Thursday, 15 May 2025

Bills

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

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Harriet Shing:

That the bill be now read a second time.

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (10:04): There are times in politics where doing the right thing transcends the political left and right, and this is one of those times. For all the smoke and mirrors, the spin and the falsehoods that we see the government have peddled, we are yet to see any honesty. Those opposite claim this bill is about supporting volunteers – the people that turn up free of charge to fight fires, save properties, rescue people and protect communities. These are the same volunteers that have to endure the CFA being systematically gutted by the Labor Party, the same Labor Party that continually punch down on volunteers because they have dismantled any concept of volunteer control. And now the Labor Party are telling them – not asking them – that they are going to have to pay for the privilege of volunteering. And the kick in the guts? Those opposite think that volunteers should be thankful for that, because according to those opposite, government knows best.

We always hear from those opposite about their values, but in reality they do not believe in any values at all; they just selfishly believe in themselves. Because if the Labor Party truly believed in equality, why would they be slugging farmers with a 189 per cent increase in the fire services levy? Wouldn’t there be a more equal spread? If the Labor Party truly believed in a fair go, why didn’t they consult with CFA volunteers or SES volunteers, rural communities, local councils or even our union members? Why did they choose to keep them in the dark? How is that fair? ‘Delivering for all Victorians’, ‘Doing what matters’, ‘Building Australia’s future’ – these are all hollow, cheap slogans from a soulless political movement. Because as much as those opposite might chant these hollow words, they clearly have no tangible bearing on this bill. Delivering for selected Victorians, doing what matters to the government, building Labor’s future – that is the honest truth about what those opposite actually stand for, because those opposite certainly do not stand with volunteers and farmers, like we do on this side of the chamber. So why is the government trying to push this through? It is to plug a big black budget hole, because they have run out of money, plain and simple. Instead of prudent financial management, they have taken the old trick out of the old, tired Labor playbook: tax, tax, tax.

But even some of their own Labor MPs are starting to wake up to how awful this new regime is, though they are powerless to stop it. The member for Ripon Ms Haylett, who only this week turned up to a public meeting, refused to admit that she supported the legislation in the Assembly. Ms Haylett said there was ‘no straightforward answer’. Hansard says otherwise. She told frustrated locals that she had raised concerns with both the Premier and the Treasurer. She then went on to say that she wants to have ‘massive changes’ to the regime, despite voting for it. If the Treasurer was here, we could ask her, ‘What were those massive changes that the member for Ripon came to you and asked for?’ Because if you cannot even convince your own MPs to support this, why on earth should anyone else?

But do not take it from just me – do not take it from your ignored MPs – take it from Peter Marshall and the United Firefighters Union, who have slammed this tax. Take it from SES and CFA volunteers. Take it from local governments, some of whom are even refusing to collect the tax. Take it from farmers who have rallied twice in the space of a week on the steps of this Parliament. Listen to their stories, like Trevor from Ballan. He has said:

[NAMES AND QUOTES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

My wife and I run a modest beef cattle farm in Ballan and are very concerned with the bill proposing the new emergency services tax. As a majority of this impost is expected to be met by farming communities, it goes to show we are an easy target for the government to bleed in order to ease its budgetary problems.

Ian and Sally Crick from Beaufort said:

As farmers in western Victoria, we wish to express our opposition to the government’s Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund. This tax financially discriminates against Victoria’s hardworking farmers, already suffering extreme drought conditions.

Ted O’Brien from Elliminyt said:

As a Victorian ratepayer, farmer and CFA volunteer for over 45 years, I wish to strongly object to the proposed ESVF legislation. The bill is erroneously named the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, but it is proposed to fund much more and does not fund volunteers.

Marty Gleeson from Clarendon, just south of Ballarat, said:

This bill will drastically raise the fire services property levy for farmers, forcing us to pay more. It also expands the levy beyond the fire services to things like Triple Zero Victoria and Emergency Management Victoria, which should be funded by the government, not by an extra charge on property owners.

Sarah from Glendaruel–Mt Beckworth fire brigade said:

Our community is facing economic challenges, including drought conditions, increased input costs for agriculture and ongoing fire and flood recovery. The ESVF tax will worsen the financial pressures, reduce local spending and compound economic stress on our largely rural areas.

Ruth from Smythesdale said:

As a CFA volunteer for 20 years, this new tax is an insult to my service. The tax is unproportionately taxing the very people who do the greatest service as volunteers.

Philip and Sue from Burrumbeet have said:

While we acknowledge the importance of funding our emergency services, it is concerning that this tax appears to support non-frontline services that have traditionally been funded out of government consolidated revenue. It appears this new tax is a way to shift the cost of emergency services from the government to the Victorian public.

Jodi Jansen from Beaufort said:

Coming from a third-generation farming family, I see firsthand the toll that prolonged drought and rising costs are taking on people like my father. He is up every day feeding stock, buying inexpensive barley and lucerne and holding onto hope that lambing season will help recover some of the mounting losses. The emotional and mental toll of trying to survive season after season under pressure is enormous. This levy feels like one more burden too many, and for many farmers it could be the breaking point.

