Her comments follow concerns from Grampians group brigade captains that the stricter enforcing of training regimes is deterring some residents from continuing as volunteers.

"Volunteer numbers will change from year to year, but it's important to note that the number of active operational volunteer firefighters has not been declining," Ms Neville told the Mail-Times.

"We've provided... an additional $100 million in training and infrastructure over the last three years. This is on top of existing programs such as the Volunteer Emergency Services Equipment Program for volunteer agencies, worth more than $77 million over the last five years.

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"I have regular discussions with the CFAs chief officer Steve Warrington regarding safety issues and supporting volunteers, and will always support his focus on keeping our volunteers safe."

A spokeswoman for Ms Neville said the number of active operational CFA volunteers who turned out to fight fires in 2018 was 17,641.

She said this number surpassed those who turned out in 2012 and roughly 50 per cent of total volunteers at the CFA. She said that the organisation had never called on more than 19,000 active operational volunteers in a year.

Shadow Emergency Services Minister Brad Battin said volunteers had discussed with him the method in which training is delivered.

"They've removed some of the access for volunteers who are assessors," he said. "Most of our volunteers out there would be qualified, but they've got to be able to find the time and place to be assessed, which is not always suitable to a volunteer's hours."

Mr Battin said volunteers statewide told him they were concerned the government had been saying the CFA was a completely volunteer-run organisation in the wake of the Fire Services Amendment Bill (2019).

"What they're doing is bringing in career firefighters to come into all the management roles within the CFA, and I think that's a concern," he said.

"If they're really a fully volunteer organisation, the chief should be able to employ who they want to - whether that's someone from Fire Rescue Victoria (a new paid firefighting body), someone external, or within the volunteer sector. But at the moment the chief's hands are tied and he has to use people from within the FRV."

Country Fire Authority District 17 operations officer Craig Brittain said the organisation needed to meet compulsory safety requirements - some put in place by WorkSafe Victoria.

"We have an obligation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act that even though they're volunteers, when they're on the fire ground it's classed as a workplace and therefore we have to comply with the Act," he said.

"(This training is) there for the safety of the members - we have anecdotal evidence to show there are continuous tree hazards: Every year we have a number of fire trucks that get damaged with falling tree limbs and we also have a number of incidents where we have trucks burnt over or burnt under."

Mr Brittain said he was confident a number of people would be returned to operational capability in District 17 before the Fire Danger Period began.

He said people who responded to fires off their own bat would likely be classed as a casual firefighter.

"There are still requirements from the incident controller that the people on their fire ground are safe as well, so it's very difficult at this stage to say how that will pan out," he said.

The CFAs annual report shows there are 54,621 volunteers in Victoria - 34,380 of them operational - in 2018-19. This compares to 2014-15 when there were 57,311 volunteers and 35,367 of them operational.

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