Thursday, 15 May 2025

Bills

Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025

Council’s suggested amendments

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): I have received a message from the Legislative Council returning the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025 and suggesting amendments.

Ordered that suggested amendments be taken into consideration immediately.

Council’s suggested amendments considered:

1. Clause 6, page 4, lines 27 and 28, omit “Forest Fire Management Victoria” and insert “emergency management”.

2. Clause 6, page 4, after line 28 insert –

“Examples

1 Functions of Emergency Management Victoria, the Emergency Management Commissioner, the Chief Executive, Emergency Management Victoria and the Secretary to the Department of Justice and Community Safety in relation to emergency management include operation of the following –

• the State Control Centre;

• Emergency Recovery Victoria;

• the Emergency Alert Program in Victoria;

• the Emergency Management Operational Communication Program.

2 Functions of the Secretary within the meaning of section 3(1) of the Forests Act 1958 in relation to emergency management include functions delegated to the Chief Fire Officer employed under that Act.”.

3. Clause 13, page 9, line 4, after “recipient” insert “other than the CFA, Fire Rescue Victoria and VicSES”.

4. Clause 13, page 9, line 6, omit “exceeding –” and insert “exceeding 95%.”.

5. Clause 13, page 9, lines 7 to 9, omit all words and expressions on those lines and insert –

‘(2B) The percentage of the annual funding requirements of the CFA and VicSES that are to be funded by the levy in a levy year is 95%.

(2C) The percentage of the annual funding requirements of Fire Rescue Victoria that are to be funded by the levy in a levy year is 90%.”.’.

6. Clause 13, page 9, after line 14 insert –

‘(4) After section 12(5) of the Principal Act insert –

“(5A) The Minister must specify in a notice of a determination in respect of the next levy year under subsection (1) –

(a) for each funding recipient –

(i) an estimate of the amount in dollars of the funding requirements of the funding recipient that are to be funded by the levy in that levy year; and

(ii) the percentage of the funding requirements of the funding recipient that the amount in subparagraph (i) represents; and

(b) an estimate of the amount of levy to be collected in that levy year for each land use classification specified in section 15(1); and

(c) that there is no duplication of funding.”.’.

7. Insert the following New Clause to follow clause 17 –

‘17A New section 62A inserted

After section 62 of the Principal Act insert –

“62A Proceeds of levy

The proceeds of levy collected under this Act must not exceed the sum of –

(a) the amounts applied to fund the funding recipients in accordance with section 12(2A), (2B) and (2C); and

(b) the administrative costs incurred in the performance of functions under this Act.”.’.

8. Clause 22, line 9, omit “determined under” and insert “specified in”.

9. Clause 22, line 10, omit “12(2A)” and insert “12(2B)”.

10. Clause 22, line 20, omit “determined under” and insert “specified in”.

11. Clause 22, line 21, omit “12(2A)” and insert “12(2C)”.

Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs, Minister for Finance) (23:46): I move:

That this house make the amendments suggested by the Legislative Council.

The Legislative Council has suggested a number of amendments, which I will outline for the benefit of the chamber. An amendment is suggested to provide a guaranteed level of funding for the Country Fire Authority, Victoria State Emergency Service and Fire Rescue Victoria – that is via clauses to require that 95 per cent of the CFA and VICSES budgets and 90 per cent of FRV’s budget are funded through the levy. As has been made clear by the Treasurer, this will have no impact on the budgets of these agencies, but it will ensure the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund is only funding our frontline emergency services.

There is also a suggested amendment to increase the funding percentage of FRV’s budget that can be collected under the levy from 87.5 per cent to 90 per cent, following consultation with firefighters. This will provide a guaranteed funding level for Fire Rescue Victoria that cannot be altered by a future government. There is an annual reporting suggested amendment requiring the Treasurer to detail via the Government Gazette how the revenue collected through the levy is being spent, including a breakdown by entity and the percentage of the annual budget of the entity being funded.

There is another suggested amendment to clarify exactly what areas of the Department of Justice and Community Safety and Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action budgets the funding is being allocated to, to reaffirm that only direct emergency response and recovery functions are being funded through the levy. Finally, there is another suggested amendment that specifies that every single dollar raised by the levy will be spent on our emergency services, as has been the case since the introduction of this bill. These suggested amendments were drafted following extensive consultation with members of Parliament, community members, volunteers and farmers. I commend the suggested amendments to the house.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (23:47): It is an absolute disgrace that we have seen sell-outs in the upper house sell out Victorians. Tonight we have seen an estimated 160 CFA brigades go offline. These are people who are always first there to protect their communities, so to see these brigades go offline tells you the depths to which they feel strongly about what this government is doing. They are the first people when this state needs them, when their communities need them, to be there in harm’s way, and for them to be downing their tools tells you the depth of their feelings. I am sure that they were absolutely torn in making that decision, and none of them will have wanted to do it. But they have no other way to show the outrageous pain this government is causing Victorians than to do that in protest tonight. It is unprecedented. Of the 1200 brigades, to see some 160 – not including the tankers – go offline tonight tells you the depth to which people are concerned about this great big new dog of a tax.

What we also learned in the debate in the upper house tonight is that the government has done deals and has not costed them. The government has no idea of the cost of the deals they have done, deals that are not included in the suggested amendments, by the way. The suggested amendments that are being dealt with tonight in the chamber do not outline the dirty deals that have been done to get this bill through the Parliament. But how concerning is it that we have a budget paper that has been printed and we do not know the cost of the changes that have been made to get this bill through – potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, because rates have changed in terms of the tax. And the government has been crowing they are going to reach some fake surplus next week.

Yet we know the budget papers are absolute rubbish. The Treasurer has admitted it tonight. They have no idea of the cost of the dirty deals that have been done. The budget papers are not accurate when they have not even been released. They have been printed and have not been released. Whatever this is costing, the tax raised has clearly been reduced because of these deals. We do not know how much it is going to cost. Even in terms of the rebate, the rebate numbers previously published and the ones discussed in the debate tonight are two different numbers. The government has absolutely lost control of the budget and more specifically with this tax. What it tells you is the budget papers are complete rubbish for this $2.1 billion new tax over the next three years.

The coalition will not be supporting these amendments. That does not mean that we do not agree with every element of the amendments, but the amendments are going to be considered as a whole. I do think it is important to note that, although we do not support many of the elements of the amendments, we do support parts, because the government has picked up part of the proposals we have made. The government has directly lifted an amendment we proposed around reporting and said, ‘We’ll put our own little badge on it because we can’t let the opposition and the crossbench agree to that more-transparency-by-way-of-reporting measure, so we will move the amendment ourselves.’ We support that, but the amendments are being dealt with as a whole and so therefore we cannot. In relation to the other amendments, there are some consequential amendments which we did not take issue with either.

But in terms of the listing of where the funding would be applied, we have had an issue with that and we moved amendments in the Council, which were defeated. Of course we do not support that. We have, in principle, from the get-go, said that we feel very strongly that this is the wrong tax model and the government is effectively using a new tax to fund core government business. So we do not support the amendments in relation to that, the first amendments in the package. It is worth noting that in relation to the reporting measure – though it is included in these amendments, which we will not support – we have not got the opportunity to break that down and let that go through separately, but it should not be read that we oppose that. In fact, as I said, the government has picked up our amendment.

What the overall amendments do and the final bill will do is cause immense damage in the community. There is no question this government are tax addicts. This bill will cause deep damage to the community. Tonight, when the Treasurer was speaking about this in the Council, we saw the flippant nature of the way she said things like, ‘For the average property the price will only go up from $190 to $250,’ as if the increase meant nothing. She literally talked about it flippantly, and when she did, it did not surprise anybody who was watching that this was the same Treasurer who, when asked about the increase, said, ‘People can afford to pay.’ That is when you know how broken a Labor government is, because this is what happens when Labor have been in government for more than a term.

They forget that taxpayers, at the end of the day, work hard to raise a dollar through the sweat of their hard work. That dollar comes in, through tax, to the government. Labor always assumes that this money somehow grows on trees and it is their right to waste it. You could see, when the Treasurer was talking about these increases tonight, the absolute coldness of it. We know because the Treasurer, when asked about these measures, said that people could afford to pay, just flippantly. Well, people cannot afford to pay, because this is the 60th increase in taxes and charges by this government. What this government is doing is absolutely crippling people, and for the Treasurer tonight to talk about these tax increases so flippantly was outrageous. We know that Labor are tax addicts. We know this was their plan. At least their plan was clear to everybody. They did not resile from it. They said that they were going to overtax everybody; they said that they were going to run government differently by creating new taxes instead of funding core government business through consolidated revenue. They were open about it; you have got to give them that.