These are just a very small sample of the people that have contacted me and many other MPs across this chamber to try and stop this levy. The last one I want to mention is Steve Peel, a sixth-generation farmer from Barunah Plains. He said:

Our family has a long and proud history of involvement with the CFA. My grandfather was the captain of the Inverleigh fire brigade. My grandfather was a life member. My father was a member and later captain of the Barunah North brigade, and I have been a member of the Barunah North brigade for 25 years and am now nominated as deputy group officer for the lead group. Our family have been involved in many significant fires, including Cressy, Ash Wednesday, Linton, Enfield, Dereel, as well as numerous other small incidents. We have also been called out at all hours of the day for car accidents, truck crashes, machinery fires and shed fires. The introduction of these new levies could be the breaking point for us. If implemented, I may be forced to leave the CFA, the organisation I love serving, and I will need to find an additional $30,000 to $50,000 just to keep my farm afloat.

I need to congratulate Steve Peel. He started a petition, which I am proud to sponsor, which is calling for the government to cease this heartless tax. Since starting this petition just a week ago it has already gained nearly 14,000 signatures.

I want to give a shout-out to every single farmer, every single CFA volunteer, every member of a union and every single person from a rural community that took a stand and signed the petition. The Liberals and Nationals will always stand with our farmers and our volunteers in rural Victoria, because without farmers there is no food. I urge those on the crossbench to stand with our farmers as well. Please help us defeat this unfair tax. Send a message to the government that you vote with your heart, not the heartless, and simply do right over wrong, because the right thing to do is to defeat this unfair tax.

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (10:14): Victoria is in a climate emergency. We saw it during the Black Summer bushfires, which burned for months across this state, destroying 1.5 million hectares and tragically leading to five deaths and blanketing the state in toxic smoke for months. We have seen it in our storm and flooding events: swathes of northern and western Victoria were hit during 2022 with devastating floods that they are still recovering from. We have seen it in the sudden violent storms that down trees, powerlines and communications, isolating towns like Mirboo North for weeks.

We are seeing it with the drought that is devastating my electorate of Western Victoria and growing parts of the state, and we are seeing it with the deadliest climate emergency’s heatwaves. The number of very hot days has more than doubled since 2005, and the state has warmed overall by 1.4 degrees since pre-industrial levels. Unless we stop opening new coal and gas mines and start shutting down the ones we have, we will exceed the 2-degree target.

Communities around the state are experiencing rolling climate disasters, with the next hitting them before they have picked up the pieces from the last. All of these more intense, more frequent climate emergencies in Victoria are creating increased pressure on our emergency services. Every one of us relies on these services to keep our communities safe, and that need is only growing in a bushfire-prone state staring down the barrel of climate collapse. We know when fires tore through the Grampians this year dozens of firefighting trucks had to be retired because they were too old. Volunteers felt rightfully unsafe, and there were serious shortfalls. Our SES – critical in responding particularly to storms and floods – has been crying out for secure funding for years and similarly struggles to secure adequate facilities and equipment. Many fire trucks in urban areas are also well past their use-by date and at risk of failure due to no rolling replacement plan. Funding for recovery is getting harder to come by for communities who are affected by these disasters. None of this is acceptable. I am genuinely terrified about what lies ahead, particularly for rural and regional Victoria. The climate crisis is here now, as we have seen, and we are not well enough prepared.

Funding our emergency services properly and ensuring that funding cannot be eaten into to fill budget black holes is a critical part of climate preparedness. This was a key lesson from the parliamentary inquiry into the devastating 2022 floods, and numerous recommendations point to the need for increased funding and secure funding for our emergency services. This levy is part of the government’s response. While this is not necessarily the response we would have taken and we could argue all day about some of the government’s other budget priorities, this is the only option that the government put on the table to ensure our emergency services are funded properly.

We had serious concerns about this levy, especially regarding the impact on farmers, residents experiencing hardship and rural councils, and we were not convinced that enough of the fund was going towards actually supporting frontline emergency services with everything that they need. That is why the Greens first abstained from voting on this bill in the lower house to consider it in more detail and consult with a variety of stakeholders, including local councils, farmers, members of the CFA, the rural fire brigade, SES, firefighters and many more. We have worked really hard over these past couple of months, meeting with all those stakeholders to understand their concerns and look at how this bill could be improved. I would sincerely like to thank them for their time and energy that they have put in to meeting with us. As a result of your advocacy we have secured some major improvements to reduce the burden on those doing it toughest, like our farmers, and to make sure the money actually goes to where it needs to. Thanks to the Greens’ negotiations, every dollar from the levy will now go directly to strengthening emergency services and cannot be used to fill budget black holes or fund activities that are not frontline emergency services. People expect 100 per cent of this levy to go towards frontline emergency services, and thanks to us it now will.

We are also pleased to see that Labor agreed to a $10 million a year rolling program to replace ageing, unsafe fire trucks that were putting firefighters and communities at risk. We have been provided assurances that our fire stations will remain safely staffed. They have agreed to increase the funding for FRV from 87.5 per cent to 90 per cent and remove the words ‘up to’ to ensure that this funding level is guaranteed.

We are proud to have argued for better recognition of the pressure farmers are currently under, including a drought relief package to be announced before the budget and exemptions for drought-affected farmers from paying the new levy rate for the duration of the drought. There will also be funding to support farmers to reduce their energy bills. We have argued for a reduced rate for primary producers, and it is worth noting at this point that the rates for different categories of property are not actually part of the bill itself; they are not part of this legislation. This is something set by the Treasurer outside the bill. The Treasurer has agreed to lower the rate for primary producers, and while it is not nearly as far as we would have liked, it is certainly an improvement.

