The Victorian Government has ruled out a merger between the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) and the Country Fire Authority (CFA) following a damning report.

Former Tasmanian emergency services minister David O’Byrne’s review found toxic cultures and poor morale, combative relations between management and firefighters, lack of workforce diversity, incidents of bullying and a breakdown in the two services’ relationship.

Reflecting the discord, of 180 submissions made to the review 68 were confidential at the request of the authors and 112 have personal information and potentially defamatory content redacted.

The Government has accepted all the review’s 20 recommendations with two exceptions: recommendation 13, for the MFB and CFA to be restructured to reinstate the role of chief officer as head of the organisation; and recommendation 14, for a single board as governing body for both.

The state has now committed to improving workplace culture and diversity in the fire services, but has ruled out a merger.

Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett says a merger of the MFB and CFA cannot work while broken cultures and rivalries remain.

“You have got two organisations with a lot to confront, two very different histories and two very different cultures. The vast bulk of them do not want to be merged together,” Ms Garrett said.

Rivalry between the state’s two firefighting arms has concerned the insurance industry for more than 25 years, and the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has warned that their effectiveness relies on working together.

“As housing and business development in Victoria expands into new areas, co-ordination and interoperability between the state’s fire emergency services will become more crucial in defending lives and properties,” ICA spokesman Campbell Fuller told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“ICA continues to argue [that] a greater government and community focus on natural disaster preparation and mitigation will reduce damage and is preferable to spending billions of dollars each year cleaning up in the aftermath of these destructive events.”

This summer, bushfires in Victoria destroyed close to 120 homes resulting in insured losses of about $90 million.

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is investigating gender equity and workplace culture in the MFB and CFA. It will make recommendations to improve working environments.

Emergency Management Victoria will work with the fire services to improve interoperability, including introducing standardised breathing apparatus by the end of this year.

The review, government response and public submissions are available here.