Wednesday, 5 June 2019

 Mr EDBROOKE (Frankston) (11:46): We will continue on our myth-busting journey. I want to put on record that CFA volunteers will continue to have the right and the responsibility to fundraise. This legislation protects that right, even if they are in a Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) district. I have recently met with many volunteers and career firefighters who wanted to discuss these reforms, and the message is very, very clear from them: ‘We know these reforms are coming, we want to work with you and we want you to get on with the job so we can get on with our job’. Or, as Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria board appointee Michael Tudball, AFSM, stated: ‘Move on; let’s get behind this’. I might say that is the message the Victorian community sent us when they voted us back in so comprehensively last year.

Now, my views on presumptive rights are well known to this Parliament, and I know many of my colleagues will speak on these issues. But what I would say is those opposite were dragged kicking and screaming to support our firefighters on this, and I can quote the former coalition Minister for Police and Emergency Services, who stated:

We are not convinced that there is a direct link between cancer and the firefighters.

Shame! Well, we are convinced, and it is time to act, and maybe those opposite should take the opportunity to actually vote for the first time for presumptive rights legislation.

I want to conclude by summing up the intention of this bill. We are wholeheartedly as a government committed to ensuring our fire services remain the best in the world and are committed to giving our firefighters the tools, the certainty and the structure that will empower them to do their jobs. There were nine reviews of the fire services in less than 10 years. There was a royal commission into Black Saturday, and we debated these reforms last year. We have been out consulting with all the stakeholders, and the message we have got from those stakeholders is across the board that Victoria’s fire services must be modernised. We went to the 2018 election promising the Victorian people to reintroduce these reforms, and that is what we are doing—we are fulfilling that promise.

We can never repay the debt that we owe our firefighters for the sacrifices they have made in protecting our communities, but we can recognise that their service is important and crucial by doing anything in our power to look after them. I know this has been a difficult process for volunteers and staff firefighters. They are sick of the uncertainty. I strongly commend this bill to the house.

 Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (11:48): In starting out can I remind the member for Frankston that the only party that has actually voted against presumptive rights legislation in the 59th Parliament is the Labor Party. It is the Labor Party. The member for Gembrook actually introduced a private members bill in this house when we came back after the election. If you were as good as your word, you would have actually crossed the floor—

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): I remind the Leader of The Nationals to speak through the Chair.

Mr WALSH: Thank you, Acting Speaker. If the member for Frankston was as good as his word, he would have actually crossed the floor and voted with the member for Gembrook. If he was serious about presumptive rights legislation for firefighters in Victoria, and particularly for volunteers in Victoria, and making sure it was equal for volunteers and for firefighters, he would have actually crossed the floor and voted with the member for Gembrook. He is obviously not very, very serious about these particular issues.

It is important to look at the history as to why we are here debating this legislation at the moment, and it goes back to the 2014 election. It actually goes back to when Peter Marshall and the United Firefighters Union were out there doorknocking. They allegedly doorknocked 47 000 homes and claim to have had 700 volunteers actually out there helping man pre-polls, helping man polling booths and making sure that those UFU members that were manning those pre-polls and manning those polling booths were abusive and intimidatory towards people going in to vote if they wanted to take a card that was not a Labor Party card. That is what we are here now for. We are here now for the Premier’s payback to Peter Marshall and the UFU. That is what this is all about with the CFA bill. It is about payback for what Peter Marshall and the UFU did manning booths, manning pre-poll, doorknocking, making phone calls, bullying and intimidating people during the 2014 election. It is all about payback; that is all it is about.

What I want to start off with is the volunteer charter, a very, very important document that was actually signed by then Premier Ted Baillieu, then minister Peter Ryan, the president of Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV) and the chair of the Country Fire Authority. It is an important document in which government, in agreement with volunteers and the CFA, set out the rights of volunteers in this particular state. It talks about ensuring that:

… the State of Victoria and CFA will commit to consultation with Volunteers about all matters which might reasonably be expected to affect Volunteers …

That is a core part of this charter, which is a government document. There has not been consultation with volunteers about the legislation we are debating today. This legislation was only introduced yesterday, so how can there have been consultation with volunteers around this legislation?

It also goes on to talk about the principles that will be in this charter and that will be discussed with volunteers. It asks: is it fair? This legislation is not fair for volunteers because it actually tears apart the CFA and does not show them just respect, and it does not necessarily treat them equally when it comes to presumptive rights. Is it just? The same argument again that I have just put forward. Is it reasonable? No, it is not reasonable with what has been put forward. Does it discriminate against volunteers? Yes, it does. If you look at the clauses in this bill it does discriminate against volunteers compared to what they have now. Is the outcome practicable and sustainable? No, it is not.

We are going to have this whole confusion about integrated stations, about the rights of volunteers at integrated stations. I am sure that volunteers are going to be bullied out of those integrated stations. You only have to go to Mildura and see what has happened where there is a paid station and there are lines on the concrete where the volunteers can walk and where the volunteers cannot walk, where there is a door for the volunteers to go in and a door for the paid firefighters to go in. That is the sort of thing that can be expected in the future. You only have to look at the Bendigo station during the 2009 fires. The Rochester fire brigade was in Bendigo. They wanted to use the conveniences at the fire station when they had their break, and they were told, ‘You’re not allowed to use the paid firefighters’ conveniences. You have to go out the back to the old toilets. You can’t use the toilets that the paid firefighters use’.

So is the outcome practicable? Is it sustainable? No, it is not. Is it in the best interest of the safety of the Victorian community? No, it is not. The charter is there to talk about the best interest of the Victorian community. Having the surge capacity that comes out of those suburban brigades is absolutely critical in a major fire campaign. I do not believe what is being proposed is in the best interests of the safety of the Victorian community. So on all those measures this legislation fails the volunteer charter. The charter says it needs to:

Recognise, value, respect and promote CFA Volunteers, their families and employers for their contributions to the well-being and safety of the people of Victoria …

This legislation does not show that respect to the volunteers, to their families or to their employers for what they give up to fight fires.

