Public safety could be jeopardised if Victoria fails to reform its fire services and repair morale ahead of summer.
That's the warning from a firefighting expert charged with helping the state government oversee sweeping changes to the sector.
The Andrews government wants to make the Country Fire Authority volunteer-only, merging paid personnel with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade to create a new service, Fire Rescue Victoria.
Firefighters have been in dispute with management since the early 1990s and that has damaged morale, a parliamentary inquiry into the reforms was told on Monday.
Former NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Greg Mullins oversaw similar changes in his home state and has been tasked with implementing the Victorian changes if they pass parliament.
He told reporters ahead of his inquiry appearance the reforms were needed to repair firefighter morale.
"We're going into what could potentially be a very bad fire season," he said.
"Armies can lose battles due to poor morale. If we're going into a battle with bushfires this season, we can't afford to have low morale."
His sentiments echoed those of United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall, who told the inquiry tensions between firefighters and management went back to 1993.
The proposed changes are a "major catalyst for cultural change," Mr Marshall said, and if they do not go ahead "unfortunately it's going to be more years of disputation. It has to end."
Despite starting his evidence by saying his submission was not meant to criticise volunteers, Mr Marshall told the inquiry there were massive response time differences between career and volunteer CFA stations.
He said creating the FRV would improve community safety because it would lead to better response times.
The union secretary also went on to tell reporters he thought there had been a cover-up in the past to hide issues with CFA response times.
In a statement, a CFA spokesman said it reports statewide response time data according to targets set by the government, to the government, and was working on increased local level data.
The state government says its reforms are needed to break a pay dispute impasse that has seen a minister resign, fire board sacked and the federal government intervene.
The changes are also tied to presumptive rights cancer compensation for firefighters.
Asked if the bill needed to be separated to just get the compensation legislation through, Mr Marshall said that would be an "injustice for firefighters" and both changes "need to happen now."
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