Fire Rescue Victoria

Victoria has been serviced by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and Country Fire Authority since the 1950s. Following the Black Saturday bushfires, the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (2009 VBRC) recommended that a Fire Commissioner be appointed to advise on the boundary between the two services, the Metropolitan Fire District.[2] The 2009 VBRC also recommended strengthening the CFA's integrated model, in which paid and volunteer firefighters train, locate and respond together using the same equipment and training.

The origins of the service created significant political controversy.[3] The genesis for the proposal to split paid and volunteer firefighters, creating two separate services where the integrated turnout model would no long apply, was to resolve an industrial dispute arising from Enterprise Bargaining Agreement negotiations between the CFA (and separately the MFB) and the UFU. These negotiations, which started in 2014 and were still causing problems for the government in 2017, raised objections by VFBV, volunteers, the leaders of the fire services themselves and the Minister for Emergency Services at the time, Jane Garrett MP, who resigned rather than support a deal she said was "unworkable". The key objections related to concerns that the EBA would significantly disadvantage CFA volunteers and the ability of the CFA Chief Officer to manage them, and the powers of the Chief Officer. Statements by the CEOs and Chief Officers of the CFA and MFB, Emergency Management Victoria, VFBV and others at the Select Committee into the Bill canvassed serious concerns about the impact of the EBA and said that splitting the fire services to resolve an industrial dispute would compromise public safety.

In October 2016 the Australian Federal government passed amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009. These amendments were to prevent any enterprise bargaining agreement terms that "[affect] the ability of an organisation to engage, deploy, support, equip or manage its volunteers". The Government of Victoria stated that creating an enterprise agreement while maintaining a combined career and volunteer firefighting service would be very difficult without such terms.

Subsequently, on 19 May 2017, Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Emergency Services James Merlino announced changes to the Victorian Fire Services. Neither the Chief Officers, CEOs or Boards of the CFA or MFB were consulted on the development, and neither was the Emergency Management Commissioner. It was publicly released only a day after the fire services themselves were informed and no material changes were made to the proposal before it was passed by Parliament despite significant concerns raised by those parties in public, in the Select Committee and the Parliamentary "Inquiry into Fire Season Readiness".

Following the creation of Fire Rescue Victoria, the Victorian Government will establish the Fire District Review Panel.[4] The panel will regularly review the Metropolitan Fire District and advise the Minister for Emergency Services on any changes to be made. The Minister will have the final decision to change the district boundaries.[5] Currently, the Metropolitan Fire District is established by the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Act 1958. Any change to the district boundaries must either be by amendment to the act or by request of a municipal council. The district boundaries have not changed since the 1950s, although the capability to do this has existed in the CFA legislation, as has the ability to increase resources where needed using a scaling system to increase resources to support volunteers in urban centres. This scaling up has been removed under the reform and the only model allowed in future is either a fully volunteer or a fully career fire station, with no more integrated training and response which was endorsed (and recommended be strengthened) in the VBRC.[6]

The Emergency Services Infrastructure Authority (ESIA) will be established following Fire Rescue Victoria. ESIA will oversee planning, project management, procurement, construction of new fire stations and upgrades to existing stations. It will oversee a $44m station building program for the CFA.

The establishment of ESIA will be subject to consultation with FRV, the CFA, the Victoria State Emergency Service, Life Saving Victoria and unions and other representative bodies.[7]

Part of the change is to transition 38 CFA stations to Fire Rescue Victoria.[8] These stations currently house both career and volunteer firefighters. The career firefighters will become part of Fire Rescue Victoria. The Government and CFA will work with volunteers to identify the best solution for volunteers at each brigade.[9]

FRV Station number allocations are a continuation of the current MFB station numbers. Station 53 and onwards are current staff CFA locations that will transition to FRV as of 1st July 2020

Station Number/Location:

1 Eastern Hill

2 West Melbourne

3 Carlton

4 Brunswick

5 Broadmeadows

6 Pascoe Vale

7 Thomastown

8 Burnley Complex

9 Somerton

10 Richmond

11 Epping

12 Preston

13 Northcote

14 Bundoora

15 Heidelberg

16 Greensborough

17 Woodstock or Donnybrook (Future planning)

18 Hawthorn

19 Balwyn

20 Box Hill

21

22 Ringwood

23 Burwood

24 Glen Iris

25 Oakleigh

26 Croydon

27 Nunawading

28 Vermont South

29 Clayton South

30 Templestowe

31 Glen Waverley

32 Ormond

33 Mentone

34 Highett

35 Windsor

36

37

38 South Melbourne

39 Port Melbourne

40 Laverton

41 St Albans

42 Newport

43 Deer Park

44 Sunshine

45 Spotswood

46 Altona

47 Footscray

48 Taylors Lakes

49 Laverton North

50 Moonee Ponds

51 Keilor (East)

52 Tullamarine

53 Sunbury

54 Greenvale

55 Caroline Springs

56 Melton

57 Tarneit

58 Point Cook

59

60 VEMTC

61 Lara

62 Corio

63 Geelong City

64 Belmont

65 Armstrong Creek (Future planning)

66 Ocean Grove

67 Ballarat City

68 Lucas

69

70 Warrnambool

71 Portland

72 Mildura

73 Bendigo

74 Wangaratta

75 Shepparton

76 Wodonga

77 Traralgon

78 Morwell

79 Latrobe West

80 Craigieburn

81 South Morang

82 Eltham City

83 (Used for Motorola radio network)

84 South Warrandyte

85 Boronia

86 Rowville

87 Dandenong

88 Hallam

89 Springvale

90 Patterson River

91 Frankston

92 Cranbourne

93 Pakenham

94 Mornington

95 Rosebud

96

97 Clyde North (Future planning)

The legislation was presented to the Victorian Upper house just before Easter 2018, and led to a record sitting to allow it to pass, including controversy over pairing of a cross bench member[11] and accusations the Government was using the absence of a sick MP, an independent who was the casting vote on the legislation, to push through a vote in her absence by extending the sitting into Good Friday, which had never happened before. The legislation was defeated on the third reading on Easter Sunday.[12] The bill was a "Disputed Bill" [13] and could be considered after the next election by a committee known as the Dispute Resolution Committee in line with the Constitutional (Parliamentary Reform) Act 2003.[14] The bill was reintroduced 29th May 2019, and passed through both houses 20th June.[15]

The latest MFB EBA has been passed by Fair Work Australia,[16] and is anticipated to be the template for the new FRV EBA.[17] The EBA continues to contain the provisions that concerned its opponents and continues to concern them given FRV staff will transfer their industrial arrangements when seconded to CFA, raising concerns that those provisions will still impact the volunteers. While not mentioned in the 2019/2020 Victorian State Budget,[18] a rise in the Fire Services Levy [19] of 10% is widely anticipated in response to a rise in paid staff numbers, despite a previous government promise the levy would be frozen for two years after implementation. This levy is paid by all landholders and businesses in Victoria, with the country areas not being served by FRV being levied at a higher rate.[20] The State Budget included an efficiency dividend of $1.8B across the public service, and it is unknown what the impact on FRV will be.

• Metropolitan Fire Brigade
• Country Fire Authority
• VFBV

• Fire Services Reform information page at Department of Premier and Cabinet website