Ensure that CFA legislation appropriately recognises the needs and interests of Volunteers in the delivery of services and protects Volunteers who provide their services in good faith and their dependants from financial losses and other liabilities …

Again, this legislation that is before the house does not meet that term that is in the charter of volunteers.

Consult with the elected representatives of Volunteers on all matters which may impact upon Volunteers including proposed legislation and the adequacy of resources to enable Volunteers in CFA to deliver the agreed services.

This legislation fails that test as well. There was not the consultation with the VFBV. There most definitely has not been consultation with the volunteers, because we only saw this yesterday. There has been no opportunity for consultation with the volunteers, so it fails on that particular measure.

Finally, the commitment:

The parties commit themselves to use and apply the Charter in the spirit of mutual respect and goodwill and to work together in that spirit to resolve any disputes which may arise between CFA, the State of Victoria and the Volunteers by reference to the key principles set down in this Volunteer Charter.

The last four years I think have absolutely demonstrated that the government has no goodwill towards that particular clause in the charter. I go right back to where I started, the 2014 election, and the issues that arose with the enterprise bargaining agreement and what came out of the EBA where the UFU effectively took over the rights to veto management decisions by the management of the CFA. The fact is that Lucinda Nolan, Peter Rau and Joe Buffone—the long list—all got bullied out of the CFA. The board got sacked. The then minister, the Deputy Premier, went out and absolutely trashed Joe Buffone’s reputation on the nightly news. I just think the way that a senior elected official of a government of Victoria could be so disparaging, so nasty and so destructive of that man’s reputation on the nightly news is an absolute disgrace and shows that the Deputy Premier is not fit to be a senior leader in this state.

I think the whole litany of history associated with this particular legislation is wrong. I support the member for Gembrook’s reasoned amendment. We do want to see presumptive rights for firefighters. We do want to see presumptive rights that treat paid firefighters and volunteers equally. The fact is that there are clauses in the bill that are going to be done by regulation post this legislation passing that will actually set out the conditions as to how volunteers will be able to access presumptive rights. I do not trust the government to get it right. The volunteers that I have talked to do not trust the government to get it right. They believe they will be disadvantaged when it comes to this particular legislation and when it comes to presumptive rights.

The last thing, which I want to finish off on, is Good Friday and the issues about Good Friday, and no doubt we will hear a lot about this. On Good Friday the Echuca fire brigade always do the fundraising for the Royal Children’s Hospital. They have their fire trucks out. They have all their volunteers out in their uniforms fundraising. I actually went down to the station that day after the legislation was defeated in this place, and they were absolutely over the moon that we actually stood up for them—stood up for them when it really counted—and actually had that legislation defeated. The other side can go on and on again about pairs and all the stuff they want to go on about, but all the volunteers that I speak to say, ‘Well done. You actually stood up for us, and you stood up for us on something that is so important to us. You stood up for us about something that is so important to the community and the safety of our community’. All those volunteers that were having their sausage sizzle after they had been out raising money for the Royal Children’s Hospital were elated about what had happened in the upper house, and I make no apology for what we did. We stuck up for the volunteers and we stuck up for our community, and if I had the opportunity I would do it again.

 Ms SETTLE (Buninyong) (11:58): I rise to speak in favour of the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019. As a representative of a large rural seat, with over 17 CFA brigades in my electorate, this is a bill that is very important to me. I have spent a large part of my life living in regional Victoria, and I understand the absolutely vital service that the CFA provide. My father has served the CFA for over 40 years, and I myself am a member of the Ballarat city brigade.

My first memories of the CFA came as a teenager living in Castlemaine, when large fires swept through Barkers Creek in the late 1970s. I have a strong memory of making sandwiches with my mother and taking them to the staging area in town for the firefighters. That memory symbolises for me the absolute bond between community and the CFA brigades. That bond remains today, and I see it when all of the Ballarat brigades come out together to raise funds for the Royal Children’s Hospital. This bill restores the CFA to its roots as a community-based, locally responsive organisation made up of dedicated firefighters, and it ensures that these volunteer firefighters are supported to do their job, with clear organisational objectives and paid support staff.

But some things have changed since the 1970s. Those sleepy country towns of my childhood are now burgeoning cities. As I mentioned, my dad has been a CFA firefighter for over 40 years. Many of those years—

Ms Britnell interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Order! Member for South-West Coast! Cease interjecting across the chamber.

Ms SETTLE: As I mentioned, my dad has been a CFA firefighter for over 40 years. Many of those years were spent defending our farm and our neighbours’ farms as part of the Langi Logan brigade, but in recent years he has been a volunteer at the Anglesea brigade. I visit my parents every year during the summer season, and I watch as Anglesea changes from the sleepy town of my youth to a large population of holiday-makers. Watching my dad stay vigilant by the pager, I am minded that we need to update our boundaries, and this reform will do that. We are already addressing the issue in Anglesea, with a new station at Armstrong. The establishment of a new Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) fire district will replace the metropolitan fire district and redraw the boundaries of the district to include growth areas in Melbourne as well as major regional centres.

On Friday I went to a fundraiser for those that were affected by the Bunkers Hill fire. The Bunkers Hill fire devastated an area outside Ballarat near Haddon on 29 March. As a farmer, for me that is just weeks away from what should have been the autumn break. We can see the effects of climate change regionally. Our climate is changing rapidly. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005, and 2018 was Victoria’s third warmest on record, with rainfall about 25 per cent below average—the lowest since 2006. Heatwaves are lengthening fire seasons, and bushfires will likely increase in frequency and intensity and affect more densely populated areas. Our firefighters currently operate under systems and structures that have not changed since the 1950s, and it is clear that these services need to be modernised. Most importantly, this bill legislates presumptive rights. We need systems that honour the hard work and commitment of our firefighters, acknowledging the significant risk and dangers they face daily. The bill delivers to our career and volunteer firefighters a presumptive right to compensation for cancer claims arising from their service.

