Ballarat's Professional Firefighters' Half-Mast Effort For CFA Volunteers
Paid firefighters in Ballarat won’t help volunteer firefighters fix a flagpole so they can fly the Australian flag.
The historic Ballarat Fire Brigade in Barkly Street, Ballarat East, has flown the flag for more than 100 years.
The flagpole is in need of simple repair, and requires an elevated platform to reach the heights of the significant heritage tower.
But Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, said the professional firefighters at the nearby Fire Rescue Victoria station are refusing to help.
“An elevated platform unit is all that is needed to get the job done to OHS standards,” Mrs McArthur told the Victorian Parliament yesterday, after visiting the Barkly Street site.
“The Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) Station at Ballarat City has the equipment to get this done really easily.
“But despite the request, the district’s Assistant Chief Officer will not help their colleagues in the volunteer station just down the road.
“It is an extraordinary scenario, and absolutely disappointing in the extreme.
“These volunteer firefighters come together to save lives and property. They come together as individuals and fight as a unified whole on our behalf.
“For more than 100 years they have done this under the Australian flag, and they have done it proudly.
“Now, as part of the fragmented, divided, unionised firefighting system enabled by Daniel Andrews’ deals, the volunteers are clearly second-class citizens.
“If this was another type of flag – for another group of people – this would not be an issue and the job would have been done pronto.
“But these are CFA volunteers – anathema to this union-beholden Labor Government in Victoria,” Mrs McArthur said.
She has asked the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Lisa Neville, to sort it out.
“I have asked her what she will do to ensure that this fantastic CFA brigade can once again proudly fly the flag on their historic station.
“One assumes she can recall how to pick up the phone.”
13 October 2021