I think a special award needs to go to the crossbenchers, who through the federal election held out their votes purely to con voters. They did not vote for this bill throughout the federal election period, because they wanted to con voters. They did not want voters to know what types of con artists they are, what types of dirty deals they are willing to do. They wanted to wait till after the federal election before they sold out. You can hear the government protecting their con artist friends. What a surprise that is. They held out. You can hear them standing with the Greens. They stood with the Greens tonight. They stand with the Greens. They have done a deal with the Greens. What a disgrace that the government would do a deal with the Greens to sell out Victorians. It is an absolute disgrace. We have a Treasurer who is mocking Victorians, saying that Victorians can afford to pay, and we have minor parties holding out their vote until after an election to con people throughout the election and then after the election vote against them. I am very, very sure on this one: Victorians are going to remember, and we are going to remind them. Not only has this government hurt Victorians but the crossbench have sold out, which is absolutely disgraceful. We have fought at every single opportunity to call out how bad this great big new dog of a tax is.

I know tonight many members on our side of the chamber want to speak on this, so I will make sure they all have an opportunity to speak, because all members who want to speak on this should have that opportunity so that they can put on the record how they have stood on behalf of Victorians, so they can put on the record how it is that the Labor Party and the crossbench have done a dirty deal to sell them out. This tax is going to hurt people. To see 160 CFA brigades go off line tonight should tell the government the damage that this tax is doing. As I said earlier, to see the people who are first to walk into danger to protect their communities protest tonight –

Michaela Settle interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Eureka is warned.

James NEWBURY: and down their tools tells you how strongly they feel about what this government is doing. I am sure every single person who is doing that tonight is doing it against their best nature, because they do not want to be doing that. They want to be volunteering, they want to be helping and they want to be standing by to protect their community. For them to say they need to send a message should tell the government to listen. The government should be listening to these people who are the first in line to protect our community, and it is not listening. It is absolutely disgraceful what this government is doing. Every single member that wants to should take the opportunity to put on record our disgust and our opposition to what this government is doing.

When it comes to tax, we will have more to say. Of course we will, because what the government is doing in terms of tax is absolutely crippling Victoria. The government often says – they shout across the chamber – ‘What are you going to do on tax?’ I do not think I can possibly talk about how much I do not like the tax regime in Victoria. I do not think there is any secret about that. I do not think it is a secret on our side of the chamber. In our DNA we do not support high taxes. We do not support them; it is in our DNA. It is no surprise. No-one over that side of the chamber should be surprised that we do not support the current tax mix. We do not support what the government is doing in relation to tax. We have stood again and again and again and said how outrageous what the government is doing is. We oppose taxes in this chamber regularly. Of course we do, because we do not support increased taxes. Of course we do not. This is in our DNA. Sixty times – I mean, there must come a time when you stop –

Michaela Settle interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Eureka – 10 minutes.

Member for Eureka withdrew from chamber.

James NEWBURY: with your Cheshire smiles. Today when this bill was being discussed and the government moved to delay the house adjourning, everyone cheered on that side of the chamber. They cheered to increase tax. I mean, can you believe it? Look it up in Hansard. Earlier today the government cheered that they were staying back late to introduce a $2 billion tax over three years. What a bunch of – I cannot even say; it would be unparliamentary. But they cheered multiple times, by the way, at staying back late to impose a new tax on Victorians.

We would love to know next week, in relation to this tax, how much it is going to cost. But we cannot. We will have a budget paper that we already know will not be properly listing what this tax is going to raise. We know the budget papers are a complete con. The Treasurer said it tonight. She said tonight that she has no idea what the cost of the deals is. What are the budget papers worth? We already know that the fake surplus that is supposedly being listed in it is only made up of the increased GST bailout. It is the first time our state has required a bailout. The government was crowing about that, weren’t they? They were crowing about the fact that we required a bailout. I mean, seriously, when someone has to come along and bail you out, doesn’t that just show what a hopeless bunch of financial managers you are? ‘We’ve been bailed out for the first time in history. We’re so hopeless that someone needs to come and save us, and we’re crowing about it.’

I mean, seriously, what a hopeless bunch of financial mismanagers this group is, and for them to crow about it. But what is worse, and we all saw it earlier today, is the government were cheering when this house moved to sit late. The Leader of the House came in here and moved an continuation motion, which means we can sit later so we can consider an increase in tax tonight, and this government all cheered. They had their arms up, cheering: ‘Yay, great big new tax.’ Cheering – I mean, it is craven. It is so incredibly craven what this bunch do, crowing about increasing tax. You never know, when these amendments are dealt with later, when these amendments pass, we might hear them cheer again. I can see the energy over there. I can see it now, them crowing. ‘Yeah, we’ve got a great big new tax through.’ How clever. When you introduce a tax you hurt people. When you introduce a tax what you should do is work out, frankly, what taxes you do not need. That should be your base position: what shouldn’t you be taking from people. Because, guys, it is not your bloody money. That is what is so outrageous about these taxes.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

James NEWBURY: Deputy Speaker, I apologise. What is so outrageous is that this is not your money. Every tax dollar is taxpayers money. No government has a God-given right to that money. It should stay in the taxpayers’ pockets. Yet this government crows about it and cheers about it multiple times. All of you were cheering. Do not say you were not; you were. You were cheering. It was absolutely outrageous, all of you. We all saw it.

A member interjected.

James NEWBURY: Yes, that is right. We will get the video. You were cheering about increasing taxes. What a bunch of craven crooks. Anyway, a bunch of craven crooks they are. But cheering about increasing taxes – are we surprised? No, because the Treasurer said, when asked about the pain this would cause, ‘Well, they can afford to pay.’ Are you serious? I thought when the former Treasurer said that, because the former Treasurer said the same, that he was out of touch. He had been in government for so long, he had been working for the Labor Party for so long, that he was out of touch. For the new Treasurer to come in and say exactly the same thing just shows there is something rotten in this government. There is something rotten when a Treasurer thinks they have a God-given right to someone else’s money and they do not care about the pain they cause every single taxpayer with these 60 new and increased taxes. And to think, on top of that, that the Treasurer has not even got the wit and wherewithal to know what it cost. How can you do a deal and not know the cost? How can you do that as a Treasurer?

Richard Riordan interjected.

James NEWBURY: That is right. And the answer, member for Polwarth, is she does not care about the money. She does not care about taxpayers money; there is no respect for taxpayers money. When asked how much these deals would cost, she did not know. It tells you also that the deals were about the political dividend of the vote. That is what they were about. They were saying to the sellouts, ‘How much is it going to cost us to buy you out? How much is it going to cost? We will pay it. We will give you the blank cheque, and we don’t need to know how much it will cost.’

We will have a budget next week that will not even properly account for these deals. We can go into detail about why the budget is a great big crock, but this is just another example of why the budget cannot be believed, because when the Treasurer was asked to account tonight for these changes, she had no idea.

The other thing that came out, which was just flagrant, was when she was asked about the rebate scheme and people receiving it. Of course she was not fully across the detail on that, because why would she be? But when it came to the rebate she also said renters do not get it. If you are a volunteer and you do not own your property, guess what you do not get. You do not get a rebate. Did anyone know that little one? No-one knew that. If you do not own your property and you are a volunteer, do you get a rebate? No, renters do not get a rebate. The Treasurer admitted that tonight. The Minister for Industry and Advanced Manufacturing is looking quizzical; the minister did not know. The Treasurer admitted that tonight.

I would ask the Greens, the supposed champions of the renter: is that the deal that was done with the Greens? Have the Greens sold out renters tonight? The answer is yes. These amendments sell out renters. Can you believe it? Tonight I challenge the Greens to come into this chamber and talk about their deal – if they are still here, and I am sure they are not. I say to the attendants, the clerks, the caterers and everybody who is still here, thank you for keeping us going. You are all doing an incredible job, and we all thank you. I note we do not even know if the Greens are still here, but if they are, I put the challenge out to them: did you know?

