A restructure intended to resolve Victoria's bitter fire services dispute was drawn up without consulting "passionate" volunteer firefighters and should be dumped, a committee of upper house members has found.
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The Andrews Government's bill proposing to consolidate all career firefighters in a renamed MFB, and leave the CFA as a volunteer-only organisation, should be withdrawn, or rejected by the Legislative Council, according to the Fire Services Bill Select committee.
The committee's final report, released on Friday following a parliamentary inquiry, has accused the government of failing to consult key parties in forming the restructure.
This undermined confidence in the proposal, "reinforcing the perception of a bias towards the United Firefighters Union", the committee found.
"The restructure proposal was developed quickly, bypassing normal government consultation processes to the extent that neither Emergency Management Victoria, the CFA, nor the MFB were consulted.
"Notably the UFU was consulted multiple times during the development of the bill.
"It is difficult to envisage how proposing a restructure which impacts on 57,000 passionate volunteers without consulting them."
Minister for Emergency Services James Merlino said the reforms would "modernise our fire services, provide more support for volunteers and - most importantly - keep Victorian safe".
"The committee makes a number of recommendations that we will closely consider in coming days."
"I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the inquiry, particularly our firefighters and other emergency services personnel who work every single day to help keep Victorians safe."
United Firefighters Union National Secretary Peter Marshal said: "We are extremely disappointed that the Liberal National Party members of the committee have decided to continue with not dealing with the facts and turned this committee into a political report that does not address the substantive issues regarding community protection."
The government's bill included giving both career and volunteer firefighters compensation for certain cancers - an element the committee said should be reintroduced to parliament as a stand-alone bill.
The majority report was backed by three Coalition MPs and one Shooter and Fishers MP, and was considered a majority after the committee chair Gordon Rich-Phillips, a Liberal, gave his casting vote
A minority report, from the three Labor and one Green committee members, recommended that the Firefighters' Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2017 be passed.
The government's controversial reforms were pitched as a solution to a long-running dispute, which led former emergency services minister Jane Garrett to resign from her role, and the dismissal of the CFA board.
The committee received 1891 written submissions and took oral evidence from 83 witnesses at hearings in Melbourne, Wangaratta, Swan Hill, Traralgon and Hamilton.
