good.
“However, the Premier recently announced that a future Andrews Government would try again to implement the flawed plan to disassemble the CFA, rekindling the concerns many of our hard-working members have for Victoria’s future safety,” Mr Ford said.
“Consequently, we are calling on every candidate – including the Premier – to not support any action that will dismantle the CFA, irrespective of which party is in power.”
“We sincerely hope we can elicit a genuine change of heart and get the policy taken off the table so our CFA volunteers and their paid colleagues can spend the summer doing what they always do so well without any distraction or stress caused by the anticipation of more unnecessary change,” Mr Ford said.
“VFBV is not party political. We are not telling people how to vote.
“We have serious concerns with the flawed policy agenda to dismantle CFA and want to make sure people vote with their eyes wide open.”
“We want all candidates to have the opportunity to be very transparent about where they stand on this issue. Volunteers will applaud those who support the CFA and encourage others to reconsider.”
“Candidates who are not willing to take the pledge do not support CFA Volunteers,” Mr Ford said.
The VFBV represents Victoria’s 55,000 CFA volunteers.