North East MPs have bid a sad farewell to the Country Fire Authority in opposing the Victorian government's legislation to split the paid and volunteer parts of the organisation.
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Speaking after the bill was introduced to Parliament on Wednesday evening, Benambra MP Bill Tilley said CFA membership has been traditionally passed down from parents to their children.
"Call it a tradition, call it a badge of honour, but for them and for me the CFA is an extended family," he said.
"Many see this bill as the end of an era. They fear their autonomy will now be subservient to the demands of a heavily unionised fire service."
Mr Tilley said his view that the CFA should remain as is was backed by the 61 fire brigades within Benambra.
He said he feared for the future of brigades on the outskirts of what will become Fire Rescue Victoria stations.
These will include Wodonga and Wangaratta, and host both paid and volunteer firefighters.
"Those peri-urban stations will increasingly have little to do and in time will wither and die on the vine," Mr Tilley said.
"To the Country Fire Authority, thank you for your service that you have given us over those years."
Euroa MP Steph Ryan said the government had "trashed the volunteer charter" and put community safety at risk.
"There is no clarity on who those volunteers will report to - they might report to the chief fire officer, but there is no clarity on the chain of command between FRV and the CFA in those integrated stations," she said.
"The government says that this bill, that the creation of FRV, does not impact on volunteers and that the CFA is standalone.
"But then we have got clauses in the bill which clearly demonstrate that staff from FRV, who can only be employed if the United Firefighters Union agrees to it, will then be seconded back to the CFA.
"So who gets control over who is employed to FRV?"
The legislation passed the Parliament's lower house on Thursday afternoon, but its future rests with the votes of MPs in the upper house.
The Liberal Democrats, including Woodonga-based Tim Quilty, have declared their opposition to the bill, and Wangaratta-based Derryn Hinch Justice Party MP Tania Maxwell is being lobbied for her vote, but has not publicly declared her position.
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