Danny O’Brien interjected.

James NEWBURY: That is right. It is Friday now; it is stay-at-home day. I ask the Greens, who have not accounted for themselves today at all – they have dodged every possible media – to explain their vote when they come in here. Explain why, as champions of renters, the government’s rebate scheme does not extend to renters if you are a volunteer and you do not own your property – did anyone know that? I am seeing a lot of very confused people on the government side of the chamber. Minister, if it helps, when the Treasurer said that, she said it very, very softly. ‘They don’t own their property,’ she said. If you are a volunteer and a renter, guess what you do not get. The volunteers that rent do not count for this government and do not count for the Greens, their supposed champions. I am looking forward to hearing from every Labor member who gets up talking about their protections for renters.

What is so clear about this bill is that Victorians have absolutely had enough when it comes to this government’s tax addiction. This evening, as we saw reports coming in of CFA brigades downing their tools, I was with the Leader of the National Party in the Council. We were aware how strongly Victorians were over what this government was doing with tax, but we were both struck when CFA volunteers downed their tools – the people who are there first and always do the right thing. That should tell you something. And it was not one, it was not two; the last reports were 160-plus tankers –

Danny O’Brien interjected.

James NEWBURY: Now 200, I am advised.

I would say to the government: do not make light of these reports. Do better than that, guys; do better than that. At least 200 have downed –

Members interjecting.

James NEWBURY: Make an issue of everything else I have said, but do not make issue of that. Two hundred brigades have downed their tools. I am advised it is now 200 who have walked away. We should say to ourselves, ‘If one volunteer is downing their tools, we should be listening,’ because it is the first person who will not want to walk away. The CFA volunteers will always be the first person there, so for a reported 200 to be downing their tools tonight should say to us that there is a huge proportion of the community who are now saying, ‘Enough.’ So for the government to be cheering earlier tonight in this chamber is an absolute disgrace. It says there is something so incredibly rotten with this government. It is just incredibly rotten. The government thinks people can afford to pay. They cannot. It is absolutely rotten. The Greens will presumably have to come in here and vote tonight. Whether or not they explain themselves will be interesting, because they did not in the Council.

A member interjected.

James NEWBURY: Well, they might have gone home. I do not think they will be in bed. They have an opportunity to come in and explain themselves, and they need to give Victorians their reasoning as to why they have got in bed with this rotten government. These amendments do exactly that. It is a dirty deal that is hurting too many people, and you can see it. It is an incredibly profound message that is being sent by the CFA volunteers tonight. What the government is doing with this tax is fundamentally wrong. It is absolutely, fundamentally wrong. It is hurting people and it is going to hurt people, and the craven joy from the government over this tax is absolutely shameful. They should stand condemned for doing it, and I hope every single Victorian remembers what this government has done to them.

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (00:17): I rise to speak on the amendments to the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. You could not get a more classic example of a 3-minute speech spread over 30 minutes. If that is the entree to the budget reply speech next week, goodness me, we want a refund. That was an extraordinary trail of destruction, and it really opened up a window to where the mindset of those opposite really is, because in the 1800-second rant from the member for Brighton there was not one single mention of an investment in emergency services – not one single mention. I listened intently to the member for Brighton, and there was not one single mention of investing in emergency services and the notion that we all work as one and that principle.

Brad Battin interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: The member for Berwick, the Leader of the Opposition, can interject, but we remember what was said about career firefighters at the Bunyip State Park fire. We remember the gaslighting that happened here in 2015 and 2016 that they had to walk back. They can go out on the steps of Parliament, but everyone remembers what the member for Berwick did when tens of millions of dollars were talked about for fire reform. That was tens of millions of dollars for fire reform that the member for Berwick, the Leader of the Opposition, opposed. The Leader of the Opposition has got form. It is about 2 am that he gets the front page of the Herald Sun and reads what his next clips might be. But this is a window into the policy narrative –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, relevance.

Tim RICHARDSON: Relevance from you?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Without assistance, member for Mordialloc. The debate is supposed to be on the amendments. We did stray a bit from that in the lead speech. I would encourage the member to come back to the amendments, please.

Tim RICHARDSON: We heard in 1800 seconds – 30 minutes – cost, tax and nothing about the need to fund emergency services, and they are they are the fundamental principles of the suggested amendments. The increase in the guarantee from 87.5 to 90 per cent, following consultation with firefighters and the FRV – let us just take that back a step. That is not narrated as a cost or a tax dollar that should be taken away or out of the pockets of taxpayers, as the member for Brighton said, which is absolutely –

Sam Groth interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Nepean is warned.

Tim RICHARDSON: absolutely the case. They would cut, slash and take hundreds of millions out of emergency services. We have seen tonight, in the response given, whatever consideration the member for Brighton put forward. But the member for Brighton not once said that the investment in emergency services was a necessary thing, that any additional investment in emergency services, any additional thing for CFA, for their trucks and fleets and their need for replacements, or the case that has been put forward –

James Newbury interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Brighton has been warned.

Tim RICHARDSON: by Fire Rescue Victoria for their ageing fleet and the replacements that are needed or the SES and their funding needs in the future.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Eureka – 10 minutes.

Member for Eureka withdrew from chamber.

Tim RICHARDSON: That is clearly spelt out – that the needs of the ageing fleets in CFA, Fire Rescue Victoria and the SES that have been put forward would not be supported, because in not one second of that contribution over 30 minutes was a case put forward for additional funding for any emergency services – not once. That was an opportunity, and those –

Richard Riordan interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Polwarth can leave for 10 minutes.

Member for Polwarth withdrew from chamber.

Tim RICHARDSON: opposite, like the member for Polwarth, narrate that it is not part of the amendments. Well, it is literally in the amendments guaranteeing a funding levy for emergency services. As he rants and goes and thinks about wind farms and wire rope barriers, maybe he should have a think about the emergency services that need to be funded into the future and the impacts of climate change and other changes into the future and how they will impact on our communities and the need for support going forward.

There is a significant number of amendments, and, importantly, some footnotes in the amendments that will be gazetted show clearly in the documentation where that funding will go and where the levy will be spent. That is important on behalf of Victorians. Critically the government is committing to a guaranteed level of funding for the CFA, Fire Rescue Victoria and the State Emergency Service by removing the words ‘up to’ for these agencies. Brigades 33 and 34 – Mentone and Highett – service my community in the north of my electorate. I have a volunteer CFA brigade. I have an integrated brigade at Patterson River that supports my community –

Cindy McLeish interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: What do they think of me, member for Eildon? I will be at a CFA dinner – the 100 years of Edithvale CFA – on Saturday night, so I will ask them. But they keep having me back, and they had me ring the bell. I see time and time again career firefighters who serve my community, and I put on the record my thanks and appreciation to them. Their representations around ageing fleet into the future are a well-made case in point, and I hope that this goes to some of the funding and support that is needed for the critical work that they do, including to the ageing fleet of the CFA, and more funding for the State Emergency Service. I have Greater Dandenong SES and Chelsea SES in my communities. This is what this is about. It is not just about tax to take from community, it is about justifying the emergency services investment into the future. In a 30-minute contribution that had 3 minutes of content, you would have thought there could have been 3 seconds to say we should fund emergency services more – not once was that uttered. It was only about the cuts that would be made and the impacts that have on emergency services into the future. These are important amendments. They needed the consideration of the upper house in our Parliament and the important consultation frame they have gone through. It is important to get these through the house.

James Newbury interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Brighton – 10 minutes.

Member for Brighton withdrew from chamber.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (00:24): I have just got one question for the member for Mordialloc. If this bill and these amendments are so much about supporting our emergency services workers, why are those that are supposedly benefiting from them downing tools tonight in protest at this legislation? The member for Brighton talked about 160. I had my own captains telling me that 160 brigades had parked up. The Herald Sun is now reporting that 200 brigades have parked up tonight and said, ‘We are unavailable because we are protesting against this new tax.’ If it is so good for emergency services, why are those volunteers that get up on the trucks and fight for our communities day in and day out parking up those trucks? They are doing it because they know this is a con job. They know this is not about emergency services. This is about fixing the budget black hole that the Allan Labor government has established.

