TV ads go to air as Labor’s own firefighter-turned-Minister runs the Liberals’ case firefighters beat in 2015
21 October 2026
Victoria’s career firefighters have launched a statewide television campaign urging voters to put Labor last at the 28 November State election.
This is after the Carroll Government pressed constitutional arguments in the Fair Work Commission that would strip enforceable minimum staffing from firefighters – and hand any future government a blueprint to do the same to teachers, police, paramedics and other public sector workers.
The 30-second and 15-second ads, which began airing on 20 October on major TV and radio network, feature serving firefighters telling Victorians that Premier Ben Carroll and Emergency Services Minister Paul Edbrooke have put their safety last:
“This election, return the favour. Put Labor last.”
Full page print advertisements will be published closer to the State Election.
The United Firefighters Union (UFU) has also written to Victorian Trades Hall Council and public sector unions warning of the precedent, and will hold a members’ meeting in November to consider ending the union’s affiliation with the Victorian ALP.
The case Labor is running
Submissions filed in Minister Edbrooke’s name on 4 September 2026 argue that the Commission’s power over State public sector agreements should be “read down” (meaning minimised or limited), and that minimum staffing, rostering, classification, consultation and arbitration clauses raise constitutional problems. Mr Edbrooke is a former career firefighter and UFU shop steward.
The arguments rest on the same constitutional principle the Country Fire Authority relied on in the Federal Court during the Baillieu and Napthine Coalition Governments, represented by the same law firm, Clayton Utz. In January 2015 the Full Federal Court rejected that challenge and upheld firefighters’ safe staffing, consultation and dispute resolution clauses.
“Firefighters beat these arguments in court when a Liberal government ran them. Now a Labor government is running the Liberals’ case against its own firefighters,” UFU Victorian Branch Secretary Peter Marshall said.
“If the Commission accepts them, a future government inherits a precedent built for it by Labor. Every staffing clause, every class-size limit and every consultation clause in the Victorian public sector becomes a target.”
The Government’s submissions also contend that these constitutional limits override the “not less favourable” protection the Albanese Government legislated in July 2026 – putting a state Labor government before the Commission against a federal Labor law.
A government arguing against its own agency’s safety plan
Fire Rescue Victoria’s own 2022 Operational Service Delivery Staffing Requirements Plan identified 583 new positions over five years to meet safe systems of work and safe crewing levels.
“This is a government arguing it can’t be held to its own fire service’s safety plan. That should alarm every Victorian who might one day need to call triple zero,” Mr Marshall said.
Under section 8 of the Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958, FRV is subject to the general direction and control of the Minister, who can withdraw the arguments at any time.
“Minister Edbrooke can end this with the stroke of a pen. Until he does, firefighters will tell voters the truth,” Mr Marshall said.
How it came to this
After 76 face-to-face meetings and more than ten Commission conferences, a statement by Commissioner Wilson on 19 June 2023 recorded the parties’ advice that all matters other than wage and allowance increases had been resolved. When the UFU sought arbitration of those two matters, FRV and the Government withdrew from the previously settled items. The Commission is now arbitrating every condition of employment, in a legal campaign that has cost taxpayers more than $20 million.
The campaign
The UFU is not endorsing any party or candidate at this stage. It has put its firefighter and community safety policies to a number of other parties, and will say more once those parties have announced their own policies.
Ahead of 28 November, the UFU will:
• air television advertising on the Government’s attack on firefighter and community safety,
urging voters who value their safety to put Labor last;
• staff polling booths with firefighters and authorised election material; and
• hold a members’ meeting on the question of disaffiliating from the Victorian Labor Party,
in response to members’ calls.
“Our members didn’t ask for this fight. They are responding to a Labor government doing what the Napthine Liberals tried and failed to do,” Mr Marshall said.
ENDS
For journalists
• LINKS:
o 15 second TV ad linked here
o 30 second TV ad linked here
• Available on request: the UFU’s letter to Trades Hall; a side-by-side comparison of the 2013 and 2026 submissions; the Minister’s submissions (FWC matter B2023/771)
• Interviews: Peter Marshall; firefighters featured in the ad; vision of stations and appliances
Media enquiries: Peter Marshall – 0419 127 004