Wednesday, 15 September 2021

Ms MAXWELL (Northern Victoria)

Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 14 September:

My statement on a report this afternoon is on the state budget for 2021–22.

I would like to draw the attention of the house to the details, on page 19 of this year’s budget paper 5, for the fire services property levy.

The relevant entries on that page show the ongoing, significant projected increases that Victorians will bear for that levy over each of the next four financial years. These increases are so substantial that, by 2024–25, the figure is calculated to rise to $807 million. That represents around a 30 per cent increase in the levy in less than a decade.

I’m obviously happy to be corrected by the emergency services minister’s office on this. However, I can only assume that the figures for the levy that are reflected in this year’s budget are being heavily impacted by a very significant blowout in the cost of operating Fire Rescue Victoria. This could be a legacy of unprecedented increases in firefighters’ wages, including a 5.5 per cent pay increase, from January 2020, for commanders and assistant chief fire officers. A separate 2.5 per cent increase has been received by all other career firefighters.

I foreshadowed this would ultimately come to pass when I spoke about these issues in the debate here in June 2019 on the formation of Fire Services Victoria.

Even then, blowouts in the fire services property levy and firefighters’ wages were already clearly apparent as far as I was concerned. This led to the obvious implication that there would be further, and even larger, increases in the future once brigades became comprised of a substantially higher proportion of paid firefighters.

Two years on, those predictions are being proven accurate by a lot of practical evidence. They’re also being reinforced by information that I’m consistently hearing from my constituents, or seeing highlighted in the media and the most recent department of justice, CFA and MFB annual reports.

The relevant department of justice report reveals that it spent over $1.25 billion in fire-related grants in the year leading up to the creation of Fire Services Victoria.

The CFA and MFB reports point to rises in annual wages and leave to totals of $374 million and $286 million respectively in some of the largest yearly spikes on record.

These increases would be staggering enough at the best of times. However, they are even more astonishing during a period in which so many other Victorians have been losing their pay, their jobs and/or their businesses because of the COVID restrictions and lockdowns.

There are very many concerning elements about all of this. I would suggest very strongly to the government that it should outline to all Victorians what actions it is taking to urgently reduce the massive costs of running Fire Services Victoria. It should also explain what it is doing to put a halt to the substantial and ongoing increases in the fire services property levy.