It is absolutely clear, and yet the member for Mordialloc goes for 10 minutes and cannot even acknowledge that. This is not $2.1 billion of extra funding for emergency services. This is a big cost-‍shift. This is a tax pea-and-thimble trick. We are taking half-a-dozen agencies that are core government services and have always been funded by consolidated revenue, we are shifting them out of consolidated revenue and we are charging Victorian taxpayers for them again – $2.1 billion. When those in the other place asked the Treasurer how much it is saving consolidated revenue, she did not even have the decency to tell Victorians what it is. The government has at least been able to advise us that nearly $1 billion in costs for Triple Zero Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria and Emergency Management Victoria will now be taken out and put into this great big new tax that Victorians are going to have to pay. So do not tell me, member for Mordialloc, that this is about supporting our emergency services workers. This is just a budget cost-shift, and the member for Mordialloc would know it if he stopped just reading the government lines that he gets every time. He reckoned the member for Brighton gave the same speech for 30 minutes. We just heard the same 1-‍minute speech from the member for Mordialloc for 10 minutes, over and over and over again.

As for the deals with the Greens, those of us on this side are pretty sick of hearing those on that side say how bad the Greens are and then them going home every night and jumping back into bed with them. Whether it is preferences or it is deals like this, here we are. I am disappointed that the Minister for Finance is not here, because he loves to get outraged. Whenever there is an opportunity, they say, ‘We’ll cut a deal with the Greens,’ and here is the deal we have got today. Farmers are so rapt – I am hearing from them all around the state – they are no longer going to have to pay a 189 per cent increase in their fire services levy; thanks to the Greens they are only going to have to pay 150 per cent. They are dancing in the streets at how wonderful this deal is that the Greens have cut with the government. I might add that not one of the suggested amendments that we are talking about here actually reflects the deal that the Greens have supposedly done with the Labor Party, because all of it is on trust. Apparently we are going to have all sorts of other deals that the government is going to announce, and the Greens are expecting us to be happy about it. It is absolutely outrageous. They say, ‘We’re saving you something’ – as I said, golly gee, we are dancing in the street. It is now only a three times increase in our fire services levy instead of a four times increase. You cannot put lipstick on a pig and tell me it is pretty. This is just a joke.

It is not just about the farmers. Even after this deal we will still have every home owner in the state paying double for their emergency services levy, every commercial business owner in the state paying double and every industrial property owner in the state paying a 64 per cent increase – and every renter. The member for Brighton touched on this, but what he did not touch on was one of the answers given by the Treasurer in the other place, which was that the out years for the budget update show an increase next year of $610 million and then for the two out years after that another $765 million each year. The Treasurer just acknowledged that that $310 million over the last two years is a new tax, a new increase, a doubling of the rate and a doubling of the fixed charge on non-principal private residences. Now, what are they? They are predominantly places landlords provide for people to rent. Another $310 million is to be added to the rental bill at a time that this state is suffering a rental crisis of both availability and affordability. The geniuses on the Treasury benches over there think another $310 million is a good idea to add to that – what a disgrace.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: Exactly, member for Evelyn: the Greens also think that is a good idea. These are people who stand there and profess to be in favour of renters and supporting them, but instead they are going to whack another $310 million of tax on the rental sector. That is just ridiculous.

Every Victorian pays for this, because all of these charges get passed on. The member for Mordialloc should understand, as we do over here, that when you add taxes to Victorians, which they cannot pass on, it hurts. It hurts in a cost-of-living crisis. We know that our farmers are struggling at the moment. We know that as a result of drought, particularly in western Victoria, they are feeling the pinch, and the thanks that they get from this government is this new big tax – a 150 per cent increase on their taxes, which they will fight. You wonder why they turn up on the front steps of Parliament to protest. You wonder why they are downing tools tonight and parking up trucks at 200 brigades around the state. They are the ones who get on those trucks. They are the volunteers. When I spoke to them out the front the other day I said, ‘Put your hand up if you’re a farmer.’ Ninety per cent of the crowd did. I said, ‘Keep your hand up if you’re a volunteer.’ Ninety per cent of the crowd kept their hands up, because they are the people that actually get up and do it. Yet we have got this government putting a tax on them for the joy of volunteering their time to go out and look after our communities. It is all about this Labor government’s inability to manage money. It is all about trying to save money from consolidated revenue and add it to Victorians to pay another big tax.

We have been getting messages of support tonight to keep up the fight on this issue. Every one of us on this side has been hearing from people in our communities, telling us about the fire brigades that are shutting down tonight, telling us to keep going and telling us to keep the fight up against this great big new tax. We have a Treasurer over there who has made this deal with the Greens and has admitted in the other place that she does not know the cost of it. If I say Labor cannot manage money, there is your evidence for it. They make a deal and they make a change to the rates that people are going to be charged, and they cannot tell Victorians what that will cost. We know, though, that what the government has budgeted is $2.1 billion. We also know therefore, given the changes they have made today, that whatever they put out on Tuesday is irrelevant. It is not worth the paper it is written on because the government does not know what these changes impact. Mr Davis in the other place even tried to follow up. He asked if it was tens of millions of dollars or if it was hundreds of millions of dollars. The Treasurer could not tell him. This is a government that cannot manage money.

Sam Groth interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: He put it in as simple economic terms as he possibly could, but she could not answer the question. I say again to the government: if this bill is about supporting emergency services workers, why are they protesting on the front steps of Parliament? Why are they bringing their trucks – including their private trucks that they use regularly to support all their communities, including Crown land areas – and complaining on the front steps of Parliament? Why has this debate united a disparate group of organisations throughout the community? This slug is lumped on all Victorians because Labor cannot manage money, and all Victorians are paying the price.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (00:34): No-one is enjoying the increasing frequency and ferocity of fires, storms and floods, and it is the emergency services who are on the front line and having to cop that day in, day out. We cannot just sit on our hands and pretend it is not getting worse and is not getting harder for them. That is exactly the imperative for these changes. We must back in our emergency services. I will only speak to the suggested amendments, and I will speak briefly, because I do trust that the matter has been thoroughly transacted in the upper house, which is completely appropriate. Also, the member for Mordialloc has spoken to many aspects of this very important legislation. I should say that the suggested amendments that were introduced in that house have had thorough consultation with community members, volunteers and farmers. It is very important that do I emphasise that the government will commit to a guaranteed level of funding for the CFA, Fire Rescue Victoria and the Victoria State Emergency Service by removing the words ‘up to’ from these agencies’ funding allocations. As we have made clear before –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: You misunderstood what I said. As we have made clear before, this will have no impact on the budgets of these agencies, but it will ensure that the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund is only funding our frontline emergency services. It is about services, and I am not surprised that those opposite do not care about services. But we do, and that is why we are backing them in. We are also increasing the funding percentage for FRV that can be collected under the levy from 87.5 to 90 per cent, following consultation with firefighters. This will guarantee funding for Fire Rescue Victoria. In talking about accountability, we are proposing an annual reporting clause requiring the Treasurer to detail via the Government Gazette how the revenue collected through the levy is being spent, including a breakdown by entity and the percentage of the annual budget of the entity being funded.

As a final note, I should also say we are proposing to insert footnotes to clarify exactly what areas of the Department of Justice and Community Safety and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action budget funding is being allocated to, reaffirming that only direct emergency response and recovery functions are being funded through the levy. I hope that allays some of the concerns and perhaps surmounts some of the extraordinary misinformation and distortion that is being perpetuated by those opposite.

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (00:37): I must say that the member for Albert Park did not allay any of our fears – not even a little bit. We are here to debate suggested amendments – I think it is about the first time I have ever debated suggested amendments – and just when you think the government cannot get any worse, they do. They continue to get worse. This time they have got worse with the help of a section of the crossbench – the Greens in particular – who have really sold out, as we have heard, on renters, which is really disappointing. I listened to quite a bit of the debate and watched how they formulated the suggested amendments. As has already been canvassed, when the Treasurer was asked about costings and what the deals and the changes mean – I wrote down her quote – she said, ‘We are working through the announcements I have made today. We are working through them.’ I reckon the budget is already printed. Now all of these numbers in the budget are rubbery, because she has entered into some deals and because they needed to get this through to address that big black hole – that big budget deficit that they have got, which is rapidly hitting $200 billion. This is a big new tax. When you look at the bill itself and the suggested amendments, it is under the guise of helping emergency services like the CFA, SES and Fire Rescue Victoria. It is under the guise of helping volunteers and our emergency services, but as I have said, the government has lost control of the budget and lost control of its spending, and it needs to grab another $2.14 billion. That is a sizable amount of money that they have to grab to fill one of their black holes. I know how desperate they would have been to do any deals to get that through, because they did not know how they were going to fill that otherwise.

