More than 1000 volunteers left Victoria's Country Fire Service as employee costs for both of the state's fire services jumped on the back of new pay deals.
Annual reports for the CFA and MFB were tabled in parliament late on Wednesday in a mass dump of documents that weren't tabled before the November 24 election.
The CFA had a target of at least 57,400 operational and support volunteers in 2017/18, but had only 55,069 on their books by June 30 this year, which was 1090 fewer than for 2016/17.
Most of the losses were in firefighting volunteers, with 34,586 operation volunteers last year despite a target of 39,400 to 40,950.
Employee expenses for the CFA increased by $24.4 million in one year to $346.8 million following pay deals and an increase in staff numbers.
At the MFB, employee salaries and leave payments increased by $4.6 million in 2017-18.
Of its 2341 staff, only 248 were women, and they were mostly in corporate roles.
Women made just 3.6 per cent of firefighting employees.
The CFA had 2672 paid staff, but only 742 of them were women including just 59 career firefighters.
"Although this year marks 30 years of female firefighters in our workforce and 35 years of women in operational communications, we still have a lot of work to do before our workforce adequately reflects the diversity of the community that we serve," MFB president Jasmine Doak noted in the report.
It's been a tumultuous few years for Victoria's fire services with heated pay negotiations between the organisations, the United Firefighters Union and state and federal government interventions.
The Andrews Labor government also tried to overhaul the services by creating fire Rescue Victoria for paid crews only, leaving the CFA just for volunteers and tied it to presumptive rights for firefighters suffering cancer, but it was voted down by the in parliament earlier this year.
Nationals leader Peter Walsh used question time of the first parliamentary sitting under a re-elected Labor on Wednesday to ask Premier Daniel Andrews if he would "again try to smash up Victoria's revered CFA fire service in this new term of parliament".
"We do not cut the CFA budget. We do not vote against presumptive rights legislation," Mr Andrews said.
"We do not deny the link between some forms of cancer and firefighting, and when I need a big great dose of hypocrisy I will start taking advice from the likes of you."
Share