For councils there will be funding allocated to support the administration of the levy. They will not be required to determine the volunteer status to work out who gets a rebate, and we have received assurances that they will not be left holding the debt if residents do not pay. They will be given 12 months to adjust their system to determine the difference between a primary and secondary residence. To all these groups: I know this is not everything you wanted, but be assured we listened and did go in to bat for you on those things, and if not for your advocacy, none of this would have happened.

I want to thank the government for being willing to compromise, but I would urge the government to keep engaging with all the affected groups, like farmers, firies and councils, who have been raising concerns, many of which fall outside the legislation itself, such as the differential rates applied and safe working conditions for frontline responders. Please listen to them, work with them in good faith and ensure they are supported. We all depend on the work of these groups, and they deserve respect and fair treatment. The final levy may not be perfect and I know not everyone will be happy, but we have done everything we can to secure key improvements, ensuring a fairer levy, while also – we have to remember this is point of the levy –making sure emergency services get what they need amidst a climate crisis. If we had left the table, as many others in this place did, the alternative outcome would have been no funding certainty for these key services, no truck replacements and in fact likely cuts that would leave communities even more vulnerable –

Members interjecting.

Anasina Gray-Barberio: On a point of order, President, we gave the member across the chamber the respect of silence, and we would like to be afforded that same silence as well while the member finishes her speech.

The PRESIDENT: I uphold the point of order. Mr McGowan, Dr Mansfield to be heard in silence.

Sarah MANSFIELD: If we had left the table, as many others in this place did and have, the alternative outcome would have been no funding certainty for these key services and in fact likely cuts that would leave communities even more vulnerable the next time we have a climate crisis.

Importantly, in passing this bill, there is increased funding for these services that is protected. It is secure from government decisions down the track that might seek to cut their funding. As the party for climate action, funding emergency services is non-negotiable for us. The Greens changes ensure Victoria will have the trucks, staff and resources needed to protect lives, homes and communities, and that is something we should all support. For these reasons we will be supporting the bill today.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:22): I am rendered speechless after listening to the Leader of the Greens give her speech. All I can say is that this is what happens when we have to deal with the Greens and the crossbench to have any sort of normality and fairness in this state. We are in a situation where people are completely let down, and let those words that have been said today be on record so that when people do not have their fire trucks, when people do not have their needs met and when it is not fair, people are bleeding and the volunteers, the farmers and even our career firefighters are not getting the things that were promised, then let it be known that the Greens let them down today in this chamber.

I rise to speak also on this Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. I am absolutely gobsmacked to think that the Greens have sold out and got into bed – once again the watermelons are green on the outside, red on the inside – and are doing whatever the government wants them to do. So now we have no genuine opportunity to really go into bat for Victorians: our farmers, our volunteers who are on the front line, our CFA, our SES – they are all going to be taxed through the roof – and our FRV career firefighters, many of whom have come to be on the balcony today and have joined us because this is so important to them as well. These taxes are what this government is all about now. It has been incompetent with the budget that it has had, it has been incompetent with the money that it has held and it has just spent, spent, spent, and now we are in a situation where it is going to tax, tax, tax hardworking Victorians, giving them less but expecting more. It is simply unfair.

If I go to the actual bill itself, the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025 amends the Fire Services Property Levy Act 2012 to replace the existing fire services property levy with an expanded Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund levy from 1 July 2025. That means that people do not have a lot of time. They need to understand that as soon as this financial year is finished this is going to kick in. It changes the fixed charge component of the levy applicable to certain property types. It also inserts a new concession from the fixed charge for owners of residential land. What that means is that in respect to principal place of residence, as was mentioned, they will be able to make some adjustments for that over the next 12 months – the Greens have secured that. Well, let us just wait and see how that works out for everybody, because the reality is everybody is going to be slugged with a tax. This new tax is going to slug Victorians $2.1 billion over the next three years – that is right, $2.1 billion over the next three years – with an additional $610.9 million in 2025–26. It is going to expand its scope of collection so that now we are going to bleed our emergency services and we are going to bleed our farmers even more.

Some of these farmers are just hanging in there. In fact we have a number of farmers that have already sold up, packed up and moved on. It is just getting too difficult to live in this state with the way this government handles money – which is that basically it cannot handle money; it does not handle money. Now we are in a situation where Victorians are constantly paying the price for a Labor government that cannot handle money. It appears that despite promises of exemptions for volunteers, the government is set to implement the rebate system, and it is going to be administered by a yet to be named agency. Goodness me, what does that mean? Money will be getting funnelled somewhere but nobody is going to actually know where that money is going. Meanwhile everyday Victorians are being bled with tax after tax after tax, struggling every day because this government wants to take more and give less. In a further attack on farmers already facing a levy, this is an increase of 189 per cent. People cannot afford these increases now – they simply cannot.

I was really pleased to hear my colleague Mr McCracken mention the generational CFA volunteers. Many people who have been in the CFA, as has been said in this place by my colleagues, are generational volunteers. They have been on the front line. Their grandfathers, their great-grandfathers, their fathers, their mothers, their sisters have been on the front line. They continue to give, and they continue to help us. There are areas where it is very difficult, where if we did not have our CFA volunteers, we would not be covered in our entirety. We need that component of both the career firefighters and the volunteers working side by side with respect, understanding that in many cases local knowledge and local volunteers can actually make the difference.

