By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
A POLITICAL stunt or an honest mistake?
Member for Narre Warren North, Judith Graley’s visit to the volunteer operated Hampton Park Fire Brigade has blown up, amid allegations online that the visit was made in secret with paid firefighters.
Social media comments hit back at Ms Graley due to the stark difference between the image posted to her official Facebook page and the accompanying text.
Ms Graley was pictured with Minister for Emergency Services James Merlino, CFA District Eight Operations Manager Mark Kennedy and Trevor Owen CFA Assistant Chief Officer for the South East Region, but the text said she had met with “extraordinary volunteers”.
What would normally be another day at the office for Deputy Premier Mr Merlino and Ms Graley, his Parliamentary Secretary, has ended in turmoil, with local volunteers disgusted.
Some labelled it a political stunt as the dispute between the Victorian Government, the CFA and the United Firefighters Union (UFU) continues.
But Ms Graley is putting the Facebook stuff-up down to a mistake by an electorate office staff member.
In a statement, she said: “The visit to the Hampton Park CFA brigade was to tour the facilities and the Facebook post was made in error by an electorate office staff member. It was removed as soon as the mistake was identified.”
The visit on Thursday 4 August was posted to Facebook the following day, but Mr Kennedy who was pictured told the News they weren’t given much time to organise volunteers to be present.
“We had a heads-up late Wednesday afternoon that they might be coming out, but it wasn’t until Thursday that they could ascertain what time,” Mr Kennedy said.
“As I understand it, it wasn’t something that had been planned out weeks in advance, the timeframe didn’t allow us to get volunteers there and volunteers’ availability at short notice is restricted.”
Ms Graley’s Facebook post said that she went to the volunteer brigade to meet with volunteers.
Despite one being there, she did not speak with them.
Mr Kennedy said the group discussed the possibility of Hampton Park extending, adding that the social media post was unfortunate.
“Obviously Judith misunderstood who she was talking to,” he said.
“We didn’t say we are not volunteers – I don’t think there was any ill intent – we explained who we were, she may have thought we were volunteers not knowing any different.
“I made contact via email and pointed out that it was factually incorrect, she apologised and had it removed so it didn’t cause further angst.”
Mr Kennedy admitted the mix-up between volunteers and paid firefighters was “bad timing” as the dispute lingers.
“I was surprised at how it blew up, but not surprised, yes and no,” he said of the backlash.
“I can understand our volunteers’ frustration – there’s a lot going on at the moment and they feel like they have been excluded from an opportunity to interact with the Minister for Emergency Services,” he said.
Mr Kennedy said he was able to make the meeting because he and Mr Owen were on their way back from Warragul at the time and stopped off.
South East Metro MP, Inga Peulich, said Ms Graley ought to be embarrassed.
“It is a real slap in the face for genuine volunteers to see an out of touch MP trying to pass off Labor’s preferred paid staff as volunteers,” Ms Peulich said.
“This disastrous Andrews Labor Government is more interested in unionising the fire-brigade to provide itself with more union fees, than it is in providing safety to the community.”
