Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in strident, vociferous and unequivocal support of the Fair Work Amendment (Respect for Emergency Services Volunteers) Bill 2016. Firstly, it was an honour to participate in the Senate inquiry into this bill and to meet and to speak to so many of Victoria's very brave firefighters, and, in particular, the selfless and courageous volunteers of the CFA. This legislation honours a coalition commitment to protect the Victorian Country Fire Authority from a hostile takeover by the United Firefighters Union—the UFU. If the federal parliament did not pass this amendment, the CFA's volunteer based model would be severely undermined. This would threaten the safety of communities and erode Australia's great tradition of volunteerism and community spirit.

The CFA—with 60,000 volunteers, including around 35,000 operational firefighters—is one of the world's largest volunteer based emergency services organisations. It protects people and property in one of the world's most fire-prone regions. The CFA volunteers are community minded, they are dedicated, they are selfless and they are courageous. The CFA is a very proud organisation whose members, under the CFA banner or the banners of its predecessor organisations, have protected the people of Victoria for more than 100 years. In its current form, the CFA was founded in 1945 after the royal commission into the horrific 1939 Black Friday bushfires, which found that the bush fire brigades, the country fire brigades, and the Forests Commission could all be combined to more effectively protect the people of Victoria. Since that time, the CFA has grown to over 60,000 members, who respond to emergencies over the entirety of country Victoria and also 60 per cent of suburban Melbourne. All told, the CFA protects around 3.3 million Victorians and around one million homes.

In this protective capacity, the CFA shoulders an incredible burden—outback Victoria is one of the most fire-prone regions on earth, sitting beside only southern California as areas most vulnerable to severe fire damage. In such an environment, disasters are inevitable. In recent years, the most notorious fire to hit Victoria was the 2009 Black Saturday fire, which tore through Marysville, Kinglake, Flowerdale, Strathewen and surrounding areas. In addition to the widespread property damage, the fires struck at the heart of these local communities, as 173 Victorians perished in the flames on this infamous day. Yet it is testament to the quality of the CFA that 19,000 of its members were on hand in both frontline firefighting and community support capacities. Without volunteers, such a number of firefighters could never have been gathered together to protect Victorians and their homes. If I may quote the royal commission into the Black Saturday fires: 'The commission particularly recognises the contribution of volunteers and their families. The strength of the CFA volunteer base was evident on the 7th of February. The commission heard of volunteers preparing for the day, warning local residents and assisting with the confronting task of locating and identifying the dead. Countless more volunteers took up support roles.' These are grim, yet very inspiring, words revealing the dedication and sacrifice of the CFA volunteers in Victoria. My brother-in-law was one of them and he was deeply affected by that day.

Volunteers are fundamental to Victorian firefighting because only they can meet the surges in demand that big fires such as Black Saturday cause. Before I proceed, please let me be clear: paid firefighters are trained, qualified and dedicated to their tasks, and we respect them all. But I quote the Volunteer Firefighter Brigades Victoria submission to the Senate inquiry: 'It is essentially the sheer number of available trained and experienced volunteers upon which Victoria relies to deal with major emergency events. Forty to 50 per cent of firefighters at critical events are volunteers.' I do not know how Senator Cameron can stand in this chamber and say that firefighting operations will not be compromised, when such a mass of volunteers are relied upon to fight fires. They are the very volunteers who would be subordinated to union control, and demeaned and insulted, under the proposed UFU deal. Put simply, without the volunteer base the firefighting capacity in my home state would be crippled, and that is something that I simply cannot countenance. For these reasons I am very proud to stand and support the bill put forth by Minister Cash and the Turnbull government.

This week the Victorian government—this weak, entirely beholden Andrews government—is seeking to hand control of the CFA's volunteers to the United Firefighters Union. At the behest of the UFU, Premier Andrews is pressuring the CFA into submission over a new enterprise agreement. This agreement would undermine volunteers and the CFA's operation. For example, it would mean that a paid firefighter can only report to another paid firefighter, except in the case of level 3 incidents, which are around one per cent of annual incidents. This would sideline our volunteers and provide a potential dual command structure which is intolerable in an emergency situation. That is set out in clause 35.4.

Clause 41.1 says union agreement is required before the CFA can make a change to policy. This stifles the ability of the CFA to adapt to any prescient needs. Clause 77.5 says seven paid firefighters need to be dispatched before other firefighters can commence fighting, meaning that volunteers can be left to face fires alone for a period without instruction, without direction and without an understanding of the command structure, and despite the sudden and swift nature of fire emergencies. Union agreement is also required on what uniforms will be worn by volunteers, and paid firefighters must have uniforms that are visually distinguishable from those of volunteers, diminishing the equal value and significance of volunteer firefighters. That is in clause 20. And clause 21 says that union agreement is required for workplace changes by the CFA, including in matters that could impact on the use of volunteers, such as their terms and conditions of employment. This change effectively hands control of volunteer management to the United Firefighters Union. The union disingenuously suggests that a clause in the agreement stating that the role of volunteers is not altered by this agreement means that volunteers will be no worse off. That is a complete misrepresentation. A specific clause in an agreement overrides a general motherhood statement like this, so the many specific clauses that sideline volunteers, such as those I have already mentioned, will still apply.