My dad attended the Hazelwood fires for five days. He describes the incredibly difficult conditions under which they worked. The walls were literally on fire. They had to be tested for carbon monoxide, and many of the brigade had to be sent home with breathing issues. The report on the inquiry into the Hazelwood mine fire made recommendations on improving health and safety management for firefighters and other emergency services. This bill means that extraordinary events like the Hazelwood mine fire will be considered when it comes to compensation. We ask so much of our firefighters, and we owe them at the very least this presumptive rights legislation.

Like all of us, my dad is getting older, and we need to keep building our volunteer ranks. In Ballarat the local Ballarat fire brigade has a junior brigade, and I applaud that brigade for training our next generation of firefighters. But we need to do more than that. An additional responsibility will be placed on the CFA board to support the effective and sustainable recruitment, development and retention of volunteer officers and members to deliver capability in the provision of CFA services. We have created a $56.2 million CFA Support Fund to strengthen volunteer recruitment and retention, increase training options, expand brigade support and develop brigade leadership.

I belong to an integrated brigade, Ballarat City. The number of incidents that the 37 integrated brigades have responded to has increased significantly, from 12 214 incidents in 2006 to 18 539 incidents in 2016. Volunteers in the CFA’s 38 career integrated station areas will be encouraged to remain and co-locate with Fire Rescue Victoria services. As is already the case, there will be different arrangements depending on local circumstances and the requirements of both FRV and the CFA. At all times the most important factor will be community safety. Integrated stations will transition to FRV, but CFA volunteers will be able to retain their equipment and vehicles.

I do not profess to speak for my brigade, but I can make a personal observation. I was trained by career firefighters and we worked well as an integrated group. The walls of our training room are lined with the long history of the brigade and I am confident that that legacy will continue. On Sunday I had the honour of handing over the keys of a new rescue vehicle to Ballarat fire brigade, which is a 100 per cent volunteer fire brigade in my electorate and, I am very proud to say, the oldest operating fire brigade in the Southern Hemisphere. This brigade has specialised in rescue vehicles since the 1970s. It was the foresight of this brigade in the 1970s that saw them specialise in rescue equipment, and in those days they had to fundraise themselves. They raised the money for their first rescue vehicle and on Sunday I handed over their fifth rescue vehicle.

Ballarat City is well known for its staging unit. We are supporting them to specialise in their chosen area. The government has already committed to a $100 million support package to strengthen and enhance the CFA. We will continue to work with volunteers, with their expertise, about what they need on the ground to determine the best way to spend these funds to help make CFA an even stronger firefighting force. At the same time the Victorian government will reaffirm its commitment to the CFA volunteer charter. Volunteers want certainty. If we do not pass this bill, we will be left in doubt for another fire season. This would already be law but for the treachery of those on the other side of the house.

I remember a particularly scary day in the 1980s when a grassfire started by the railway tracks near my farm. I stood with my mother, plugging the downpipes with tennis balls, locking the pets in the bathroom and finally watering the garden. It was strange to do such a mundane thing as watering the garden as a wall of fire rose over the hill and came towards us. In that moment I knew that the best hands were on deck. The firefighters of Langi Logan all knew our land. They would not stumble on the stony rise or struggle to find our sheds or houses.

This bill will give certainty to our volunteers, give them presumptive rights and strengthen their capacity. We are committed to strengthening the CFA, not gutting it like the Liberals did when they were in government. On Sunday, Snowy, the captain of Smythesdale brigade, looked me in the eye and asked me to stand by the volunteers. I made that commitment to Snowy, and I will stand by it.

 Ms STALEY (Ripon) (12:08): I rise to speak on the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019. I follow the member for Buninyong, who I note is a new member to this place and despite not having had the benefit of seeing the previous bill, seemed to be able to believe that she could support this bill even though it has only been seen for 12 hours. Clearly consultation with her brigades and people does not require actually seeing the bill, which does have some differences to the previous bill, which I will come to. I note that one of the brigades that the member for Buninyong has just talked about, the Langi Logan brigade, is a Ripon brigade. It is one of more than 90 brigades in Ripon that are all-volunteer and do the great service of keeping the people of Ripon safe from fire.

Ripon is also serviced by the Ballarat City CFA, which of course is an integrated brigade, and the Lucas CFA, which despite not actually being in Ripon—although Lucas itself is in Ripon—is an all-career CFA brigade. It is not what was envisaged when it was first created, but now we have one of the two all-career CFAs, part of the future that this government sees for the CFA, an all-career service wherever they can do so.

The CFA in Ripon has a very, very long history, as do fire brigades, prior in fact to the CFA. I have been to a number of celebrations within my brigades of well over 100 years of service to what is a very fire-prone area. What is in this bill is therefore of great interest to the people of these brigades. Of course they have not been able to see a lot of this bill because the government has chosen to bring it in and second-read it in the same week. Why would they do that? Why would they deny the bill the traditional two weeks of sitting on the notice paper? In fact if the bill was as ready as the minister might suggest, why did they not bring it in perhaps in March, prior to the federal election? That might give us some indication as to why we are seeing the bill now, because of course during the previous federal election, which Labor did not win either, one of the turning points was when thousands of CFA volunteers—in fact it was on this day years ago—came to protest against the proposed changes to the fire services. That was one of the things that was credited as winning the coalition that election.

Of all the things that this government could do to help Bill Shorten, not to bring in this bill just before a federal election would be one of them. It worked so well for them last time. This time they actually had quite a narrow window. They had a narrow window for the budget. The budget was delayed so they could help Bill Shorten, and then they delayed the introduction of this bill into the Parliament precisely to help Bill Shorten on his way to the Lodge. That did not work out so well for them. It did not go so well last time and it did not go so well this time. It would have gone even worse had they introduced this bill, can I say, because Victorians do not like this. They do not like the takeover of fire services by one man, Peter Marshall. They just do not like it.