What appalled me during this whole debate was that the Treasurer said people can afford to pay. I can believe she said it, because as I said, just when you think it cannot get any worse, the government does get worse. We are in a cost-of-living crisis. I know the government knows that. They do not listen. They keep hearing it time and time again, but it goes in one ear and out the other. This is the 60th tax that they have introduced – and these people can afford to pay? The farmers who were to be slugged with a 189 per cent increase in the fire services property levy, do you reckon they are singing along thinking ‘Wow, it’s only a 150 per cent increase’? The farmers in Mansfield, who have really severe drought conditions, and Murrindindi, where the dams are dry and paddocks have no feed on them, do you reckon they have got all this extra cash to fork out for this? In the Yarra Valley the price of an acre is quite hefty compared to other areas of the state. All of the vineyards and fruit growers down there, the orchardists, are not going to be dancing in the streets about a 150 per cent increase on what they were paying in the fire services levy. They are in drought. If you are a commercial operation and a home owner – double. People cannot afford to pay these costs during a cost-of-living crisis.

We have heard talk about the rebates for CFA members and the convoluted process that they are going to have to go through to get them. CFA members are in the emergency services and the volunteer brigades that the government looks to be talking about supporting. We have got them off line now; it is reported that a couple of hundred brigades are off line until Tuesday, and I have heard that Werribee is probably one of those. The member for Werribee bangs on about the Werribee CFA and about what a great member he was there. I am not sure that they believe that.

Members interjecting.

Cindy McLEISH: No, you had to make changes mid election for him. With what we have got here, one thing that we need to keep at the heart of this, which is again mentioned in the suggested amendments, is that not only are the CFA and so many farmers protesting, but core government services are going to be funded through this new tax. You should not be in such a position of financial incompetence that you have to tax everything just to pay for what you should be paying for already There is the VICSES; Triple Zero Victoria, which last year had a budget cut of $38 million but which now has got to get a little bit more to try and prop it up; the State Control Centre; Forest Fire Management Victoria; some functions in the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action; Emergency Management Victoria; and Emergency Alert – some $1 billion. This should be paid out of general revenue, out of consolidated revenue, not a new tax of about $1 billion that is going to pay for core government services. This is just financial negligence and incompetence.

We have our emergency services. We have Fire Rescue Victoria driving old trucks. What do they want? They want a rolling replacement program. That should be in place. Regardless of whether this goes through, the government needs to support our fire services, whether it is the paid career firefighters or the volunteers. I have volunteer stations that need upgrading, with trucks that also need to be replaced, that are just not getting a look in from the government, because they have gone broke. They cannot manage money and they cannot manage their finances, so they have got to put this new tax in there. This is just extraordinary. How much is the SES going to get out of this? How much is the CFA going to get? These are questions that could not be answered by the government. This is one of the most appalling and disappointing bills that I have seen before the Parliament. I am so disappointed in members of the crossbench. A member for Northern Victoria in the other place has ignored the conditions in Northern Victoria and the constituents that she represents. She has ignored them and sold out to the government. For what? I am not sure. As we said, the Greens have sold out. Who knows what deals have been done. ‘Trust us on this,’ says the government, I am sure. We have heard the government say before, ‘We don’t like the Greens. We don’t believe in all of the things that they do,’ but they are bedfellows and they cannot help themselves but continue to go back to get the support of the Greens to put in their additional taxes. We have the 60th tax coming into place, and this is a con job. It is a con because it is trying to fill the budget black hole. You should be able to fund our fire services and the core government services without such an enormous increase. This is shameful.

We have seen it with the mental health levy. The government wanted to fund mental health services by putting in a new tax. They are doing the same here. What is next? What will be the next tax that is in place to cover parts of the government that they cannot manage? This is just appalling, and I am so disappointed with this bill.

John LISTER (Werribee) (00:45): It looks like it was a liberal few hours in the bar earlier, but I shall not go too far into it. It is interesting that the member for Eildon wishes to cast aspersions on my role as a volunteer. I am saying that I was volunteering for them and turning out – well, I still am. In fact I am still so operational that around 9 minutes ago I received a page for a rescue call in Truganina to support the great staff at station 57, and this is the second rescue call that I have had since we have been here in this extended session. It is an honour to represent my community here, but it is also an honour to serve my community as a volunteer.

Members interjecting.

John LISTER: I think it is a pretty low demonstration of the respect they have for volunteers if they are yelling at someone talking about their volunteer experience.

I want to bring in a little bit of context. We are talking about some suggested amendments that have been made after some discussions and work that have been done in the upper house, and I thank those members in the upper house for their work. Those opposite say that this volunteer fund is going to cause deep damage to community. This is the same playbook that we saw a few years ago when again they had people on the front steps. They said that same thing. They had that same scare campaign when they opposed presumptive rights for firefighters, both volunteer and career. It is the same playbook, and it is shameful. They also opposed a combined fire agency for career firefighters.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! You were so civil for a little while there. The member to continue without assistance.

John LISTER: I do not want to turn into the member for Brighton and yell a lot, but this is something that I am particularly passionate about. Seeing this same cynical playbook being used by those opposite, I would like to reflect on some of the advocacy that has been done by the union that represents our career staff. There are some things in here that do go to address some of those concerns, although there is still more work to be done. Having that $40 million rolling fleet replacement program is really important. As someone who is also trained to operate and drive those div B pumpers, the Scanias, I understand some of the concerns they have. I would say the $110 million that we will be putting towards that rolling fleet replacement program is really important as well. It is not a waste, like the member for Brighton said it would be, to have this fund. He said it would be a waste to fund things like those new rescue trucks for the VICSES. We need to also recognise that this fund is about expanding those agencies that will receive that money. I look forward to going on Monday to the Wyndham SES unit to help out with the personal training that they are doing around physical training.

One thing that I would like to say in this entire debate is that that principle that we work as one in the emergency services is being lost. One of those important things is not only supporting those agencies that are responding to the pagers but also supporting those services that support those volunteers. The State Control Centre – literally it is in the name. I am not going to go into it. Emergency Recovery Victoria is supporting not only the people who are dealing with disaster relief on the ground or the SES units that are going out to do the clean-up but also those very communities that are affected. That has been clarified in the suggested amendment, and I think it is really important to clarify that that is what this money is going towards.

There is the emergency alert program. I am sure many of those opposite have got the VicEmergency app on their phones, and if they have not I would highly recommend getting it. VicEmergency is one of those things that is funded through the emergency alert program, as well as the text messaging service that we have. Although it was a little bit obscure and I had to triple-check what it was, the emergency management operational communications program that EMV runs also goes towards replacing things, and those are tenders that we have for radio equipment, pagers and other technology that we use to communicate between the emergency services – all important things.

If those opposite actually thought about what these things are and went into the detail, they would already know this, but the issue is they have not done that. They just choose to cause division in our emergency services. They choose to do that. They talk a lot about those trucks that have been taken offline. Well, I have to say –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Calm! The member for Werribee to continue in silence, please.

John LISTER: I thank all those volunteers that tonight are still turning out, including my comrades who are on that rescue truck right now.

I want to go back to the point that the fire services property levy does not apply to renters at the moment. We are not debating this being applicable to renters at all. It is a moot point. This is not something that I, as a renter, am looking for. This is something that we are doing to expand this fund and provide it to a range of emergency services, not just fire services. This is not about renting, this is about providing that guaranteed funding.

It is also good that amendments have come back to clarify that idea by taking out the words ‘up to’ and making sure that it is really clear that that is where the funding is going towards and that that funding for Fire Rescue Victoria is going from 87.5 to 90 per cent.

I note that I have probably spent the most time, compared to any of the speakers on that side, actually talking to the amendments. You might want to try it. I have only been here for a few months – those opposite might want to try it. In conclusion, I want to say that despite the noise from those opposite, people on this side will continue to work with our emergency services on what they need, and we will always go back to that principle that we are here to work as one with our emergency services workers, we are not here to divide them.

Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (00:52): In speaking to these amendments, I will start with a little bit of context. Increased bushfires, floods and storm events are the consequence of climate inaction by successive governments over decades. We are now starting to live through the very real consequences of that inaction, and as we all know, Victoria is one of the places that is the most vulnerable, particularly to bushfire. In this changed environment that we are all now living through it is critical that emergency services have the funding they need to keep the community safe and to help us recover after disasters, and we all expect that of our governments. Therefore these services need to be funded. We only need to look to the fires in Los Angeles to see what happens when emergency services are neglected and under-resourced for too long, and I do not think any of us want to be there. We wish that we were not living through a period of time of increased extreme weather, that we were not facing these increased risks and the costs that come with them, but we are. That is the reality of not taking action on climate change early enough. The Greens support fully and securely funding our emergency services, from career firefighters to volunteer firefighters and SES volunteers, because we need them and they need the vehicles, the radios and the equipment to keep us safe. As I mentioned –

Members interjecting.

Ellen SANDELL: Deputy Speaker, I think I deserve to be heard with a little bit of respect.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Ellen SANDELL: As I mentioned in my original speech on this bill, I have seen firsthand the work that our emergency services do. My dad worked in control centres during the Black Saturday bushfires in Marysville.

Richard Riordan interjected.

Ellen SANDELL: He has since passed away, member for Polwarth. I saw firsthand the work that our emergency services do when my community in Kensington was hit by floods in 2022. When I went to visit the SES, they had volunteers working out of a dusty shed filled with diesel fumes, with no phone coverage and no wi-fi, and we had a VicEmergency app that failed and was not able to give the community the warnings that they needed ahead of that flood. When the Greens first saw this bill a number of weeks ago we shared many of the concerns which have been raised by farmers and by firefighters about Labor’s changes to the fire services levy, about hardship, about farmers facing drought and about making sure the levy fully funds our emergency services and does not just pull the wool over Victorians’ eyes, and also the concerns from councils, which have not been canvassed quite as much in this debate, about the state government using them as a levy collection agency when they knew that residents would blame councils for a state government decision.

We have also had significant ongoing concerns about our firefighters, particularly our career firefighters, not having the safety conditions and equipment that they need to keep us safe. We were also concerned that money was going to be redirected from this levy to fund government administration while leaving key emergency services like firefighters without the basic funding to replace their fleet of ageing, unsafe fire trucks, which puts firefighters and the whole community at risk. That is exactly why we listened to those concerns and we pushed the government as far as possible to make significant changes to make the levy fairer and to ensure that it commits real additional funding to our emergency services and firefighters – amendments that you see before the house today. The amendments we have before us today, brought forward by the government – yes, at the request of the Greens – include increased and more secure funding for emergency services. Instead of the new levy providing no more than 87.5 per cent of FRV annual funding, which firefighters were concerned could potentially be a cut to firefighting budgets, it will now be required to provide no less than 90 per cent of FRV annual funding and no less than 95 per cent of funding to the CFA and SES, providing more ongoing security.

Other amendments and footnotes ensure the levy is strictly used for frontline emergency services and not for government administration. We also note other changes and commitments from the government in response to our concerns, including a guaranteed $10 million every year ongoing for a rolling fleet replacement program for out-of-date fire trucks for FRV on top of the funds for rolling fleet replacement for the CFA and additional money for vehicles and appliances for the SES. This is something that firefighters have been calling for for a long time without success, but it is now a reality.

Exemptions for farmers experiencing hardship due to drought was a commitment that we sought and received, as well as a significant additional drought relief package for farmers, details of which I believe will be released imminently. We have also secured an additional $15 million for support for farmers to reduce their energy bills to help with costs and transition away from expensive gas, which is only becoming more expensive, and a commitment to reducing the levy rate for primary production land, although I note that this bill and the amendments before us do not set the rate of the levy. That is set by the Treasurer separate to this bill; it is not something the Parliament has control over. All this legislation does is provide a legal tool to provide secure ongoing funding to our emergency services into the future, and that is what we are supporting. Another amendment that is before us today requires reporting on the money collected and allocated, which we also consider a good thing.

We also note a commitment and confirmation by the Treasurer in the other place that the government will not seek to reduce minimum firefighter crew numbers, which are vital to ensuring the safety of the community and our firefighters, which is separate from this bill but is obviously of great concern to firefighters and great concern to us in the Greens. We do remain concerned about other safety conditions for firefighters potentially being rolled back or undermined, and we will continue to fight for fair pay and conditions for the firies who keep us safe.

We also note commitments to councils to hopefully making administration easier, although we wish more changes would have been made to support councils in an environment where they are rate-capped and where we have cost shifting from the state government and where councils have not been treated with the respect from state government they deserve when they are working to serve their local communities. We ultimately felt that, although this is not the policy we would have designed or brought forward, we needed to make a decision on the bill and the amendments as they were brought before us. If we believe in greater funding for the SES, CFA, our career firefighters and our emergency services, which we do, we need to support legislation to make their funding secure.

I know there has been some commentary made in this place about renters, but it seems that the opposition has not read the legislation, because this levy is only levied on those who own property and have wealth in property, and it is progressive – the more wealth somebody has, the more they pay. This revenue measure, should it pass, gives the state Labor government the ability to fund the things we all need to live a good life here in Victoria, including well-resourced emergency services. Therefore the Labor government now has no excuse to cut jobs, services or programs that Victorians rely upon.

We also hope that, now seeing the consequences of climate inaction, this government and all governments will start to invest much more heavily in climate mitigation in order to do everything in their power to avoid the worsening impacts of climate change and more frequent and intense extreme weather events. Every 0.1 degree of climate warming matters to the quality of our lives and the quality of the lives that our children and grandchildren will live and the intensity of disasters that they will experience. The Greens will be supporting these amendments.

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (01:01): I move:

That the question be now put.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I note that the Nationals have only had one speaker. I am inclined to not put the question at this stage and encourage the Nationals, should they wish to speak, to try and get the call at the next opportunity before the question is put.

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (01:02): I am happy to speak on the bill. I speak on the suggested amendments to the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund. The elements of the bill have been well canvassed, particularly by the member for Werribee. Some of the treatment of his contribution was less than what I would expect in a place like this. These amendments go to supporting the SES and other emergency services, but I just want to give a shout-out to the SES in Point Cook, who have recently had a new SES facility opened. They received as part of that, and as part of the effort by a number of MPs on this side of the house, a medium rescue truck, a light rescue truck, a twin-cab support vehicle and a storm trailer. I hope that this bill and the amendments to this bill –

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Speaker, we are here to debate the suggested amendments brought from the Legislative Council, and the member on his feet is just giving cheerios instead. I ask you to bring him back to the amendments.

Mathew HILAKARI: On the point of order, Speaker, I am speaking to the funding that is provided and will be provided through these amendments to the emergency services.

The SPEAKER: There have been a few members who have drifted away from the amendments that are before the house at the moment. I will give the member some leverage, but I do remind him about what we are here to debate this evening.

Mathew HILAKARI: What I specifically go to is by removing the words ‘up to’ I hope that the services and the emergency services that are in the community that I represent can be spread all across the state in the quality of the facilities and vehicles and the support for emergency services.

As the Deputy Speaker has indicated, we would like to see a Nationals member speak to this bill so we can further understand any contributions that they have to this place. I commend the speedy passage of these amendments.

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Speaker, I rise to move that the motion be put, on the basis –

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the House, you cannot do it through a point of order.

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (01:06): I desire to move:

That the question be now put.

The SPEAKER: You cannot debate it; you just have to put the motion.

Sam Groth interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! I haven’t finished speaking, member for Nepean. Based on the ruling that the Deputy Speaker gave just a few moments ago, I think there is an indication to the house that we will allow a few more speakers, particularly from the party of the Nationals, who have only had one speaker. We will give them an opportunity.

