Daylesford’s volunteer firefighters have reported a return of hope among their ranks followings months of low morale surrounding the CFA and unions dispute.
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Captain Alistair Grant said the brigade was grateful for the support of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who last week released plans to abolish EBA provisions by the United Firefighters Union diminishing the role of CFA volunteers.
However, he said the brigade had taken a serious hit to morale in recent months. He also criticised state government moves to ban opposition MPs from attending CFA brigade events.
“We don’t want to be political but we want a fair go,” Mr Grant said.
He said Daylesford’s brigade was more than equipped for major events, citing last December’s large-scale blaze at Daylesford Secondary College and more recently a 12-cylinder gas explosion at Musk Vale.
“The bulk of the people on the fire ground in a fire in Daylesford are volunteers and the forest management firefighters, and people just forget that,” Mr Grant said.
“It’s not as if we’re a second-class firefighting brigade, we’re as good as anybody else.”
Daylesford’s brigade is fully crewed by volunteers, most of whom work full-time and complete about 12 hours of training a month, including sessions every Sunday morning and most Monday nights.
Daylesford member Glenn Webster said volunteers had attended December’s fire at Daylesford Secondary College within minutes.
“Trucks on the fire ground and volunteers fighting to save our school within five minutes of getting out of bed,” he said.
“We respond to all manner of things – children locked in cars, suspected gas leaks, fire alarms going off, structural collapses to name just a few.
“We don’t know why the officials of the United Firefighters Union seem to pay us so little regard.”
Mr Webster said moves by the union and the state government had destabilised relationships between paid and volunteer firefighters.
“We are feeling the full force of the distress caused by a government backflip and the humiliation caused by the officials of the UFU towards us volunteers and the sense of loss from the removal of the leaders we respected and trusted,” he said.
“Unions are there to protect workers and get them a fair deal and that is only right. Our paid fiery colleagues deserve to be paid well and be looked after and that is also only right.
“We want to get back to how it was when we had each other’s back through thick and thin.”
The future of CFA volunteers now hangs in the balance, with the support of Senate crossbenchers needed to pass Mr Turnbull’s bill.