So much damage has already been done in this debate. Such is the concern about the impact of the proposed agreement on the CFA that Victorian Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett has already resigned in protest. The CFA chief executive officer, Lucinda Nolan, and the chief fire officer also resigned in protest. I quote the former CFA chief executive officer, Lucinda Nolan, regarding the EBA: 'This agreement was not going to make the organisation a better place. It is destructive and it is divisive. I could not stay and oversee the destruction of the CFA. I think that this has the potential to negatively impact the organisation, community safety, our volunteers and our volunteer contribution.' That was Ms Nolan's evidence to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry last month. She also said that she was given a clear alternative: sign the EBA or leave the organisation. 'Obviously, I chose the latter,' she said.

The extent of bullying in this debate has been an embarrassment both to the UFU and to the Victorian government. A number of CFA volunteers have resigned and many more are threatening to do so. The CFA board who staunchly opposed the EBA were sacked by the Andrews government, and then a new hand-picked board was appointed in an effort to force the CFA into submission. The CFA board stated before they were sacked:

We have serious concerns many of these proposed clauses are unlawful and we have legal advice that indicates CFA would be in breach of its statutory obligations.

They also said:

Many of these clauses have no place in modern day workplaces and are out of step with today’s society.

Advice from the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is that some clauses do not comply with the Equal Opportunities Act and would be unlawful.

In the words of the CFA itself:

The proposed EBA undermines volunteers, our culture, allows the UFU operational and management control of CFA.

Senator Cameron unsurprisingly argues that this bill is political opportunism. What extraordinary hypocrisy! The opposite is true. The EBA is a product of an opportunistic, militant union taking advantage of a weak state government that is beholden to unions for their election. In fact, former Labor Minister for Police and Emergency Services during the Bracks government, Mr Andre Haermeyer, said:

The UFU … attitude to volunteers has often been dismissive. Many of its demands in its current dispute with the CFA are Trojan Horses that would sideline CFA volunteers and undermine their interests, with little or no real benefit for the paid firefighters the UFU represents.

Mr Haermeyer went on to say:

It would also undermine the operational authority of the CFA’s chief officer and operational commanders as well as compromise the fiduciary responsibilities of the CFA’s board under the Country Fire Authority Act. Full-time paid firefighters deserve to have their safety and interests protected, but so do volunteers.

This is a Labor minister. He was the one who did not get sacked. He was the one who did not have to resign, unlike Minister Garrett.

The Fair Work Amendments Bill will address the overreach of the EBA simply and comprehensively. The bill will simply add to the definition of objectionable terms in section 12 of the Fair Work Act to prohibit objectionable emergency management terms. Objectionable emergency management terms are terms which would prevent emergency services bodies from being able to properly manage their volunteer operations and terms which are contrary to the relevant state legislation covering those bodies. The Fair Work Commission will no longer be able to approve agreements that contain these terms, and any such terms in existing agreements will be rendered legally ineffective. This will mean that an enterprise agreement can no longer undermine the capacity of emergency services volunteer bodies to properly manage their operations.

This simple amendment will only apply to firefighting and state emergency services in Victoria, the ACT and the Northern Territory because they are covered by the national workplace relations system. The bill will also give volunteer organisations the right to make submissions to the Fair Work Commission about enterprise agreements covering certain emergency services bodies that could affect the volunteers they represent.

I would like to finish up by quoting Andrew Ford, CEO of the Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria. He said in evidence to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry in August this year:

Our issues are not between paid firefighters and volunteers; they are about a broader union control than that industrial interference with CFA decision-making and an EBA that we submit effectively dismantles the legislated nature and operations of the CFA and therefore erodes the capacity of the CFA to manage their operations.

… … …

If the constructive CFA is dismantled, if the respect for volunteers and the roles they do and can and have performed is eroded, and if the provision of support to them to perform their role well is eroded, then volunteers will walk.

That is the message I would like the Senate chamber to take home today. Volunteers will walk. I urge the chamber that if the members here value the spirit of volunteerism, if they reject this Orwellian union takeover of a great Victorian organisation—

Senator Rhiannon interjecting—

Thank you, Snowball. If you value the lives and the property of the people of Victoria, if, Senator Rhiannon, you genuinely value public safety, then you will support the amendments to the Fair Work Act, you will respect our volunteers and their 100 years of courageous service.