The United Firefighters Union has accused the Coalition of “exploiting Victoria’s firefighters to raise money for their own election campaign”, releasing a television advertisement attacking the campaign against the Country Fire Authority deal as Liberal propaganda.
The union has also put pressure on the CFA chief fire officer, Joe Buffone, to endorse an Andrews government website in support of the contentious industrial agreement, despite Buffone and other senior CFA managers, including the ousted chief executive, Lucinda Nolan, voicing their opposition to the deal.
It comes as the Herald Sun reports that 10,000 CFA volunteers will defy Buffone’s order not to campaign in uniform and descend upon polling booths in the marginal Victorian seats of Corangamite, Dunkley, La Trobe and McEwen on Saturday, urging voters not to support Labor.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, accepted the union-backed industrial agreement this month on the recommendations of the Fair Work Commission but against the recommendations of both the CFA board and the then emergency services minister, Jane Garrett, who were concerned it would undermine the organisation’s 55,000 volunteer firefighters in favour of their 800 paid counterparts.
The board was dismissed and Garrett resigned on 10 June and Nolan resigned a week later, leaving Buffone the most senior person in the organisation when the deal was pushed through.
The Victorian Liberal party has campaigned against the proposed deal for months and launched the “Hands off the CFA” website on April 28, asking people to sign a petition against the deal. The website was authorised by the Liberal state director, Simon Frost, and some who signed the petition were reportedly hit up to donate to the Liberal party.
The United Firefighters Union advertisement, released on Monday, alleged it was “a dummy website to trick people into a Liberal database”.
The union’s secretary, Peter Marshall, said the ad was about setting the facts straight.
“It won’t be about trying to partisan politick,” he told reporters on Monday. “It will be about trying to correct information and give the information to the public about the fact the Liberal party have propagated lies for the purpose of fundraising.”
Marshall said the Liberal party had “at every juncture … been orchestrating this campaign” and was “dividing volunteers and professionals as an election strategy”.
He called on Buffone to “back the state government” and oppose an email by a member of the CFA operations team, which told staff not to use or refer to the Andrews government website titled “Your CFA info”. The email, distributed by the union, said the website “is not an endorsed CFA position and the chief is aware”.
In a statement to Fairfax Media, a spokesman for the new emergency services minister, James Merlino, said the government had confidence in Buffone and the new board and their “ability to finalise the EBA and deliver the cultural change the organisation needs”.
The Coalition has campaigned heavily on the CFA, targeting marginal, rural, and semi-rural electorates like the Geelong seat of Corangamite, where the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, campaigned on Thursday.
Liberal party volunteers have handed out Herald Sun “back the CFA” stickers with how-to-vote cards at pre-poll stations in rural electorates and the Liberal senator Mitch Fifield authorised a pamphlet urging voters to “send Labor a message on July 2” over the CFA deal.
The pamphlet, which does not name the Liberal party as its author, warns Labor wants to “hand over the CFA to standover union bosses”, alleges the deal will “put thousands of lives at risk” and suggests that “Bill Shorten wants to see this happen”.
Under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, the only identifying information needed on an election pamphlet is the name and address of the authorising person.
Pressed on the issue in Melbourne on Monday, the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said that he was “a bit disappointed” the negotiation had stretched on so long but that the CFA deal and Saturday’s general election were “separate matters”.
“I have no doubt that career firefighters and voluntary firefighters and their leaders will sort these issues out,” Shorten said.