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (01:06): We have been hearing from the other side how the suggested changes show respect, and this is the most disrespectful thing I have ever witnessed for our volunteers. Over the last decade we have seen a lot of disrespect, particularly for our CFA volunteers, but I think this is absolutely the most disrespectful. This is a ghastly tax that every Victorian is going to be subjected to. Every home in Victoria will be subjected to this by paying double. Every renter will be affected by this. Every farmer will be paying an extra 150 per cent on what they have been paying in the past, and they are struggling. But to add insult to injury, the wind farms will be paying less – a reduction for the wind farms of a massive 96 per cent. So here are our volunteers, many of them in rural communities, paying twice as much as anybody else in Victoria and receiving the most disrespectful insult from this government. This is an assault on the farmers, on Victorians, on rural communities, on every Victorian. Everybody is opposed to this tax.

Volunteers cannot abide what they are being subjected to in the middle of a drought that is gripping our community in south-west Victoria, where it has not been this bad since we began taking records in Victoria, since the early 1900s. This is a government who thinks it is time to add more taxes on a community that is struggling, the rural community. Just today we had a fire in Hamilton at 11:32, we had a fire in Scotts Creek, we had a fire at Ecklin South, we had a fire in Port Fairy, we had a fire in Warrnambool and we had a fire on Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road. That many fires popped up on my app today, which my volunteer brigades and the paid firefighters in the Warrnambool brigade would have attended. Those farmers, those volunteers, those community members turned out and got on with the job today of protecting our community. Tonight those same people were inundating me with calls, saying, ‘Are you listening to what’s happening out there? Are you hearing that brigade after brigade is going off line?’ The volunteers were revolting. They were revolting against this tax. The volunteers were calling in. One said to me, ‘Tell the government to get Fire Rescue Victoria and the Forest Fire Management Victoria guys; they can fight fires – we’ve had enough.’ Another farmer, a volunteer – a guy who I have known for a long time who has volunteered probably for 30 years on the back of a truck – said to me, ‘Do you know how tough it is out here, Roma? Can you ask the Premier if she’s prepared to watch the people on the ropes?’ They are his words. He was saying there will be suicides, it is that bad out there.

The farmers do not have the money to pay for this. They do not have anything left. They are at the end of their tether. They are despairing. Have you ever actually faced a fire? Have you ever been on the back of a truck? Have you been on your farm and seen on the horizon the fire coming towards you? Have you ever been in a situation where you have had to open the gates and let every animal out because you just cannot see them perish and you hope that they can flee and fend for themselves? Have you ever had to make those decisions? We in the country do. I have. I have had to be evacuated. I have had to go to an evacuation centre. It is a significantly distressing time. Those volunteers go into the face of that fire, and they have had enough. They have worked for our communities with no thanks – not that they want it – but this slap in the face is just one slap too many. This is a government that has totally disrespected rural communities.

If this is not a tax that is bad, why is everybody revolting? Why are they handing in their keys to the Premier’s office in Bendigo? Why are they saying they are going to do it? Furthermore, why are they saying that on Tuesday they are going to be on the steps again? Why were hundreds of firefighters, farmers who had left their farms, on the steps last week? These are people whose animals are not grazing at the moment. They are feeding every animal by hand. It is an absolutely back-breaking job. To give that message strongly to the government, they fed their animals at 4 o’clock in the morning or the night before, they drove the 3 or 4 hours here and then they drove home again to feed their stock. Why is the Allan Labor government ignoring the very people who have saved our countryside time and time again, from Black Saturday to St Patrick’s Day to fires as far back as Ash Wednesday? These fires keep coming. They always have. They always will, so we need the surge capacity. We cannot disrespect these people, and this is what this Allan Labor government have done. Every single Victorian will suffer because of this disgraceful assault on farmers, on Victorians, on every home, on renters. This is not what governments should be doing. This should be funded, and has always been funded, out of consolidated revenue. It is a double whammy tax, and that is in the face of a drought, so make of that what you will.

I did not hear farmers talking about their mental health, I really did not, but I am now. That is how bad it is. I have never seen it this bad. This is not the time to do what you are doing to our rural communities. These people put food on our tables, put clothes on our backs and bring in income for us a state. They export to countries all around the world a very clean and green product that is wanted everywhere, because food, as obvious as this is to state, is really necessary. We must not keep our struggling farmers from being able to do their job. As one farmer said to me last week, ‘When you get a wage, you pay taxes. We haven’t got any income and we’re paying taxes.’ How can that make sense? They need support. They do not need a tax on top of the land taxes and on top of the 60 taxes that this government has brought in over the last 10 years.

This government have failed at managing the economy, have failed at managing their own budget and cannot even work out how to present this budget. They have obviously printed it and now are trying to back-pedal and figure out a way to sell it on Tuesday next week. There are big gaping holes in it that will not add up or make sense, but they will spin their way out of that, just like they are experts at doing. There will be all sorts of secrecy, just like the lack of transparency that exists within this government. But no-one is fooled anymore. You do not fool people from the country. They are very respectful, but when they come in their droves like they are doing now, they are after you. They will not tolerate this. They have to wait another 560 days until they can make that message heard at the ballot box, but they will do that, because I think this is a step too far. In the middle of the worst drought in history, this is the debate we are having in this chamber tonight. It is beyond belief.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (01:15): I rise to speak in support of this bill and these amendments that have come back from the upper house, and of course what we are not hearing from the opposition is that this is a bill and a set of amendments that are all about supporting our emergency services workers and volunteers. It is about supporting our SES. It is about supporting our CFA. It is about supporting Fire Rescue Victoria workers. It is about supporting Emergency Management Victoria workers. It is about supporting Triple Zero Victoria workers, particularly the frontline workers, call-takers and dispatchers at the coalface of the emergency services network, and it is about supporting the workers at the frontline of the State Control Centre. It is a bill that is about helping keep Victorians safe. It is a bill that responds – and we do not hear this from the opposition – to the consequences of climate change, which they deny. So on the one hand they deny the consequences of climate change when it comes to more extreme weather events, more bushfires, more floods, more extreme weather that we are seeing at the coalface and that Victorians are suffering from, and on the other hand they are opposing the very bill that would provide the funding for those emergency services to help mitigate against those impacts of climate change and to help keep Victorians safe. I need to remind the opposition here that it is a bill that has been called for by the emergency services sector, particularly the SES, and I acknowledge Goldie Pergl from my local SES, who has been here tonight. We worked so closely with them to progress these reforms.

There are a number of amendments obviously that have returned from the upper house, all of which I refer to the opposition and to my colleagues who made previous contributions that detailed those extensive amendments, which provide a balanced, proportionate and fair way to progress this bill going forward to keep Victorians safe, to support our emergency workers and also to combat and mitigate against the impacts of climate change. I commend the amendments.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: It is not too early in the morning for members to be removed from the chamber.

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (01:17): I tell you what this emergency services tax bill is; it is about filling a big budget black hole. It is about the Allan Labor government failing to manage money, and it is every single Victorian that will pay the price. It does not matter if you own a home, it does not matter if you are a renter, it does not matter if you run a business and it certainly does not matter if you run a farm and you grow food to feed Victorians, feed Australians and feed the world: you are the people that will pay the price – and this is after Labor has treated emergency services so badly in Victoria. Last year there was a $400 million cut in the budget for emergency services. We have got short memories over here, don’t we? We forget the cuts. We forget the way that you have treated emergency services over the years, and I tell you what, there are a lot of concerns as well –

The SPEAKER: Member for Lowan, through the Chair.

Emma KEALY: There is also – and I acknowledge Peter Marshall, who I understand has written some correspondence today.

The SPEAKER: Member for Lowan, I would ask you not to acknowledge people in the gallery. It is against the standing orders.

Emma KEALY: This letter has been made public – a letter to the Greens. If you look at what has happened, it is not just the Allan Labor government who have sold out every single Victorian, who have sold out emergency services workers in this state, they have also been supported and aided and abetted by the Greens and those micro-parties and independents who were desperate to get this across the line because they have got no conscience and have sold their soul for the sake of a little bit of glory and maybe a secret deal that we will catch the consequences of somewhere down the track – a little secret backroom deal that none of us know about. None of us know anything about it, and we would like to know what it is. I can tell you one thing: it is not worth $2 billion extracted out of the pockets of Victorians who are struggling with cost-of-living pressures. They cannot afford to keep a roof over their head. We have got farmers in the midst of one of the worst droughts in decades, if not for a century, who are under so much pressure at the moment they cannot make ends meet. They cannot get fodder in Victoria to keep their stock alive. They cannot source water anywhere. Do you know where a lot of the water went? I will tell you where it went in western Victoria: it was put on the Grampians bushfire and the Little Desert fire. Any surface water that we had in western Victoria was used for putting a fire out, so we do not have any surface water.