One of the issues that Victorians really do not like with this bill, and it is a technical issue for those people in country brigades, in CFA volunteer brigades, is lateral transfer. There are numbers of people in country brigades who join their brigades and their teams and by the time they get to their early 40s they have had 20-plus years of firefighting experience and are deputy group officers or even group officers. Sometimes they do not want to farm any more or they would like a career change, so they think, ‘That is something that I have really enjoyed, something that I have really done’, and they seek to go into the fire services at management level. That is something the minister at the table, the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, is telling me is exactly what happens now. That is true; it does happen now. However, under the bill that we are now debating the Fire Services Registration Board is created. The Fire Services Registration Board will have four people on it who will decide who is fit to hold the office of firefighter and who is fit to be in management within Fire Services Victoria. Who is on this board? Well, we have a nominee of the minister. Now I am going to assume that the minister will nominate someone who has had volunteer experience; let us guess that. We then have a nominee of an industrial body that is responsible for an enterprise agreement.

That would be the United Firefighters Union, so the UFU has got one out of the four at this rate. Then they have got a former senior firefighter who is to be nominated by current firefighters in accordance with an election process prescribed by the regulations. So that would be voted by the current firefighters—the paid, UFU members. Now we are at two out of the three. Then we get to the fourth one, and that is: an academic with relevant experience is to be nominated by current firefighters in accordance with an election process prescribed by the regulations. The election process is of course the firefighters, and therefore three of the four people deciding on whether you can have lateral entry from someone who is not a UFU member are UFU members or appointed by the UFU. That is not a model that allows for the current people who have the experience that I have just explained as volunteer firefighters at senior levels to be accorded lateral entry into this organisation.

If we look to the other things this bill does or does not do, this bill puts everybody into Fire Services Victoria, and therefore they will be subject to the Metropolitan Fire Brigade’s enterprise bargaining agreement. The CFA will not have paid staff anymore; therefore there will not be paid staff subject to the CFA EBA. If we look at the MFB EBA, we know that there are absolute restrictions on part-time work and roster flexibility. It has been shown in review after review that the fire services and the MFB have got an appalling rate of having women come back to be firefighters after they have had children and allowing flexibility. The whole thing is designed so that the current Peter Marshall-led UFU can have the model that he wants, which is male firefighters. This is not a model that is any good in itself and it is not one that is a modern firefighting service, yet this is what this bill is signing us up to.

I now move to presumptive rights. This is a disgrace within this bill, and it is why I support the reasoned amendment. These presumptive rights are not equal. The bill does not give equivalent presumptive rights to volunteers. Volunteers can turn out as many times as others, and they will be limited in whether they can access presumptive rights. Again this is just not good enough. It is certainly not what the now Minister for Education and Deputy Premier promised. He promised we would see decent presumptive rights legislation within 100 days of an election. We are well after the 100 days. This is not decent and this is not fair, and this is why I oppose this bill.

 Mr HALSE (Ringwood) (12:18): I rise to speak to the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019, and I am delighted to be doing so. This bill is long overdue. We made a commitment to reform our fire services at the last election. It was a clear promise and one made to ensure that our career and volunteer firefighters are supported in keeping our communities safe. Now we are delivering on this promise. Let us be clear: our firefighters are the best in the world, and every Victorian deserves a modern, 21st-century fire service that is best equipped to keep our communities safe.

To start, let me first thank the brave firefighters in my local fire station in the district of Ringwood. I thank them for the work that they do on a daily basis. The reality is, however, that our state’s fire services are operating under a system that has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s, as many of my colleagues have noted. As our state grows and changes, it is our duty as parliamentarians to make sure that our legislative framework changes to best reflect our state and our society.

We all know that this legislation should have been enacted some time ago. The tactics used by those opposite in this chamber on Good Friday will never be forgotten. I say that not simply as a member but as an individual who has been a Victorian political historian. I will remember that day as an observer and what a disgrace it was.

I am honoured to be supporting this bill following the words of the member for Frankston. He knows from experience the challenges that our courageous firefighters confront every single day. I thank him for his courage and service and commend him on the excellent speech he delivered here a few moments ago. I also note the contribution and service of the member for Buninyong.

I would like to acknowledge my brother-in-law, a leading firefighter at Bundoora station. I also speak in memory of my brother-in-law’s father, Damien Burke, a former senior station officer with both the MFB and the CFA who tragically passed away just a few years ago while still serving.

This bill does a range of important things: it legislates a presumption of occupational cancer for all firefighters, it modernises Victoria’s fire service, it establishes a body to review fire standards and service delivery and it establishes a professional Firefighters Registration Board. All aspects of this bill are important, but I would like to touch upon a few key areas in the next few moments. The first is how this legislation will make it easier for career and volunteer firefighters to claim compensation when they are suffering, or will suffer, from specified forms of cancer. As far as I am concerned the health and safety of our firefighters is not up for negotiation. When someone’s job is to run into burning buildings or to push back fires from properties across our state, then they deserve to know that their government has their back. They deserve to know that if they suffer injury or illness in the course of their duties they will be fairly compensated and will not face unnecessary burdens to prove that a lifetime of breathing in smoke or toxic fumes has caused their cancer.

We are making good on a promise to our firefighters. This reform means that eligible firefighters claiming compensation for specific cancers will not need to jump through unnecessary hoops to prove a direct link to their cancer. The default will be to presume that those cancers were caused by their firefighting and that they are entitled to compensation. We will accept the scientific evidence. This is the only right and responsible thing to do.

This bill is also about modernisation. It addresses the concerns of people living in the growing outer suburbs of Melbourne and in rapidly growing regional cities, who need and deserve a modern, 21st-century fire service that protects their homes and their loved ones in an emergency. Make no mistake: volunteer firefighters are brave, dedicated and hardworking. They volunteer their time to help others, and they deserve to be recognised and valued for their important contributions to our state, their communities and our society. This bill is about making sure that the way we utilise our career and volunteer firefighters within our fire service is appropriate. It is about how we best look after firefighters like my brother-in-law, who is serving today.

