The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has weighed into Victorian state politics while visiting the marginal seat of Corangamite on Thursday, an electorate at the heart of a dispute between the state’s Labor government and Country Fire Authority volunteers.
At a volunteer fire brigade breakfast with the Liberal MP Sarah Henderson, Turnbull said CFA volunteers represented “the very best of the Australian spirit” and accused the state government of trying to “crush” that spirit.
“The idea that your government, your state Labor government, would try to crush that ... And doing the bidding of a militant union, of militant union bosses, it is extraordinary,” he said.
“It’s an assault, not just on safety of Victorians, not just putting at risk the lives and property of Victorians, it’s an assault on what is the very best in our Australian spirit.”
The dispute between the Victorian government, the United Firefighters Union and the CFA has been going for more than 1,000 days.
The CFA believes a deal between the government and the union to give 800 career firefighters a pay rise and require seven paid staff to be dispatched to a fire incident in certain areas is unfair, and risks unionising the CFA and diminishing the role of its volunteers.
The CFA board was sacked by the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, a fortnight ago after refusing to back the deal.
Though a state issue, the ongoing dispute has helped the Coalition’s chances of holding on to key marginal seats in fire-prone Victorian electorates where CFA volunteers are relied upon, including Corangamite and La Trobe.
Turnbull said the federal government would protect the CFA and said the Fair Work Act could be amended to provide protection to volunteers. He called on the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, to do the same.
“There is a very clear, crystal clear choice at this election,” he said. “The only way you can be sure that you will be protected from this union takeover is to return the Coalition, my government, on July 2.”
But the federal Labor MP and shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told ABC radio that “federal Liberal candidates have been piling into this issue, spreading disgraceful lies and misinformation about this issue”.
“Dan Andrews has been a very competent premier of Victoria and this is a state government matter,” he said.
His comments were echoed by the Labor senator Penny Wong, who said that while she hoped the dispute would be settled, “Malcolm Turnbull [is] wanting to play politics with what is essentially a state issue.”
Asked about claims that he ordered Andrews to sack the CFA board, Shorten dodged the question and replied that Turnbull was using the issue for “grandstanding”.
“Turnbull wants to use volunteers as political pawns in his pursuit of power,” Shorten said.
“The truth is you look at the solutions. I am interested in solutions to improve the safety of Victorians and solutions which speed up these matters. These are difficult matters, what they don’t need at a state issue is grandstanding from federal political leaders chasing votes.”
It comes as Jack Rush QC, who was was counsel assisting during the 2009 Victorian bushfires royal commission, said the Victorian government deal with the union “undermines the role and independence of volunteers”.
“Apart from a massive decline in the morale of volunteers across the state, the Andrews government legacy will be to seriously weaken the ethos, independence and ultimately the integrity of one of the great volunteer organisations in the history of Victoria,” Rush wrote in an opinion piece for News Corp.
Andrews said Rush was “entitled to his view” but said the dispute had to end.
“This dispute will not be allowed to run into another hot, dangerous, fire season,” he told reporters on Thursday.
The premier said it wasn’t up to the government to decide if the agreement was legal. That was a job for the Fair Work Commission, he added.
The state opposition leader, Matthew Guy, called for calm after he received death threats on his Facebook page. Meanwhile, Fairfax reported that a fight broke out at a newsagency in the outer Melbourne suburb of Diamond Creek on Wednesday morning after a man wearing a firefighters union T-shirt asked for all “Back the CFA” stickers in the shop.
“A lot of people need to calm down and behave sensibly in this whole discussion,” Guy said.
