Mr Brown said local CFA volunteers had no reason to fear the legislation as the impact in District 12 and across the state would be minimal.
‘‘Volunteers will not be treated as second class citizens as has been suggested by some,’’ he said.
‘‘Our local volunteers and volunteers across the state will have funding for equipment, training and maintenance as they do now.’’
‘‘Boundary alignment locally will remain the same as we don’t have any areas in District 12 on the border between the proposed FRV boundary and existing CFA boundary.
‘‘I and many others in District 12 spent decades as volunteers before becoming paid staff. We would not sit back and watch if we thought this legislation would hurt volunteers.’’
But many remain sceptical of the reforms with State Member for Euroa Steph Ryan pointing out some clauses in the bills EBA meant the UFU would have right of veto over management decisions.
‘‘That was one of the key catalysts that caused all the resignations or sackings of previous CFA board members who refused to bow to the governments pressure to sign that EBA,’’ she said.
Labor only needed the support of three of the 11 upper house crossbenchers but wrangled four, enabling the bill to pass on Thursday night.
After more than three years of bitter conflict, the bill is now set to overhaul the states fire services, stripping the CFA of its paid staff who train and support volunteers and merging it with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) to form a new service, Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV).
While many staff will then be seconded back to the CFA, they will be bound by a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) handing the United Firefighters Union (UFU) control of resources and recruitment.
The bill will also allow the UFU to dominate a new Firefighters Registration Board which accredits anyone wishing to work for FRV, including those seconded to the CFA.
Finally, it promises presumptive rights to cancer compensation for career and volunteer firefighters, legislation Victorian firefighters have long battled for.
While the bill has been bitterly opposed by the Coalition, the government said it would modernise Victorian emergency services and ‘‘enshrine’’ the CFA as a truly community-based volunteer organisation.
‘‘Our firefighters currently operate under systems and structures that have not changed since the 1950s, and its clear these services need to be modernised,’’ Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said.
‘‘Our 1220 volunteer CFA brigades will be untouched, continuing to serve their communities day-to-day.’’