Victorians need a fire service that reflects the times that we live in and that is able to respond effectively to growing demands in growing suburbs and towns. The new Fire Rescue Victoria model will have clear accountability structures that will meet this growing demand. Under this new model integrated stations will transition to FRV but volunteer firefighters will be able to retain their equipment and vehicles. In addition $100 million is being invested into the CFA to ensure that those brigades have the support they need to keep us safe into the future. It also restores the CFA in stations in regional and rural areas to its roots as a community-based organisation made up of dedicated and brave volunteers. It ensures that these volunteers are supported in their activities, with clear organisational and operational objectives and paid support staff.

Finally, we need to talk about the elephant in the room, and that is climate change. Given the scale and scope of our recent bushfires we need to acknowledge the role that climate change will play in our state and its particular vulnerability to fire. We have seen that devastatingly in recent years. As previous members have pointed out, nine of the warmest 10 years on record here in Victoria have occurred since 2005. This greatly increases the risk of catastrophic fires, and it means that these reforms are imperative to ensure our ability to reduce damage at the most critical of moments. As any firefighter will tell you, any disruption, any deviation, any delay—even for a second—can mean the difference between restoration and ruin, between damage and destruction and, at worst, between life and death. We need to learn from their example. We need to learn from the experience of people like the member for Frankston. We need to stop wasting time in this place with this bill, and we need to pass it now. I commend the minister for her work on this bill, and I commend it to the house.

 Mr TILLEY (Benambra) (12:27): I rise to speak on the government’s rehashed and reintroduced Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019. From the get-go I make absolutely no apologies that I oppose the bill. My opposition is not only for personal reasons and certainly along those opposition and coalition party lines; it is also backed by a strong collective of voices—the army of volunteers that are part of the 61 fire brigades in the CFA region within the Benambra district.

I just go back to just last week and one of the most senior ministers in this Labor government. I draw you to the Treasurer’s speech. He said:

Speaker, politicians of all persuasions often talk about fairness.

Few back it up with anything of substance.

But for us—

I am talking about the current government, the Labor government—

fairness guides everything we do.

Well, you cannot try and hoodwink the vast majority of Victoria and try and pull this one over our eyes. There are 61 brigades in the Benambra district. These are the people that this government, the government that has brought this legislation to this Parliament, will need to answer to not only today but into the future.

Let me be very clear—we hear that ad nauseam from all sides of this house—that we are not opposed to change. Everybody needs to be an agent for change. But the change that is detailed in this bill and will no doubt become enshrined in legislation in the state of Victoria will be a significant and sad indictment. We can banter on all day—he said, she said—about transparency and about those issues, but the bottom line is confidence. The CFA and its volunteers—that army of volunteers—have given service for many years and decades. In fact some have been quite generational throughout the state of Victoria, certainly through many of the brigades that are within the Benambra region 24 district.

It is the same army of volunteers who put their lives on the line each and every fire season. It is the same army of volunteers who have kept people, homes, villages, towns and cities safe since the CFA was first formed in 1945. It is the same army of volunteers who turn out to do training each and every week, 52 weeks of the year. It is the same army of volunteers who maintain the brigade’s tankers, pumpers, slip-ons, big fills, quick fills and other equipment the brigade may have on station. They fundraise to enhance and increase the capacity within their own brigades while keeping that stuff maintained. And if you drive around Victoria on Sunday mornings you will see those volunteers turn out—in all faith a large majority of them will turn out—for maintenance on those Sunday mornings. They are ready to be called to duty, and at the same time they continue to maintain that equipment with the aim of protecting life and property in the state of Victoria.

It is also that same army who battle away massive wildfires in the High Country. We cannot talk about the whole history of the CFA in the small time I have to make a contribution, but it did so most recently in 2003, 2006 and 2009. It is the same army of volunteers who battle grassfires on the plains and provide strike teams for fires on the outskirts of Melbourne—again in Gippsland just a few months ago and even locally in December in 2016. If it was not for the mobilisation of this army locally in the Benambra district, we may have lost the township of Yackandandah. We thank our brothers in arms across the border from New South Wales.

But the same army of volunteers are fearful about the CFA’s future. These are people that love the CFA, love that organisation and are committed to giving their service. Their membership is passed down, as I said, generationally, from father to son, from mother to daughter regardless. Call it a tradition, call it a badge of honour, but for them and for me the CFA is an extended family.

Many see this bill as the end of an era. They fear their autonomy will now be subservient to the demands of a heavily unionised fire service, and the eleventh hour tabling of this legislation offers credibility to that fear. Now, what I am doing in this contribution is taking the opportunity to collectively put together a montage of direct quotes from quite a number. I will not be detailing their names, because they have been intimidated over the last couple of years by a number of people. As I said, we are not going into names and pack drills, but they were quite open and frank to be able to talk to me.

There are a couple of people that are happy to be identified. This is a quote from one such volunteer:

‘Let’s be totally honest … the only reason we have this legislation is to get around an industrial dispute.

A CFA volunteer who has held down any number for senior roles said that to me last week.

Another quote:

How is this going to work with paid FRV staff seconded back to the CFA—who is their master, who do they answer to?

This is a volunteer of more than 30 years that said that.

In another quote:

No one is arguing that there needed to be change—

I agree with that sentiment—

but is this the best way forward?

He said that there was no evidence to support claims that the legislation will benefit urban growth areas.

Another quote:

But there is so many unknowns when it comes to how the services would work together and the role of volunteers in this model.

Now, these volunteers believe that firefighting resources will be channelled almost entirely through the newly established Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV), leaving the volunteer brigades to fight for the few measly crumbs that fall from the table.

