Tuesday, 14 October 2025

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:37): My question is to the Minister for Environment. Will the minister guarantee there will be no increase in the emergency services tax to cover the cost of faulty forest fire management firefighting appliances, which have currently been pulled out of commission?

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (14:37): I thank the Leader of the Nationals, the member for Gippsland South, for his question. This is a very important matter, and it is important on two fronts. One is because there is consistent fearmongering on the other side. Our good men and women in forest fire management and in fact right through the volunteer and the paid workforce that look after all of us, but principally look after regional and rural Victorians, because that is where natural disasters seem to land more and more –

The SPEAKER: Minister, could you cease and desist from banging on the table, please.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: Sorry, Speaker. Of course. So the answer to the question of the Leader of the Nationals is no –

Members interjecting.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: Sorry – apologies. Our forest fire management services are fully funded and they are fully prepared for this upcoming and very, very concerning fire season – the good men and women, the fleet, the aerial fleet, all the resources. The chief fire officer assures me we are abundantly prepared with our partners, including the CFA and the SES, and all the other good work that we have done in preparing public land predominantly but also private land for the bushfire season ahead. What the emergency services levy does, as you have heard multiple times from the Premier and others, is guarantee the funding for the future of all these important services so they are not up for question when they come in and cut everything.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, on the question of relevance, under the act forest fire management or DEECA, for which the minister is responsible, must advise the Treasurer of its funding needs before she sets the emergency services tax rates. The question that I have asked the minister to come back to is: will this need to increase to pay for these faulty appliances?

The SPEAKER: Order! For a start, can I just say once again that a point of order is not an opportunity to make a statement to the house. The minister was being relevant to the question that was asked.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: As I referenced, the fearmongering from the other side about faulty appliances –

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Steve DIMOPOULOS: The member has never held an executive position, so he does not understand how these things are operationalised – ever. One day, hopefully never, he will get the privilege.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Minister, you will leave the chamber for half an hour. Order! The member for South-West Coast can leave the chamber for an hour and a half.

Minister for Environmentand member for South-West Coastwithdrew from chamber.

The SPEAKER: If there are further members that wish to speak while I am on my feet, now is your chance. Leader of the Nationals, you will ask your supplementary question to the Premier.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:41): Thank you for your direction, Speaker. Premier, by what date will all forest fire management G-Wagen and Unimog firefighting appliances be fully back in service?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:41): I thank the member for Gippsland South for the supplementary question, and that is obviously one that will be best answered by the head of Forest Fire Management Victoria. I will not pursue the –

Danny O’Brien: He’s not here.

Jacinta ALLAN: No, because he is not an elected official, which is why I will go and seek the advice of the official from Forest Fire Management Victoria. What is important here is that we work with our emergency services to ensure that they have the resources they need for what we know is going to be a difficult and dangerous fire season, and they do have those resources because we back our emergency services. We do not undermine our emergency services. I also make it absolutely clear that every dollar raised from the emergency services fund is going back into our emergency services because they are doing more for our community, and the only people who want to cut our emergency services are those opposite. If you cut the levy, you cut funding to our emergency services, whereas we back them, and every dollar is being invested into our emergency services.