THE CFA board issued a clear, written statement this week correcting false claims about funding cuts and firefighter preparedness. It should have ended the debate. Instead, the lies have intensified.
The Country Fire Authority confirmed its budget has increased every year since 2020, including $20.3 million this financial year, with a further $11.6 million in supplementary funding for bulk water supply and state-wide readiness. The CFA also confirmed continued investment in new and replacement trucks, stations and protective equipment.
These are not government press releases. They are formal statements issued by the CFA Board and its CEO.
Yet online activist groups continue to declare the CFA’s own leadership “liars”. That is not confusion. It is wilful misinformation.
When the same false claims are pushed daily, by the same networks, amplified by protest groups that are loudly anti-Labor, during an election year, it stops looking like concern for volunteers and starts looking like a co-ordinated political campaign. CFA volunteers are being used as props in an election year narrative, whether they consent to it or not.
Undermining confidence in emergency services during an active fire season is reckless. It damages morale, misleads the public and distracts from the real job – protecting lives and communities.
Criticise governments if you like. Protest if you must. But stop attacking the CFA for telling the truth. When even the CFA Board’s written statements are dismissed as “lies”, facts no longer matter – and that should alarm every Victorian.
Veronica Monaghan
Stawell