I will name one of those people and get him into the history of this Parliament—in Hansard. He is Howard Smith, who is a Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria delegate with decades of CFA experience. He believes the real impact of this legislation will not be felt next week or even next year. And we know that this bill, before it becomes legislation, will not be introduced until next year anyway, after the next fire season. Howard—a great fellow, a great contributor—fears that five years down the track the CFA will be a shadow of its former self. He said:

I’m a firm believer that the integrated station model wasn’t broken in the first place.

But what they are doing here is creating an ‘us and them’.

What I fear will happen is that the volunteers at these stations will be reduced to minor roles and in time they will drift away.

I also fear for those brigades on the outskirts of the cities that have a paid firefighters station.

Those peri-urban stations will increasingly have little to do and in time will wither and die on the vine.

The fallout from the past upheaval has already seen 6000 volunteers lost to the CFA in the past 18 months—how many more have to leave before the government recognises how this is damaging our volunteer brigades.

Back in 2017 we had the Fire Services Bill Select Committee take evidence from then CFA chief officer Steve Warrington, and he said:

There are still people that are absolutely disappointed that there was not consultation.

We know this—that there has been no consultation—because this was only introduced last sitting week and second-read this week, with an intention to go to the guillotine by Thursday this week. It is just lucky that I have had the foresight and the connection with the CFA in my district and electorate that I have been able to get some more feedback, not knowing what the detail of this bill is. In a number of submissions—and I do not want to miss any of these in the small amount of time that I have left—my worry is that there has not been the transparency. We have got a history—a litany—where we have had a minister shown the door, we have had a CFA board sacked and we have had a number of incidents of intimidation and threats.

But all in all there is the other side of the argument. There are those volunteers in the electorate that look forward to a bright future, and I will put that on the record. They are not absolutely convinced, but they look forward to the future of the CFA. They do not look forward to having to kowtow to an industrialised firefighting organisation, but they do look forward to the future, and I thank those people in our district for stumping up and having the courage to give me their side, their version, as well.

And to the Country Fire Authority: thank you for your service that you have given us over those years. Let us hope for the future, but it is on your head. It is on all of your heads here today, those that have turned around and will force this bill through this place, into the other place and into the future. On that note I would like to ask for an extension of time, but I will not get it, so we will not waste any more time. Heaven help you for the future of the Country Fire Authority.

 Mr McGHIE (Melton) (12:37): I rise to offer my support for the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019. The Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019 will fulfil commitments made by the Victorian government in the 2018 election platform. It will legislate a presumption of occupational cancer for all firefighters, will continue to work towards the modernisation of Victoria’s fire services and will establish a body to review fire standards and fire service delivery. It also establishes a professional Firefighters Registration Board.

The key reforms in the bill are the introduction of presumptive rights to compensation for firefighters who have one of 12 cancers, have served for the requisite number of years and meet the other qualifying requirements; the establishment of Fire Services Victoria, which will replace the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, and the FRV will be headed by a fire rescue commissioner; the establishment of a strategic advisory panel, which will provide strategic advice to the fire rescue commissioner; the establishment of a new FRV fire district, which will replace the metropolitan fire district and redraw the boundaries of the district to include growth areas in Melbourne as well as major regional centres; the establishment of a new Fire District Review Panel, which will be responsible for reviewing and advising on future changes to the district; the transfer of CFA career firefighters, instructors and practical area drill operators to the FRV; the establishment of a process for secondment agreements, so that key operational staff can be seconded from the FRV to the CFA to meet the CFA’s statutory and operational requirements—and secondments between agencies have gone on for years and have been successful, and those agencies that people have been seconded to have been the responsible power; the establishment of a Firefighters Registration Board to assess and register FRV employees who are seconded to the CFA; and the establishment of an implementation monitor responsible for monitoring the implementation of the reforms over a 10-year period.

The reasons for the proposed changes are simple. As Victoria changes and grows, the state’s fire services also need to change and grow. We need to reform our fire services arrangements, which were conceived a very long time ago. We are in the midst of transformational societal change, with population growth in our cities and urban corridors. We are experiencing greater intensity and severity of extreme weather events due to changes in climate, which create exposures that place more people at risk. Firefighters are responding to more dynamic challenges than ever before. It is clear that as Victoria changes rapidly, so too must these arrangements that underpin our community safety and wellbeing. Our fire services need modernised governance and organisational arrangements that meet the demands of 21st-century Victoria.

As the former secretary of the Ambulance Employees Australia union, employees and employee conditions were first and foremost in any negotiation and consideration. If this bill is adopted, there will be no loss of jobs. In 2008, the ambulance services were merged to form Ambulance Victoria due to population growth, increased caseloads and response time performance, and over the last 11 years we have witnessed significant improvement in the delivery of our ambulance services. This is what this bill is all about for fire services—it is about delivering better fire services.

In regard to the volunteer firefighters in the new FRV areas, they will continue to play a central role in the day-to-day provision of fire prevention and suppression activities in the former 38 integrated fire station areas, which are now included in the FRV fire district. The bill provides a new section that acknowledges it is the intention of Parliament to recognise and value the contribution of volunteer brigades located in the FRV fire district. The bill also provides that FRV must, subject to operational requirements, request the assistance of all volunteer brigades located in the FRV fire district to protect life or property, or prevent or suppress a fire in the FRV fire district.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Ward): Order! If the member for Rowville and the Minister for Police and Emergency Services would like to have a conversation, they are welcome to do so outside of the chamber, but I am—

Mr Wells interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Ward): Member for Rowville! I am trying to hear the member for Melton. If you would like to discuss this, please do so outside the chamber.

Mr McGHIE: Thank you, Acting Speaker. Some people may ask, ‘How do these changes affect fire trucks attending an emergency on my property?’. Again, the answer is simple: the work of career and volunteer firefighters will continue on the ground to ensure community safety, as it always has done. Operationally, there will be no change to control agency arrangements under Victoria’s successful emergency management framework. FRV, CFA and all of Victoria’s emergency services will work together to respond to emergencies, as they have already previously done. The changes in the fire services statement will ensure that Victorians receive a world-class fire service no matter where they live.

