LABOR CUT THE CFA'S BUSHFIRE REPORT IN HALF -- AND HID THE WORST OF IT
Family First Party
Jane Foreman - Family First Legislative Council Candidate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
8 July 2026
LABOR CUT THE CFA’S BUSHFIRE REPORT IN HALF — AND HID THE WORST OF IT
After The Age revealed the Allan government stripped more than 5000 words from the CFA’s own assessment of last summer’s bushfire failures, Jane Foreman says the cover-up proves exactly what Family First warned three weeks ago — Victorians cannot trust this government with the truth about how emergency services are funded and run.
The CFA handed parliament a blunt 33-page account of what went wrong fighting last summer’s bushfires on 4 June. Within days it was withdrawn. A sanitised 18-page version, cleared by cabinet and government lawyers, took its place on 30 June — with more than 5000 words of the CFA’s own analysis stripped out.
Among the details cut: the CFA’s admission that it had asked for $330.57 million in supplementary funding between 2022 and 2025 and been given just $117.95 million, and that fire stations built under the government’s new Community Safety Building Authority now cost up to three to four times more than a CFA-built equivalent.
Also stripped back was the CFA’s own account of “critical gaps” in frontline command during the worst week of last summer’s fires — including at Longwood and Harcourt — where an average weekly shortfall of 17.2 operational command positions since October 2020 has cut service capacity by 11.4 per cent. One district was allocated five operational staff for the week the fires broke out. It had two.
“This is not an administrative error. This is a government taking a blunt, honest warning from its own fire authority and cutting it down until it was safe to release. Victorians were fighting fires with critical staffing gaps last summer, and the government’s first instinct was to bury the evidence, not fix the problem.”
Three weeks ago, Family First called on the Allan government to open the books on the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund and account for exactly what Victorians’ record levy is actually paying for. These revelations show precisely why that audit is needed — and why it must go further than Fire Rescue Victoria’s wage bill to cover the CFA’s fleet, station and staffing shortfalls as well.
A government spokesperson says the CFA “has not been censored.” Family First says the only way to test that claim is to release the original 4 June document in full and unredacted, so Victorians — not cabinet — can judge what was cut, and why.
“Volunteers put their lives on the line last summer with two commanders where five were needed. The government’s response was to spend a month editing the evidence instead of fixing the shortfall".
"Family First is calling on the Allan government to release the CFA’s original submission in full and extend our proposed independent audit of emergency services funding to cover CFA staffing, fleet and infrastructure — not just FRV’s wage bill. Victorians have a right to the truth, whether it is convenient for Government or not.”
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About Family First
Family First exists to restore Australia by restoring the primacy of the family in public policy. This will be achieved through a grass roots political party which raises courageous voices in our nation’s parliaments. More details are available on our website: https://www.familyfirstparty.org.au/