I also want to thank our SES community for the great work that they do. We are just so blessed in this country to have people who are prepared to put their lives on the line to help other people. That is the nature of what Australia is all about. It is what were built on: people who are prepared to fight for their country, to stand up for what is right and prepared to put themselves out for other people. And yet what does this government do? It taxes them, it taxes them and it taxes them to the point that there is nothing left. And we cannot see where that money is going, because I can tell you that I have visited enough stations to know that there are really old trucks out there. In fact I am horrified to think that we still have trucks that the CFA are expected to use where you have to sit on the back of the truck without any covering; it is outside. How archaic is that in a First World country? If this money is really getting funnelled to where it needs to go, then how come we are constantly putting our volunteers at risk, our emergency services people at risk by not upgrading the appliances that they need and giving them the resources that they need in order to do their job and to do it well?

That is not to say that every appliance and every resource is out of date.

Everybody knows that there have been some upgrades, but there are many, many places where those upgrades are outstanding, where we are still waiting. People are doing it tough, and now you are going to tax them even more. For many people, this is the final straw for them. The CFA are already having trouble getting volunteers. They are doing a great job trying to recruit and to train, but how can they do it if they are constantly under the pressure of taxes that this government intends to increase at such an exorbitant rate? Under the proposed changes the median fire services levy for primary producers will jump to a staggering 109 per cent increase. This change is going to result in some landholders receiving hikes in the tens of thousands of dollars, and they simply cannot afford it. They are running on a shoestring budget as it is.

The Labor government has confirmed what we feared. They are brazenly turning a funding mechanism that should have been focused on emergency services into a big new tax. The problem with these big new taxes is that we can never always see where that money is being funnelled. Have a look at the type of documentation we are given as parliamentarians at budget time and the number of books and how convoluted it is. Simple budgets are not opaque, they are straightforward and easy to see; we can see where the money is going and we do not have these problems. But in this case, in this government, we have everything being so convoluted that it makes it very difficult to track where this money is going. But we know where it is not going, because you only have to look at some of the things that people are having to put up with, like old fire trucks.

The Greens think that there is going to be X amount of money going into upgrades. Well, let us just wait and see, because if I see one more fire truck where people are having to stand outside over the next couple of years, well, I will just be raising the roof over it, because simply this government has failed Victorians and is continuing to fail them with this amendment bill. It is absolutely ludicrous. Labor is actually taxing Victorians for more services. These are core businesses – farmers, for instance. Producers for every Victorian are being taxed in a way that is going to make it even more difficult for them to make a living and to produce. We know our state has issues with floods and fires, and we now have drought, and that impacts farmers. They take that risk, but when they are constantly being hitting with taxes, the pressure is just so much. Some of the farmers that wanted to come on the steps and actually protest could not come because of the pressure they were under. I spoke to some of the mothers who said, ‘My son wanted to come, but he just can’t deal with anything more. It’s too much.’ And what does this government do? It rewards them by slugging them with a tax that they simply cannot afford. This Labor government is tightening the screws on our emergency services volunteers and our farmers, and it is forcing them to pay this tax over a miserly and complicated rebate scheme to seek reimbursement.

The $2.4 billion over three years is something that we are really going to be watching, because we do not want this passed. We want this bill stopped, we want the amendment stopped, and we would have loved to have had the support of the crossbench, but sadly they have sold out to the government. So now we know that this is going to go through and Victorians are going to pay the price. Victorians already pay for public service agencies, such as Emergency Management Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria and Triple Zero Victoria, and now Victorians are being asked to pay for even more.

In short, with the Victorian government’s proposal to increase taxes I guess the concern is that this money is going to be paying external lawyers and consultants over $33 million of taxpayer money. That is what happened in the 2023–24 financial year. So what we are concerned about is that this cash grab is going to be so poorly managed by this government, and people are literally bleeding. Services are bleeding. The last thing we need to do is to tax our emergency services and our farmers – as if the country and the state are not in enough trouble under Labor. But it is continually putting the pressure on services and on people who provide for this state in ways where it is vitally important for our survival and for us to be able to continue on as a functioning society.

But no – tax, tax, tax. And what gets me is it is not just taxes but it is lies. It is constant words that mean absolutely nothing. The drivel that comes from the other side of the chamber is just a loud noise that constantly means absolutely nothing. They make promises and they tell everyone everything is fine. It is not fine. It is not fine when you are taxing your farmers, and it is not fine when you are taxing your emergency services to the point that they know that it is going to be so costly for them that they are going to miss out on more and more things. With all these promises, well, I can tell you there will be lots of people looking to see whether this government delivers on any of its promises, because so many Victorians have already paid the price and have been let down by this Labor government.

As I come to a conclusion, there is so much that I actually really want to say about this, but the big thing is that third-party rights are also going to be cut here. Government is going to be prohibiting the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund rate from being reviewable by the Supreme Court – that is in section 19. They are just going to be turning this funding mechanism – which should have been focused on emergency services and which should have been focused on helping our farmers to just be able to produce for our state – into a situation where we will not see where that money goes. There are many people who are going to be left without. And you can thank the Greens for some of this – not just the Labor government but the Greens, hand-in-hand with the Labor government, taxing our Fire Rescue Victoria, taxing our CFA, taxing our SES and taxing our hardworking farmers, who work seven days a week and take risks beyond all manner of things in order to produce food and opportunity for us to survive and sustain ourselves in this state. It is simply not good enough, it is an absolute disgrace. This bill should have been blocked and we should have had the help of the crossbench. Like I said, it is an absolutely appalling decision that has been made by the Greens, and we ask – in fact we implored – them to change their mind, because that is the only way that we are going to be able to do something fair for all Victorians.