The bill amends the Country Fire Authority Act 1958 to insert an additional objective for the CFA to support the effective and sustainable recruitment, development and retention of volunteer officers and members to deliver capability in the provision of the authority’s services; recognise the CFA as a fully volunteer firefighting and community-based service under the command and control of a paid chief officer and supported where necessary by other paid staff; support the co-location of CFA volunteer brigades in the new FRV fire district through provisions allowing certain functions to be performed and exercised by certain CFA officers within that district; and maintain operational and management support to CFA in the context of planned secondments of FRV officers to CFA, preserving the chief officer’s chain of command.

Now I would like to focus on volunteers specifically. Volunteers at the CFA’s 1220 volunteer brigades—

Mr Wells: With respect to the member for Melton, I do not believe there is a quorum.

Quorum formed.

Mr McGHIE: Volunteers at the CFA’s 1220 volunteer brigades will continue to serve their local communities and provide vital day-to-day services and surge capacity in the same way as they do now. The legislation further enshrines the role of volunteers in the organisation through supporting co-location of CFA volunteer brigades in the new FRV fire district through provisions allowing certain functions to be performed and exercised by certain CFA officers within the district.

In the last term we invested heavily to support our volunteer firefighters by investing $11.6 million for volunteer training and capability, such as ICT upgrades, including $11 million for upgrades to CFA infrastructure across regional and rural Victoria; a $10 million grants program—and my local Bacchus Marsh station has received some of this money for equipment and facilities upgrades; $2 million for volunteer recruitment and retention, with an emphasis on diversity; and also $2.5 million for diversity and culture change.

I would now like to turn my attention to the other proposed significant change in this bill, which is the presumptive rights compensation scheme. Under the presumptive rights compensation scheme a firefighter claiming compensation for certain cancers does not have to prove that firefighting is the cause of their cancer. Instead it will be presumed that they contracted cancer because of their firefighting service and that they therefore have an entitlement to compensation under the WorkSafe scheme. However, the authority administering the scheme—WorkSafe Victoria—will be able to challenge a presumptive entitlement claim where there is proof that the cancer was not caused by firefighting. The presumptive rights compensation scheme will cover all Victorian career firefighters employed by FRV or its predecessor organisation, the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, or the Country Fire Authority. The scheme will also cover volunteer firefighters engaged in the CFA.

Again, as the past secretary of the ambulance union I know the difficulty for injured emergency workers in navigating the WorkCover system. In ambulance, it was trying to prove that your work contributed to your mental health injury. For firefighters, it is about cancer being caused by your work and the attendance at dangerous fire scenes. I have seen injured workers having to battle through 12 months of rejection of claims, conciliation processes, possible medical panels and maybe even court cases before their claims were accepted. While all this is happening they are still dealing with the injury or disease they have contracted.

Another aspect of the bill that is beneficial to our firefighters is that if a firefighter who had an injury on or after 1 June 2016 lodged a claim under the WorkSafe scheme or the volunteer compensation scheme and that claim has been rejected, that firefighter may be able to re-lodge their claim and have it considered under the presumption. The presumptive rights scheme will reverse the onus of proof away from the career or volunteer firefighter if a firefighter meets the relevant qualifying requirements.

This bill is about better health and wellbeing for firefighters. The firefighters in my electorate in Melton and Bacchus Marsh do a fantastic job of keeping our community safe. I want to thank all our firefighters across the state for keeping us safe, and I offer the bill— (Time expired)

 Mr WELLS (Rowville) (12:47): I rise to join the debate on the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019. This is a bill designed to stuff the CFA and stuff the CFA volunteers, and there is nothing more, nothing less that can be said about what is being designed. It is all about political payback for the United Firefighters Union (UFU).

Let me say at the outset that the member for Gembrook, who set out very clearly the reasons why this bill should not go ahead, has moved a reasoned amendment, which I support. What it does is to very clearly separate out the presumptive rights for the firefighters and the reforms, or so-called reforms, for the fire services. The presumptive rights is an important part, and we strongly support it; we strongly support the presumptive rights compensation.

I am fortunate to have grown up in Bairnsdale, in a country town where you had to rely on everyone else to be able to get things done, whether it was a drought, a flood or a fire. When the fire bell rang my dad was one of those guys who got on the back of that fire truck and went out for days and fought those fires. Today, we have a more modern system, and we rely on people to come up from the city to be able to backfill all the way along.

The member for Benambra is a prime example—a member of the Wodonga West fire station. When the fires at Bunyip took hold they needed as much backup as they possibly could get, and brave firefighters like the member for Benambra went up—for about a week, mind you—leaving behind family and everyone else to fight those fires. But not only that, not only did Wodonga West go and fight, the brave firefighters, the volunteers, from Scoresby, Bayswater, Boronia and Rowville went up to fight those fires in busloads. Day after day after day those brave firefighters—men and women—went up to fight in the Bunyip State Park, sleeping on the footy ground, waiting for the meals to come before going back out onto the fireground, and they did it. It is what is called surge capacity, and the Andrews government does not get it. They do not get the issue of surge capacity.

When Bunyip is alight, where are we going to get all these firefighters to go and fight the fires in Bunyip? They will not be around. We have had an exchange with the Minister for Police and Emergency Services because I have said that the fire stations at Scoresby and at Bayswater are going to be shafted and they will be shut. They will be shut. And the minister has given me some assurance to say that will not be the case, but let me tell you how the UFU works. The UFU does not work that way. What they will do is make sure that the firefighters, the volunteers at Bayswater and Scoresby, never get a call-out. They will never, ever get a call-out, and as a result the firefighters will leave in droves.

Ms Neville interjected.

