A controversial attempt to overhaul Victoria's fire services has passed the lower house, but has again stalled in the upper house.
The proposed change would abolish the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and combine it with paid staff from the Country Fire Authority to form Fire Rescue Victoria, therefore making the latter agency volunteer-only.
The proposal on Thursday passed the legislative assembly where the government has a clear majority but Labor was denied the opportunity to have the bill read for a second time.
Instead the Legislative Council will be forced to sit on Friday, a non-sitting day which will clash with budget estimate hearings scheduled for that day.
For the bill to pass, Labor needs the support of three crossbenchers.
The Liberal National opposition have said the proposed bill would put a "Berlin wall" in the CFA, separating career firefighters from the volunteers and reducing the latter to second-class citizens.
The bill is relatively unchanged since it was spectacularly scuttled in the upper house last year when two Liberal MPs used religious reasons to skip parliament on Good Friday, but staged a last-minute return to help vote down the law.
Victoria's fire services debate has raged for years, sparking division between the volunteer and career sectors and their supporters.