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (10:37): I rise to make a contribution to the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. I oppose what is yet another great big new tax by the Allan Labor government. This new tax is yet another enormous hit on all Victorians. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis we see a tax grab on the state’s valuable resources – our primary producers. These are the people who put food on our table. This bill we are debating today has been devised primarily to expand the scope of the catchment of funding for emergency services and the hardworking volunteers of those organisations that currently fall under an umbrella, one of which is the CFA and another the FRV. This tax increase will nearly double the existing fire services levy, and yes, it might – and I will emphasise the word ‘might’ later in my speech – enhance the financial support available to these organisations to undertake their operations, but only by way of imposing an extra $2.1 billion in taxes on Victorians. The question is: how much benefit will this extra $2.1 billion in tax bring with this bill, which is proposed to replace the existing fire services property levy with a new funding framework that will also accommodate other services like the Victorian State Emergency Services, or the Victorian SES; Triple Zero Victoria; Emergency Management Victoria; and the Secretary of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, to name a few, and not just supporting the CFA or the FRV.

Households like those in my electorate, the Western Metropolitan Region, are already doing it tough. We have had to withstand cost-of-living increases along with all the other expenses that are going up. This increase effectively means they will be paying double next financial year. Victorians simply cannot afford this latest blatant tax grab. What this government wants us to believe is that this levy supports additional emergency services. What it really is is another burdensome tax on property owners in our state. It is unfairly targeted at primary producers. Our primary producers are hurting right now and are constantly being subjected to additional tax hikes.

Under this Allan Labor government we have seen an increase in taxes and the introduction of new tax after new tax after new tax. To date we have experienced 60 new or increased taxes. Now, with this levy, we are focusing on our resources – the very people, the farmers, the primary producers who put food on our table, as I emphasise. What those sitting opposite us, the Greens and the crossbench, do not seem to realise is that when you target our primary producers and farmers with additional taxes this will flow down to consumers. The mums and dads and everyday Victorians will be paying more for their groceries and more for the household items as well as this additional increased tax in their rates bill. Farmers and primary producers simply cannot afford to continue to be the subject of a tax slug.

The bill broadens the tax burden on the already overtaxed Victorian community and widens the scope of how these funds are collected and dispensed across government operations and services. The issue with this bill is the dishonesty of this Allan Labor government to nearly double the levy rate for property owners under the pretext that it helps fund the core services our emergency services provide. But in essence it is just another tax grab. This government has produced 60 new or increased taxes.

To address the claim of natural disaster and rising frequency and severity, we are like other states and territories; Victoria is no different. We also experience these natural disasters, and yes, natural disasters are a reality at the moment. We do not see other governments in other states imposing a nearly doubled levy of rates on property owners to compensate for the government’s reckless spending and mismanagement. We understand there is a rise in the frequency and no doubt the severity of natural disasters, which will put upward pressure on the budget. But the government need to understand and be able to work through these issues properly and prioritise the funding available to them without reverting to significant increase in property levies and taxes on Victorians that cannot afford them. There is a clear pattern regarding this Allan Labor government about mismanagement and taxation. They go hand in hand. Victorians are paying the price for their mismanagement of public funds, and they are using every means at their disposal to impose taxes on Victorians without addressing the underlying issues of resource allocation and emergency preparations.

This bill has been introduced in response to Fire Rescue Victoria, FRV, and other financial demands that this government is managing. However, when the government moved agencies previously funded out of consolidated revenue, including services such as Triple Zero Victoria and Emergency Recovery Victoria, into the new fund stream, the so-called Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, you need to question whether this new model this government has created affects other services and whether the model will improve service delivery for Victorians. This is where some of the concern lies.

This new model addresses certain items. The bill as introduced amends the Country Fire Authority Act 1958 and Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958 to allow this new model the flexibility to fund the CFA’s and FRV’s operating budgets. However, the new restructure provides some concern for the CFA and FRV. When you insert the word ‘funding’ with up to a percentage of the budget, the word ‘up to’ means no guarantee that the CFA will get that percentage or will see a real gouge out of that percentage. Whereas the previous model had a fixed guarantee that the FRV would get 87.5 per cent of their annual budget and the CFA would get 77.5 per cent of their annual budget, this new model says it is up to that percentage of 87. It is for portions. Also, this new model will fund up to 90 per cent of all the other services, including the Victorian SES, Triple Zero, State Control Centre, Emergency Recovery Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria, the emergency alert program, the emergency management operational communications program, Forest Fire Management Victoria and the support function within the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.

All this will be included in this model. How will it affect service delivery when the government is consolidating all these services under one umbrella? The rates and taxes collected also go to the other services I mentioned.