Mr WELLS: The minister has said that I am wrong, and she is saying it is in the legislation. The UFU does not listen to the legislation. They never have. Look at the integrated station at Rowville. The member for Frankston will know this: at integrated stations, if it was a true integrated station the volunteer would travel in the same truck as the career firefighter—and that never happens. Do you know why? Because the UFU will not allow it. They will not even allow the volunteers to go into certain parts of the fire station. Can you believe it? So you are saying that it is an integrated model, where ‘integrated’ to me and to the member for Benambra means that you would share resources and that you would work as a team. It does not happen. The UFU will not allow it.

I am amused by the note that went out. Every UFU member got a text message from the UFU:

Important notice to UFU members: The Firefighters Presumptive Rights Compensation & Fire Services Legislation Amendment Bill will be introduced in the Lower House today. The UFU understands that this morning Lisa Neville, Minister for Police & Emergency Services, will hold a press conference. Link to livestream of the Lower House today …

Do not worry about telling Parliament. Do not worry about briefing the opposition: ‘Oh, no, we’re not going to brief the opposition, but we’re going to make sure that every UFU member gets a text message so they can be fully up-to-date’. And the audacity—the absolute audacity—of the minister and her office to say to our spokesman, the member for Gembrook, ‘You can have a briefing on this at 3 o’clock on Tuesday’. So the opposition spokesman—

Ms Neville interjected.

Mr WELLS: Now, just a moment. I was standing next to the opposition spokesman when he said to me, ‘They offered 3 o’clock’. So they said, ‘Look, we’re going to be busy’. And as it turned out, he was in a division here arguing about the government business program, so how could you have possibly offered him a briefing on the fire services bill at 3 o’clock? There were no other options. So the opposition spokesman said, ‘Well, can we make it Friday?’; ‘Oh, no, we can’t make it Friday’; ‘Well, can we make it next week?’; ‘We’re going to ram this through’. So what sort of consultation can happen? And let me tell you why consultation is happening. The member for Bayswater and the member for Ringwood are brand-new members. They have to go and face, eyeball, their CFA volunteers—go out to their CFA volunteers and face them.

Mr Taylor interjected.

Mr WELLS: And the member for Bayswater has got to say to them, ‘I’m here to tell you that you’re no longer wanted and you’re going to be shafted by the Andrews government, so when there’s a great big fire down at Bunyip or at Rosedale or a peat fire down at Camperdown, you’re not going to be wanted’. And the member for Bayswater needs two weeks to be able to get down to his fire stations and tell them, ‘Look, we’ve built a brand-new fire station, but we’re going to shaft you because the UFU is going to take complete and utter control of the CFA’. It is an absolute disgrace.

Members interjecting.

Mr WELLS: There are lots of things that we could say about the member for Burwood, about what happened at question time today, so I would not be going too far about that. No, no. There is more to come.

A member interjected.

Mr WELLS: And you are an expert at that, aren’t you?

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Ward): Order! I would ask members to please not debate each other across the table, but I would ask the member to come back to the bill.

Mr WELLS: All CFA volunteers received a CO update from the acting chief officer, who is Gavin Freeman. He is working in that position at the moment. He said, as the minister would back up and say, with all these flowery, fluffy words:

statutory recognition of the role of volunteer brigades located in the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district and that FRV request the assistance of all volunteer brigades

And they expect us to believe it. ‘It is going to be in legislation’, we keep on being told. The UFU do not listen to legislation. They do not listen to regulations. No, not one little bit. And when we get to how all this started, remember the former Minister for Emergency Services, the member for Monbulk, went out to the hills, out to the Dandenongs, to talk to his local volunteers, and we thought, ‘Well, this is a positive step’.

What he said was that we would have presumptive rights legislation within 100 days of an Andrews government. He also went and told every single one of those brave volunteers, ‘There will be no changes to the way the operations of the CFA volunteers work’. That is what he said. They brought in the legislation and of course what he did was he—I have to use this word—misled every one of those volunteers up in the hills. Can you imagine when the Dandenong’s catch fire? We need every single firefighter in the outer east and the eastern suburbs to be able to get up there. And whether it be the brave volunteers or the MFB or the career CFA firefighters, they all need to be on deck. But to turn your back on the thousands of CFA volunteers who train every Tuesday night and every Sunday morning to make sure their skills are up-to-date and say to them, ‘You are not wanted’—let me tell you, the Andrews government will rue the day that this has taken place. We need those brave volunteers for surge capacity, for the next Black Saturday or Ash Wednesday.

 Mr MAAS (Narre Warren South) (12:57): In what remaining time we have before the lunch break it gives me great pleasure to speak in favour of the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019. We made a commitment, a very strong commitment, at the last election to reform our fire services and ensure our career and volunteer firefighters are supported in keeping the community safe. Victoria’s firefighters face dangers each day that many of us just cannot comprehend. As our population grows we are making sure that they and the Victorian community have the modern fire service they rightly deserve. Our firefighters currently operate under systems and structures that have not changed since the 1950s—they are so antiquated—and it is clear that these services need to be modernised.

This legislation, as we all know, should already be law but for dishonest tactics that were used by those on the other side of the house to block it in the 58th Parliament. This bill is being reintroduced with minor variations around operative provisions, and so now we are righting this wrong. There are of course four overall objectives of the bill. These will be fulfilled while upholding the commitments made by the Victorian government as part of its 2018 election platform. This bill will, firstly, legislate presumptive rights of occupational cancer for all firefighters. It will continue to work towards the modernisation of Victoria’s fire services. It will establish a body to review fire standards and fire service delivery. It will establish a professional Firefighters Registration Board. About the board, can I just say it will be a registration board that will be all about compliance. It will not be about knocking out CFA firefighters and former CFA firefighters from being registered.

In terms of presumptive rights, the Andrews Labor government made this commitment before the 2014 election to introduce presumptive rights legislation for firefighters who have contracted cancer. It re-endorsed the commitment in 2018.

Sitting suspended 1.00 p.m. until 2.02 p.m.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.