The attempt to split Victoria's fire services has been reignited with the Andrews government introducing the controversial laws into state parliament.
Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said the bill would be relatively unchanged to the one which was spectacularly scuttled in the upper house when two Liberal MPs used religious reasons to miss parliament on Good Friday, only to return for the crucial vote.
"This bill is the bill that went to the vote in the upper house on Good Friday, a bill that would otherwise be law, except for the deceptive behaviour of two members of parliament from the Liberal Party," Ms Neville told reporters.
"We want to get this done, we want to move on from this."
Ms Neville said the government went to November's election with a mandate to bring in the changes, which are also tied to presumptive cancer compensation rights for firefighters in the same bill.
The compensation scheme will be administered through WorkSafe and and be backdated to June 1, 2016, for eligible firefighters.
The legislation, if passed, would abolish the MFB and career CFA services and establish Fire Rescue Victoria to serve metropolitan Melbourne, the outer urban fringe and large regional centres.
It would also take in 38 integrated fire districts which share career and volunteer firefighters.
The new model is expected to come into effect by mid-2020.
It has the backing of Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp, MFB chief Dan Stephens and acting CFA chief executive Gavin Freeman, who all joined Ms Neville for her press conference.
Victoria's fire services debate has raged for years, sparking division between the volunteer and career sectors and their supporters.
The state opposition still oppose the changes and accuse Labor of once again going to war with CFA volunteers to stack stations with United Firefighters Union members.
Opposition emergency services spokesman Brad Battin said he would try and have the compensation part of the bill separated from the rest of the reforms.
"Victorian volunteers continue to tell us they don't endorse this legislation, they want to see legislation that's about community safety," Mr Battin said.
He said the fire services did not need to be changed for improvements to be made.
The bill was introduced into parliament on Wednesday, for debate next week.
It will pass the lower house easily with the government's large majority, but the government needs three crossbenchers to support it in the upper house.
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