The recent travails of certain Country Fire Authority stations formed part of a government-led, “targeted campaign to take over parts of the fire services”, the Opposition says.
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In the same week four Eaglehawk CFA volunteer members were suspended after footage emerged of a teenager member being manhandled by a group of men, CFA and Metropolitan Fire Brigade response times were released, which highlighted the troubles of a volunteer-only CFA brigade in Castlemaine.
Castlemaine CFA response times within the eight-minute standard for hazard class two incidents – which include schools, hospitals, and commercial centres – was eight per cent, comfortably the worst in the state.
Shadow emergency services minister Brad Battin said the goal of the state government was to take over specific areas, or brigades, with career firefighters so it can increase the amount of United Firefighters Union members.
“It’s all part of a targeted campaign to take over parts of the fire services,” said Mr Battin, suggesting response times were an overly simplistic measure of assessing the effectiveness of a brigade.
The current reforms before parliament, which plan to split the CFA in two, making the CFA a volunteer-only agency and creating a new agency called Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) for all career firefighters, do nothing to improve response times, Mr Battin said.
Responding to Mr Battin’s comments, emergency services minister James Merlino said the release of response times was an “important step for public accountability because community safety is our first priority”.
"This about giving government and the public a clearer picture of where more investment is needed to ensure the community is safe.
Related: CFA call outs by the numbers
“The variance in response times from eight per cent to 100 per cent is simply not acceptable.
"We know change is needed and while we’re getting on with making that change, all we’re seeing from the Liberal party and their mates in the leadership of the VFBV (Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria) is political point scoring."
CFA district two operations manager Bill Johnstone said Castlemaine’s response times reflected the geography of the area and the makeup of the station.
“It’s a volunteer station and volunteers have jobs,” he said.
“Castlemaine is increasingly becoming a dormitory town, as people commute to work there, so the availability of people to respond is affected.”
On the current reforms before parliament, Mr Johnstone said: “Any reform that improves service delivery is a good thing regardless of whether it’s volunteer or staff.”
Full list of hazard class two response times
