Victoria’s emergency services minister believes he is being followed and fears for his family’s safety after a bullet, etched with the word “RAT” and his former firefighter number, was left on his car on Saturday.
The Herald Sun first reported on Monday that Paul Edbrooke had returned to his car after a community event in his Frankston electorate on Saturday and found the bullet on the bonnet. He later told reporters he had only been away from the car for about an hour and made the “chilling” discovery on his return.
“I was pretty shocked to find that it was a bullet – not just a bullet, but a bullet with the word ‘RAT’ inscribed on it and my firefighter ID on it,” Edbrooke said.
“The very fact of the matter that this has been put on my car means someone has been following me. It means someone knows what my car is, and that’s really quite scary.
“But I’m not going to be intimidated by this, and I refuse to be bullied.”
He said the incident was also “traumatising” for his children, who are young adults and also use the car. It comes just days after the alleged attack on the federal MP Helen Haines last week. There was no suggestion the two incidents were linked.
“It’s a car [my children] drive. They’ve been in this car. It could have been them that found the bullet, and that terrifies me. It’s totally unacceptable,” Edbrooke said.
He said the five-digit ID number etched into one side of the bullet was from when he was a firefighter and would be a personal detail “only firefighters would be aware of” and was not commonly known by the wider community. He said the only people from whom he was receiving “aggressive threats” and abuse on social media were members of the United Firefighters Union.
The union is taking action against Fire Rescue Victoria – an agency Edbrooke oversees – in the Fair Work Commission over the firefighters’ enterprise bargaining agreement. The parties have been unable to resolve the EBA since ۲۰۲۱.
The UFU has been campaigning against the state’s Labor government, vowing to run an expensive advertising campaign, staff polling booths with firefighters, and distribute authorised material urging voters to put the party in the lead up to next month’s election.
It is also planning to hold a members’ meeting on the question of disaffiliating from the Victorian Labor party altogether.
But the union boss, Peter Marshall, said he condemned the threat against Edbrooke and said whoever had left the bullet “does not speak for [or] act for firefighters or this union”.
“Firefighters spend every shift protecting life and property. Threatening anyone, including a minister we strongly disagree with, is the opposite of everything this union stands for,” Marshall said in a statement.
“I condemn it without qualification.”
He also defended a video posted to the UFU social media account on Friday, in which he warned Edbrooke and the premier, Ben Carroll, that they were “in the gun”.
Marshall said his gun comment was in reference to the election: “On Friday I said the Premier and the minister were ‘in the gun’. I meant at the ballot box and anyone there, or seeing the video, would know that.”
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Edbrooke urged other parties to reconsider their relationship with the union.
Members from the Liberals, One Nation and the Greens have met with the union in recent months – though the Greens appear to have the closest relationship. The party’s candidate for Pascoe Vale, Angelica Panopoulos, is set to host a joint event with the UFU on Saturday, described on social media as a “free day of family fun with the Greens and United Firefighters Union”.
In a joint statement, Greens MPs said the incident was “distressing” and there was “absolutely no place for threats and intimidation towards MPs, public figures or anyone else in our society”.
“Violence or threats of violence are never the answer, full stop,” they said.
“We’ve sent our support to Paul and his family this morning and we hope whoever is responsible is found and held to account for this completely unacceptable and dangerous behaviour.”
The Victorian opposition leader, Jess Wilson, said her thoughts were with Edbrooke and his family.
“There’s just no place for these sort of threats and intimidation in Victoria or this country,” she told ABC Radio Melbourne. “Off the back of the horrific [alleged] attack with Helen Haines last week, it’s incumbent on all of us to make sure we’re trying to take the temperature down.”
The Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, said he was “disgusted” by the incident.
“One thing I know about Paul, he’s tough. He won’t be intimidated by this. He’ll just get up and work doubly hard for our firefighters, for our police officers, and everyone he represents in Frankston,” he said.
Victoria police has confirmed detectives from its security investigation unit are “investigating a threat against a member of Victorian parliament which is alleged to have occurred in the greater Frankston area”. They said it was reported to police on Sunday.
