Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Cameron, I am sure you are aware that Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria have prepared a substantial document going through, on a clause-by-clause basis, what they say will be the impact on the CFA of the proposed clauses. So there is that document. I believe it would have been part of the Senate committee's documents. The committee would have already seen that document.

I can take you through some of the clauses that have been raised as being of particular concern to Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria. For example, clause 21 sets out the extensive consensus based consultation process required under the agreement. The clause's operation means that in conjunction with, for example, clause 41 all current CFA policies will be reviewed and only remade through a process where union consensus is required. In terms of evidence given in particular to the recent Senate committee that inquired into the bill, volunteers questioned why the proposed agreement's consultation term gives the union a veto power over changes under the agreement, including policies directly relevant to volunteers.

I will take you through a number of other clauses shortly, but I will just take a step back. The first question one needs to ask is: what is an enterprise agreement and to whom does an enterprise agreement apply? I am sure you would be aware, Senator Cameron, that an enterprise agreement is an agreement that deals with the terms and conditions of the employees to which the enterprise agreement is relevant. Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria have obviously raised concerns about the impact of clauses in the agreement on the volunteers.

I will take you now to clause 44. Clause 44 sets out a minimum staffing level of four paid firefighters on appliances and prohibits cross-crewing of any appliance unless otherwise agreed by the parties. Volunteers have raised the concern that this clause specifically discriminates against them by providing that minimum crewing is undertaken by paid firefighters and that a United Firefighters Union veto can be exercised over cross-crewing arrangements.

In relation to another example of a clause about which concerns have been raised, I will take you to clause 35. Clause 35 of the proposed agreement sets out that all employees covered by the agreement shall only report to operational employees under this agreement at the rank of DCO or CO when responding to fire alarms or incidents under the agreement except in certain circumstances as defined by clause 35. Volunteers have raised concerned that this creates a fundamental change to incident control and management. They believe that transfer of control can affect and disrupt the tempo and effectiveness of the firefight and they believe that they will lose their authority at an incident.

Other clauses which Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria have raised concerns in relation to include: clause 15.1, dealing with brigade support programs; clause 16, dealing with volunteer support programs; clause 60, which mandates peer support will only be drawn from paid firefighters; and something as simple as schedule 20, which will prescribe that volunteer firefighters and paid firefighters wear different items of clothing.

Senator Cameron, they are some of the clauses which have been raised in the evidence given to the Senate committee hearing. As I said, a document was prepared by Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria which did a clause-by-clause analysis of the agreement.