Just to clarify the commitment of this government to these services: back in December 2024 the government released a plan to fund several new or improved services, which included some funds to establish a rolling fleet replacement program for VICSES and the CFA, which is fantastic, because I have raised the issue in this chamber about member safety and how our fire truck fleets are past their use-by date and are not fit for purpose when tackling extreme situations. However, this Labor government have not said how the $70 million initiative will be allocated. They also made this funding subject to this bill, which shows their lack of genuine commitment to upgrading the fleet. They also announced a doubling of the volunteer emergency services equipment program to upgrade the vehicles, equipment and station facilities, which is fantastic – this is vitally important funding so the hardworking men and women who volunteer under very stressful situations can access the very best equipment and facilities. And yet they have been told they will only get this equipment if this bill is supported. ‘Rub my back and I’ll rub yours’: that is the way the government operates. It clearly shows the type of commitment this Allan government has for the Victorian SES and CFA’s safety – ‘rub mine and I’ll rub yours.’

Other concerns have been raised regarding alarm bells and warning signals regarding this bill. Local governments who expect to bear the financial burden on households, farms and businesses have expressed concerns about their ability to effectively administer the new levy, further stretching their limited resources. Their peak body, the Municipal Association of Victoria, highlighted that councils are being tasked with responsibilities that they are ill equipped to handle. Importantly, the state government need to acknowledge that this this bill is not a council tax; they should not be shifting the blame of the tax onto council. The government must accept that this tax is coming from the state government and explain why they are doubling the levy and justify the benefit of expanding the emergency services.

The remaining matters I would like to address are in relation to the impact on commercial industries and primary producers in regard to this bill. Those on this side are very concerned about this increase in costs and the impact the new levy will have on commercial industries and primary producers. For commercial landowners, they are expected to increase to the magnitude of 100 per cent with this bill. Industrial landowners are looking at an increase of 64 per cent, and for primary producers a staggering 189 per cent is coming their way if this bill is passed. This should send alarm bells to every single primary producer in Victoria and every Victorian who purchases their products and uses their products – the levy will make the cost go up and skyrocket. The government needs to understand that when primary producers and commercial landowners receive an additional tax grab by this government at every turn, citizens will eventually pay the price and the costs will be passed down to consumers. I heard firsthand from rental providers that additional tax by this government is likely to result in them having to pass down costs to tenants. It is simply impossible for them to absorb all the outrageous charges. Availability in the rental market is already at a crisis point, and an additional tax burden will just heighten the tension for the already stressed rental market.

Now I just want to touch on the exemption in this bill for emergency services volunteers. I want to briefly mention that the members on this side have concerns regarding the exemption. The emergency services who are exempt under this framework will have to pay tax up-front to claim the exemption back through the State Revenue Office. However, this levy is administered by councils, not by the SRO, so it is unclear how the rebates will operate in reality. The government is not forthcoming with a clear plan on how volunteers will seek the rebate. That is another hurdle for volunteers and Victorians to go through.

With the 2 minutes I have got remaining I would like to conclude that with this bill overall we have some great concerns for the new emergency services tax. It is yet another blow to Victorians. The devil is in the detail of this bill: like I said, the words they have inserted in this bill and how the tax is being collected. The more we engaged with stakeholders, the more holes we found in this bill. It is just another Allan Labor government tax grab. Let us call it for what it is: it is a tax grab on Victorians.

We should be mindful of the fact that the government is frightened of the backlash it is about to receive from our primary producers, our farmers, our volunteers and Victorians, and the councils who administer it are burdened with administering this new tax. The backlash that we see from these ratepayers and providers will be significant, you will see, and you can lay blame squarely on the Allan Labor government. I fear for our business, homeowners, farmers and producers, who will need to bear the cost – those who can – and I fear for those mums and dads and consumers who will ultimately pay the price for the flow-down effects. That is why I and those on this side of the chamber oppose this bill.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:51): I rise to speak to the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025, and like the title, which is so deceitful, so much of what this government does is deceitful to the Victorian public. This should just be named the fire services property amendment bill, because what it does is undermine our emergency services and the good work of the tens of thousands of volunteers in this state. This government have shown through the actions of this bill how low they will go, and we have in the chamber the very architect: the minister, the former Minister for Emergency Services, a former minister for agricultural and regional development and now the Treasurer. The Treasurer, who is responsible for this bill, should get the wrath of the Victorian public along with Jacinta Allan and the rest of her team, because what this is going to do is decimate so many businesses across our state. This is a tax grab, as my colleagues have said. It is nothing more than a tax grab to fill a huge black hole in Victoria’s budget. Why have we got that? We have got that because this government is so hopeless at managing taxpayers money. It is taxpayers money they are responsible for that they are wasting and mismanaging every single day.

This bill purports to expand the scope and catchment of funding for emergency services and volunteers and therefore enhance the financial support available for these services. What this government will do is broaden the tax burden, not just on emergency services but on businesses and households. This is where the deceit comes in. This is a very deceitful government that is using this bill to massage and con Victorians about how volunteers and others who provide necessary services to our state need to be funded.

This bill, which will replace the existing fire services property levy, which only currently funds the CFA and the FRV, then will provide a new framework, and it will have that broader range of emergency services, which will include both the CFA and the FRV but also the Victorian SES, Triple Zero Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria and the Secretary of the Department of Justice and Community Safety for funding in relation to emergency management and the Secretary of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action to fund forest fire management. These are core services of government, for goodness sake. These are not volunteers in those organisations; they are core services government that you expect as a Victorian taxpayer for the government to be able to fund, but they cannot because they have wasted and mismanaged the Victorian budget.

