Peter Marshall said a petition urging Victorians to back an upper house probe into whether the CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria were prepared for the January bushfires would also be sent out “far and wide” online.
The inquiry would put a spotlight on ageing trucks and faulty new ones, the distribution of the controversial Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund (ESVF), compliance with health and safety rules and the recruitment and retention of volunteers.
It would also investigate the impacts on livestock, farmers, industry and insurance, and the implementation of recommendations from the 2009 Royal Commission into Victorian bushfires.
“This is about life and death,” Mr Marshall told reporters on the steps of parliament on Thursday
“The government has just increased the fire service levy from $3bn to $5.4bn,” he said.
“Firefighters haven’t got the equipment.”
Mr Marshall said CFA boss Jason Heffernan’s claims that funding has increased to the volunteer organisation were “misconceived”.
“This business about an $80m injection in the CFA before the fire season is not true,” he said.
“Every year the state government allocate money for aircrafts, and they fire those aircrafts.
“It doesn’t go to the survey budget, and that’s one of the reasons they don’t want to release the report because the $80m won’t be there.”
It comes as Premier Jacinta Allan comes under fire for suggesting that the Victorian Auditor General’s Office (VAGO) was responsible for the hold up in releasing the report — a claim VAGO has vehemently denied.
CFA Volunteers Group president John Houston, who operates a 29-year-old truck, accused the government of hiding the report as he said calls for more resources had been ignored for eight months.
“I joined to be a firefighter when I was 16 to protect my family, to protect my neighbours, my community, and to protect the state,” he said.
“We haven’t got the opportunity to do that to the best of our ability.
“We are firefighters. We put the wet stuff on the red stuff.
“The government are the ones that look after the finances.”
Referring to a cabinet-in-confidence document released under a Freedom of Information request, Mr McGowan said the government was warned three years ago that FRV did not have the resources they needed “to protect their workforce”.
“More lies, lies and damn lies from the Premier,” he said.
“Smoke and mirrors from this government (and) they’ve been caught out.”
On Thursday, Emergency Management Minister Vicki Ward hit back at the union’s request for an inquiry.
“As the union well knows, every fire goes through a process of analysis, which is exactly what the fire services and the commissioner will do,” she said.
Under pressure to release the CFA’s annual report, Ms Ward said she instructed her department to table the document within the next week, ahead of Parliament’s resumption.
Ms Ward did not answer whether the Premier misspoke when laying some of the blame Auditor General “processes”, and maintained that she had not received the report until “well into December”.
Ms Ward would not be drawn on whether someone from government would apologise or clarify the points being made to the Auditor General.
The minister has faced scrutiny this week after the opposition accused her of hanging up early and running from a radio interview.
However, she has claimed that she was “absolutely misrepresented”.
“I was on the phone for over 10 minutes where I answered every question that was given to me,” she said.
“And I’ve also received an apology from 3AW for that interview.”
The Herald Sun has approached 3AW for comment.