Members interjecting.

Emma KEALY: A fabulous question. Who put the fires out? The volunteers. The emergency services workers and Forest Fire Management Victoria. We have to acknowledge all of them. They worked so hard. They gave up their Christmas, they gave up their New Year’s Eve, they gave up their public holiday on Australia Day, they gave up their summer holidays and they gave up their time on their farms to volunteer to be on the back of a fire truck. They paid for their staff to be on the back of a fire truck. They stopped and reduced their productivity on their farms because they were off their property trying to protect our natural assets and protect other farms. I think it is one of the most inflammatory things that has ever been said by the Premier or by any of the backbenchers, who have just gone on and followed the speaking notes today, that this is all about the problem we have got of having more fires. How hard do you think that is to hear when you are one of the 42 residents of Pomonal who lost their home to bushfire last year? ‘It’s your fault. You’ve had to process more fires.’

The SPEAKER: Member for Lowan, through the Chair. I would ask you not to use ‘you’. You are reflecting on the Chair.

Emma KEALY: I am referring to the people of Pomonal, Speaker. How are they supposed to feel when they have lost everything they own in their residential property? They have lost childhood memories. They have lost baby photos and wedding photos. They have lost everything, and now they have to pay more in taxes – so that they can do what? What do they get out of it? They get a great big tax bill because it is the Allan Labor government who cannot manage money, and it is Victorians that are paying the price. It happens time and time and time again. I want to refer back to a piece of correspondence that has come by my desk from the United Firefighters Union, written by Peter Marshall, and I will quote some of that, if I may:

This evening, the Victorian Greens sold out Victorian firefighters and the Victorian community they protect.

Sadly, every Victorian will suffer the consequences.

There will no doubt be consequences for the Victorian Greens at the 2026 State Election, for acting as the artificial lung of a dying Labor Government.

That is a reflection on the Victorian Greens, who are not fighting for this money to go into making sure we are better managing our forests out there. You are not fighting to make sure that we are doing more cool burns to reduce the fuel loads in our forests, so we do not have those dirty great big hot fires that take out our old-growth trees. You are not fighting for any of that. We are not seeing that from the Victorian Greens at all. They are just selling their souls and they are happy, though I bet you what will happen at the next election is we are going to see the little love tryst come up again and reignite between Labor and the Greens. There are not many people over on the Labor benches who would not be here today if it was not for those preferences of the Greens. It is the little red and green love tryst, where they do not like each other until it comes to election time, and then they are bosom buddies. It is the most bizarre thing I have seen. It is so grossly unfair that just 0.5 per cent of the funding that is raised through this tax will go back into rolling stock. There is no change. How on earth can we think that it would be fair that only 0.5 per cent –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, I would ask you to stand and apologise for reflecting on the Chair.

Brad Battin: Sorry.

Emma KEALY: Only 0.5 per cent of the money that is raised through this dirty great big new tax is going to go back into rolling stock. We have got so much money; this is $2 billion. There should not be a truck in all of Victoria that is not replaced in the next 12 months, and yet we have got this tiny, little, short list. I did not see any new stations in there. Henty needs a new station. That was not on the list. Charlton needs one. There we go. It is really strange, because we have seen some significant investment by the Labor government in some fire stations – like Bendigo. That is a pretty flash set-up, isn’t it? Yet it sits empty. There is nobody using it. There was money to throw out at that one, but nobody is even using it. What a perfect example of Premier Allan and the Labor government, who are happy to just throw money out.

They cannot manage money. They have not been able to manage their infrastructure and their assets, including the rolling stock of the CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria, and it is Victorians that again will pay the price. If you could not manage the last budget, how on earth are you going to be trusted to spend $10 billion of Victorian taxpayer money? We are never going to see where it goes. We know what happens with any of the taxes that Labor bring in: ‘We promise we’re going to spend all the mental health tax on mental health. Oh, hang on, we’re going to throw it somewhere else and we’re not going to tell you where it goes.’

It is a disgrace that at the time that this bill is being debated CFA volunteers are standing down. We have got emergency services in Victoria stepping down and walking away. We have got a disastrous collapse of emergency services in Victoria, yet we have got a Labor government which is asleep at the wheel. They are deliberately ignoring the will of the Victorian people, particularly the will of farmers, particularly the will of CFA volunteers and particularly the will of people who work in emergency management, and that is an utter disgrace for every single member of the Labor government, of the Greens and of those independents who did a dirty deal to get this deal across the line.

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services) (01:27): I move:

That the question be now put.

Assembly divided Mary-Anne Thomas’s motion:

Ayes (52): Juliana Addison, Jacinta Allan, Colin Brooks, Josh Bull, Anthony Carbines, Ben Carroll, Anthony Cianflone, Sarah Connolly, Chris Couzens, Jordan Crugnale, Lily D’Ambrosio, Daniela De Martino, Gabrielle de Vietri, Steve Dimopoulos, Paul Edbrooke, Eden Foster, Matt Fregon, Ella George, Luba Grigorovitch, Bronwyn Halfpenny, Katie Hall, Paul Hamer, Mathew Hilakari, Melissa Horne, Natalie Hutchins, Sonya Kilkenny, Nathan Lambert, John Lister, Gary Maas, Alison Marchant, Kathleen Matthews-Ward, Steve McGhie, Paul Mercurio, John Mullahy, Danny Pearson, Tim Read, Pauline Richards, Tim Richardson, Ellen Sandell, Michaela Settle, Ros Spence, Nick Staikos, Natalie Suleyman, Meng Heang Tak, Jackson Taylor, Nina Taylor, Kat Theophanous, Mary-Anne Thomas, Iwan Walters, Vicki Ward, Dylan Wight, Belinda Wilson

Noes (27): Brad Battin, Jade Benham, Roma Britnell, Tim Bull, Martin Cameron, Chris Crewther, Wayne Farnham, Sam Groth, Matthew Guy, David Hodgett, Emma Kealy, Tim McCurdy, Cindy McLeish, James Newbury, Danny O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Kim O’Keeffe, John Pesutto, Richard Riordan, Brad Rowswell, David Southwick, Bill Tilley, Bridget Vallence, Peter Walsh, Kim Wells, Rachel Westaway, Jess Wilson

Motion agreed to.

Assembly divided on motion:

Ayes (52): Juliana Addison, Jacinta Allan, Colin Brooks, Josh Bull, Anthony Carbines, Ben Carroll, Anthony Cianflone, Sarah Connolly, Chris Couzens, Jordan Crugnale, Lily D’Ambrosio, Daniela De Martino, Gabrielle de Vietri, Steve Dimopoulos, Paul Edbrooke, Eden Foster, Matt Fregon, Ella George, Luba Grigorovitch, Bronwyn Halfpenny, Katie Hall, Paul Hamer, Mathew Hilakari, Melissa Horne, Natalie Hutchins, Sonya Kilkenny, Nathan Lambert, John Lister, Gary Maas, Alison Marchant, Kathleen Matthews-Ward, Steve McGhie, Paul Mercurio, John Mullahy, Danny Pearson, Tim Read, Pauline Richards, Tim Richardson, Ellen Sandell, Michaela Settle, Ros Spence, Nick Staikos, Natalie Suleyman, Meng Heang Tak, Jackson Taylor, Nina Taylor, Kat Theophanous, Mary-Anne Thomas, Iwan Walters, Vicki Ward, Dylan Wight, Belinda Wilson

Noes (27): Brad Battin, Jade Benham, Roma Britnell, Tim Bull, Martin Cameron, Chris Crewther, Wayne Farnham, Sam Groth, Matthew Guy, David Hodgett, Emma Kealy, Tim McCurdy, Cindy McLeish, James Newbury, Danny O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Kim O’Keeffe, John Pesutto, Richard Riordan, Brad Rowswell, David Southwick, Bill Tilley, Bridget Vallence, Peter Walsh, Kim Wells, Rachel Westaway, Jess Wilson

Motion agreed to.

The SPEAKER: A message will now be sent to the Legislative Council informing them of the Assembly’s decision.