We are paying $15 million of interest every single day, and that is going to be rising to $26 million a day in the out years; $6.6 billion of interest annually today – $15 million a day – and it will go to $9.3 billion in the out years. That is an enormous amount of money, and the billions unfortunately just roll off this government’s tongue like it means nothing. It is an enormous amount of money.

In December the government committed to providing the following funding: $70 million to establish a rolling fleet replacement program for VICSES and the CFA; more than $62 million to double the volunteer emergency services equipment program; $53 million to modernise the VicEmergency app and the central database for emergency services, EM-COP; and $30 million to deliver training and support programs to VICSES. That is all necessary funding, but that amounts to $215 million. That is a long way short of what this tax grab is actually going to get: $2.1 billion over the next three years. Look at that; just do the maths – even $1.33 billion this financial year. $215 million – where is that additional money that the government is grabbing from our businesses and our farmers going to go to? That is going to go into the black hole.

To the Treasurer, who is the former Minister for Emergency Services and a former Minister for Agriculture: you should be ashamed of yourself. There is pressure on our farmers, who are going through a drought, and a drought is nothing new. I grew up on a farm; I have seen droughts. I have seen the enormous toll it takes on farmers. It is heartbreaking. I remember the years very clearly as a small child. What farmers have to do is nothing new, but you, disgracefully, are imposing this burden on farmers. The pressure will mount. The mental health toll for farmers will mount, Treasurer. You hold your head in your hands; you will have blood on your hands. I am telling you there will be some very sad circumstances because of the pressures you are putting on people. It is a disgrace. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

I know CFA volunteers. My family have been involved in the CFA since its inception. The FRV do a magnificent job working to protect Victorians, but the CFA volunteers who are fighting those wildfires have a special skill. The farmers who go out to those areas and provide their expertise, their equipment and their time cannot keep doing that when they are not supported by government, when they are being slugged like this with a tax. They will not go out into the further reaches like they always have to provide surge capacity for strike teams. Where are we going to get these personnel? What are they going to be able to do? You are so discrediting their expertise and driving down what they are excellent at. It is completely unreasonable, what you are asking them to do. You are putting this pressure on everyone, whether it is the FRV and their professional firefighters with the work they have to do or whether it is the CFA and the volunteers and the work that they do in conjunction with the professional CFA staff. I do not know where you get off, government, in not understanding how critical this is to support them in a way that is sustainable. What you are doing is not sustainable. It is actually going to drive people out of business and cause so much pressure for the very people that feed and look after us.

I am horrified by the fact that there seems to be no understanding by this government and the Treasurer, who has, as I said, held all of those portfolio areas. What a disaster. All this government does is rotate positions. They get into trouble, they cannot manage their portfolio so they are moved on, because they are so goddamn useless at their job – useless. You do not know what you are doing. You are actually going to drive people out of business and you are going to drive farmers to the brink. You are a disgrace.

I want to just go back to what the CFA volunteers have said to me and to Mr McCracken, who did an excellent contribution around the many people who have really seen this for what it is and are reaching out, pleading with this chamber, with this Parliament to stop this bad legislation – the thousands and thousands of Victorians who understand exactly what is going on. The crossbench – how disgraceful. You have sold Victorians out for a song, for nothing. You should be ashamed of yourselves too. You are all together. You actually do not care. You have this complete folly about how this is going to solve everything – it will not. It is going to cause so much harm and pressure. And it is not just this bill which is taking money off hardworking Victorians, who are fighting, in a cost-of-living crisis, so many challenges.

I listened to Angie here on radio this morning – I think you did too, Mr McGowan – a business owner in Dandenong. His land tax bill has gone from $8500 to over $200,000 in 10 years.

Nick McGowan interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: For less land. This is what this government is doing. It is screwing businesses everywhere – the very businesses that actually pay taxes to provide core services. But you cannot even manage the core services; you cannot even manage government. You are so useless, so hopeless and so deceitful. You are going to cause more problems down the track. What you are doing is unsustainable. For all those good Victorians out there, for all those hardworking Victorians out there, never forget what you have been subjected to by this government. It is a deceitful government. It is a government that is out of its depth in managing taxpayers money. It is not their money; it is Victorians’ money. It is your money, not their money. They blow it the whole time. They have not even managed to see the ongoing corruption that they have overseen and allowed to occur, and the waste and mismanagement has just exponentially blown out. Here we are – the very people who are the fabric of our society, who do what they do right across this state to enhance our economic return and to enhance our state, are being absolutely smashed in every sense.

I just am horrified, as I said, about the extent of what this government will go to to ruin this state. They are wreckers. They are wrecking this state. They are wrecking the future of this state and our children’s future in this state. They do not care. They are for the here and now, not for the future. They are here for the few, not for the greater good of Victorians. They do not govern for all Victorians; they govern for a few. I urge the crossbench: think about what you are doing. Think about what is going to happen. Think about the impacts of this huge tax grab on businesses, on farmers, on everyday Victorians. It is a shocking bill, it should be rejected outright and it needs to be rejected outright. I oppose the bill.

