Some senior CFA officials knew the Fiskville training site was contaminated but still continued to send staff to train there, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry has found.
The inquiry was highly critical of the CFA and a number of government agencies for failing to meet standards of professionalism expected of them.
Among the 125 findings and 31 recommendations, WorkSafe was described as being “anything but proactive”; the Victorian government solicitor’s office was said to be “obstructive and unco-operative”; and EPA Victoria “failed” to carry out its statutory role.
The report also stated the then Department of Environment and Primary Industries “should not have allowed the CFA to be so closely involved in its statutory decision making”; the state’s chief health officer “should have accessed specialist technical advice … independent of the CFA”; and Moorabool council was criticised for leaving a farmer to resolve his nuisance complaint directly with the CFA because of the power imbalance between the parties.
The inquiry, chaired by Thomastown MP Bronwyn Halfpenny, handed down its damning final report last Tuesday, which recommended prioritising the purchase of a new training centre near Ballan and offering a redress scheme for people affected by the chemicals scandal.
The controversial training site was closed last year after chemical residues were found in water tanks used for firefighter training. It has also been linked to a cancer cluster.
“Did CFA management and board members know that practices at Fiskville were unsafe or contravened standards of safety regulations? The answer is yes, some did,” Ms Halfpenny said.
Inaccurate information
The inquiry’s report found outside organisations training at Fiskville made decisions based on inaccurate information provided by the CFA, which may have led to people being exposed to contaminated water.
“The end result is that the [inquiry]committee can reveal how the Victorian community has been let down by the CFA as well as the regulators empowered to oversee that CFA, such as WorkSafe and EPA Victoria.”
CFA chief executive Lucinda Nolan last week apologised to members and the community.
“While we cannot change what happened in the past, we have learnt from these past mistakes,” Ms Nolan said in a statement.
Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett said the state government would “carefully” consider the report’s findings, with $46 million set aside in its budget for a new training centre in the Central Highlands area and upgrades to the CFA’s Huntly training centre.
