Thursday, 19 June 2025

Fire Rescue Victoria

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. What is the Fire Rescue Victoria base budget for 2025–26?

Vicki WARD (Eltham – Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Natural Disaster Recovery, Minister for Equality) (14:34): I thank the Leader of the Nationals for his question. I do note that this is the third time that there has been an attempt by those opposite to try and construct a false narrative about the nearly $2 billion that we have invested in emergency services in this budget. As I said on Tuesday and Wednesday, that is more than double what those opposite invested when they were last in government. It is accurately displayed every year in the organisation’s annual report, which was explained to those opposite at PAEC multiple times by both the Premier and the Treasurer. Again, I am very sorry that the Leader of the Nationals is so disappointed with the performance of his PAEC team –

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order on the question of debating, Deputy Speaker, I am wondering if the minister is now saying that Victorians do not get budgets until the end of the financial year, which is completely the opposite to what we do with the budget process.

Mary-Anne Thomas: Deputy Speaker, there is no point of order. The Leader of the Nationals knows full well that points of order are not an opportunity to re-ask the question or to patronise the minister. I ask that you rule it out of order.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not uphold the point of order.

Vicki WARD: I will take the opportunity to give a shout-out to the 4500 workers at FRV who do an incredible job. The Leader of the Nationals does seem to have some challenges in understanding how the emergency services are funded. I think that we need to understand that because of the nature of emergencies – that is, they occur quickly – there is regular supplementation that is needed. For example, if the Leader of the Nationals took some time to notice it, in the 2022–23 SES annual report funding increased by over 80 per cent because of the enormous effort and response from the SES to the October 2022 floods. This occurs across our emergency services, including FRV.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on relevance, the question was not about the SES. It was a very narrow question about the Fire Rescue Victoria base budget. I would ask you to ask the minister to be relevant to that very narrow question.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister had been answering on fire services and the budget, and I ask her to come back to that.

Vicki WARD: I was trying to give context to support and help the Leader of the Nationals to actually understand how the emergency services are funded. I do think that the Leader of the Nationals got to the crux of his line of questioning with his supplementary question yesterday. He is trying to create, again, a false narrative that we are not supporting our emergency services when indeed we have record funding.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order again on relevance, Deputy Speaker, this is a very, very simple, straightforward question. The minister can get rid of false narratives if she just answers the question.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister had just strayed from the answer, and I ask her to come back. The minister has finished her answer.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:38): The government is desperately trying to hide from Victorians the fact that our emergency services agencies are facing budget cuts, despite Labor slugging Victorians with a new $3 billion tax bill. Minister, during a cost-of-living crisis, are Victorians being hit with higher taxes and our emergency services budgets being cut simply because Labor cannot manage money?

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Mordialloc can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Mordialloc withdrew from chamber.

Vicki WARD (Eltham – Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Natural Disaster Recovery, Minister for Equality) (14:39): I am glad that the Leader of the Nationals recognises that this is a false narrative, and the answer to his question is no.