My daughter was involved in a minor accident in Lavington, fortunately no-one was injured.

The school bus driver for Martin's Bus Lines was magnificent. He stayed with her, comforted her and was able to ensure all the children on the bus were all OK.

His expert driving skills avoided a tragic accident and I cannot speak more highly of his professional driving ability during this accident.

My daughter only recently obtained her licence and Martin's are to be congratulated on employing such professional drivers.

There were so many local business people who came to assist during this time who offered support and assistance to my young daughter that I am overwhelmed.

The tow drivers from Border Auto Body Repairs were exceptional and waited with her until I arrived from out of town. Their care, assistance and advice were invaluable.

I cannot thank the local people enough who took the time to offer assistance. All of us should thank our local businesses for being caring and having a helpful attitude.

I am thankful that we live so close to a caring rural community.

Friday was a day of infamy that will burn into the memory of every CFA volunteer. 

It was the day that that a CFA Board decision, and those board members who voted for it, betrayed volunteers and ignored their responsibility and obligations to the public of Victoria under the CFA Act and Victoria’s most successful emergency management arrangements.

The CFA Board, made up of a majority Andrews Government-UFU ‘yes’ people, accepted the UFU’s Enterprise Bargaining Agreement which will see the powers of the Chief Officer overridden, union interference with volunteer organisation, operations and support, and see volunteers treated as second class just because they are not paid.

The EBA fundamentally alters the nature of CFA organisation, operations and support for volunteers as required by the CFA Act and hands control of key activities within the organisation to the Fitzroy based UFU.

The UFU have made no secret of their objective to replace urban volunteers with paid staff, members of the UFU – just look at their various inquiry submissions including the Black Saturday Bushfire Royal Commission for confirmation.

They would relegate remaining volunteers to second-class status.

Every inquiry and commission has dismissed these submissions and recognised the fundamental importance of the current CFA volunteer arrangements and the need to continually grow our volunteer capacity to keep pace with urbanisation and the growth of bushfire risk because of climate change.

But consideration of these issues was ignored by the majority of the current CFA Board and the Premier and Minister who pushed them to accept the infamous Andrews-Marshall industrial deal. 

We say the Board members who supported this deal have ignored their statutory and fiduciary obligations under the CFA Act and Commonwealth corporate law. They must be held accountable for this failure.

After recent sackings and resignations there is only the state’s 60,000 volunteers through their association – VFBV – to stand up for the real CFA and effective public safety services for Victorians.

We have instructed our legal team to take further action immediately to defend the CFA as an effective volunteer based fully integrated fire and emergency service. 

Our legal action is unprecedented for volunteers, or in the emergency services – but the consultation process with the CFA has been a sham and our careful analysis ignored.

We now have no other choice if the real CFA is to be defended.