By Derek Schlennstedt
The State Labor Government has been accused of ‘playing politics’ after it combined the firefighters’ presumptive rights compensation and the fire services legislation amendment into the same bill.
Under the new legislation, Victorian firefighters would only get presumptive cancer compensation rights if the parliament agreed to the Andrews Government’s controversial planned CFA split.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy warned there would be “no guarantee (the legislation) will pass the upper house,” and accused the government of “playing politics with firefighters’ health”.
However, he said that if Labor had introduced a standalone presumptive cancer bill it would pass the parliament this week.
State Premier Daniel Andrews defended tying the changes together and said that when the Coalition was in power, it had failed to introduce the compensation laws.
“We don’t run our reform agenda based on what the opposition might vote for, or vote against.
“They have been all over the place on these issues.”
“The government drafted the bill, and we’d expect all fair minded members of the Victorian Parliament will vote for that bill,” Mr Andrews said.
The compensation scheme will formally be open to firefighters who have developed cancers since June 2016.
Following the State Government’s legislation announcements, the State Opposition, came under fire for running a robo-call campaign that claimed the planned CFA restructure would put Victorians at risk.
The robo-calls were made to Labor electorates over a 24-hour period and the Country Fire Authority’s chief executive, Frances Diver, said the organisation was ‘flooded with complaints’ from people who had received the calls.
“This is a highly irresponsible and unfounded claim, and not an authorised message from CFA,” Ms Diver said.
“CFA is deeply concerned that these calls may erode confidence in public safety and unfairly cause alarm across the community.”
The automated calls introduced listeners to Glen, a CFA volunteer, who directed listeners to sign a petition to save the CFA.
“Hi, I’m Glen a CFA volunteer, the CFA is under threat.”
“No one was consulted about this, not the CFA volunteers, not the CFA leadership and not the community.”
Opposition emergency services spokesman Brad Battin defended the calls and said the Coalition would “continue to ramp up its campaign to protect the CFA that helps keep Victorians safe.”
Earlier this month on 19 May the State Government announced that paid firefighters from the CFA and Metropolitan Fire Brigade would move to the newly created Fire Rescue Victoria, leaving the CFA to continue as a volunteer only organisation.