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:04): Well, this crossbencher is certainly not supporting this bill. When I gave my first speech in this place I made a promise that I would never support an increase in taxes on Victorians; I have kept that promise, and I intend to keep it again today. Victorians are taxed too much. We constantly hear about this cost-of-living crisis, and we hear people like the Greens point the finger at supermarkets and things like this. Well, let us talk about the cost of government, because that is costing Victorians a lot, and it is one of the biggest expenses that they have got. They pay income tax and land tax and they are going to have this new tax as well, and they cannot afford it. Victorians have reached the limit of what they can handle in taxation. At least with the supermarket I can choose whether or not I go there. At least there is competition. I can go to the local greengrocer or I can go to Aldi or something like this. But with this tax, every landholder, every person that pays rates in Victoria is going to get a tax increase.

There has been a lot of talk about firefighters and volunteers and farmers, and the reason that we are talking about them is because, to their absolute credit, they have led this fight against this tax. But I think that there are a lot of Victorians out there, a lot of ratepayers, who do not know that this is coming, and they are going to get the shock of their life when they get their bills. They are going to be very upset, I think. It was mentioned out the front of Parliament the other day that there are a lot of people in Victoria that just do not know that this is coming down the line. Well, they will know soon enough once they get the bill.

The councils have been upset about this tax because they are going to cop the heat from it because it comes in their rates notices as if the councils are charging it. The councils are being forced to do it by the state government, so I actually have some sympathy for the councils that are being forced into doing this. It is just wrong that they are going to cop the heat over this, because whenever someone gets a high rates bill, the first person they call is the council to complain about it, and the councils are going to have to explain that they were forced into this.

The idea that we need more taxes, rather than reducing waste in government, reducing duplication in government, that we could not somehow reduce waste to the point where we could fund this through cost savings in other areas, is just unbelievable – that a new tax is the only way we could do it. I heard Dr Mansfield talking before about this tax as if they had no other option but to do a deal with the government. How about they just say no for once? I am saying no. The coalition is saying no. People can say no to the government and force them. They say, ‘Your vote is powerful.’ Well, their vote is to do a deal and tax Victorians. They have got no right anymore to talk about the supermarkets raising costs for Victorians. They are raising costs for Victorians. They are the ones that are responsible for enabling the government to do this.

I mean, look at waste. I was the chair of the Commonwealth Games inquiry – wasted $589 million. What did Victorians get for that? Nothing. It paid for the games in Glasgow. They did not even give us free tickets. I mean, they could have at least given us some free tickets that we could raffle off. They gave us nothing. There is waste left, right and centre, and there is duplication. I will be very interested to see the Treasurer’s first budget next week; we will see what happens. The Treasurer I know is going to have to make some very hard decisions, and I will be interested to see what decisions she does make. But Victorians have reached the limit on taxation. Land taxes are driving manufacturing out of this state. I have spoken to many manufacturers in the south-east. They are going bankrupt left, right and centre, or if they are making investment decisions they are not hiring more staff or they are thinking about moving interstate. Some of them have just closed down. They have just disappeared.

We constantly hear complaints from the Greens about the rental crisis. Who pays land tax? It is the landlords. They pay the land tax. Of course it makes rental availability worse. During the pandemic I was constantly saying the government is spending money like a drunken sailor and that one day we are going to have to pay for this. And who is paying for it? Well, we found out eventually. They raised land taxes. Everyone that owns land in this state had to pay the COVID levy. Eventually we have to pay for it. Nothing that government does is free. They talk about free stuff all the time; everything is paid for through taxes. It is either paid for by today’s taxpayers or it is paid for by our children in the future, who are going to have to pay off this debt one day. I do not know when they are going to manage to pay it off. But we are in a perilous situation because our debt is so high, and, God forbid, if we end up getting a credit rating downgrade, the cost of issuing more debt by the Treasury Corporation of Victoria is going to be out of control.

We should not be raising more taxes, hurting Victorians even more. The government is too big. Government needs to be smaller. We need to scale back the size of government in Victoria, indeed throughout the whole nation. But in Victoria we need to scale back the size of government. The government needs to focus on what is important: police, emergency services, crime, basic functions. But they get their hands into every single aspect of people’s lives. They interfere in every single aspect of people’s lives, and it is got to stop, because every time they do that it costs money – and it is not the government’s money, it is taxpayers money. It has got to stop.

Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:10): I rise to speak on this ridiculous tax. We are told that fairness is non-negotiable in Victoria. Well, you can fool some people all the time, you can fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. The government has absolutely nowhere to hide on this new tax. It fools no-one. It is a tax grab dressed up with fluffy language, misleading titles and appeals to virtue, complete with utter gaslighting of the Victorian people. You fool no-one.

You, sadly, have found a partner in crime to facilitate your gaslighting. We have just sat through the Greens using climate change to justify this tax. After being in opposition to the tax for months, suddenly today they have woken up and discovered that taxing farmers is the solution to climate change. How does this tax do this? The funds are not going to address climate. They are not even going to address those who deal with the consequences of a changing climate. It goes into general revenue. What the Greens have done today is to stand in this chamber with the overt intention of trying to retrospectively justify their support for this injustice, this unfair tax, this unjust tax – and for what? What was the price? What did they sell their vote for? The wider green movement must be deeply, deeply ashamed of what they have done today to prostitute the cause of climate change for the support of a tax increase on farmers, on struggling communities, on the very volunteers who fight climate change, on community members in not insignificant numbers who serve also on Landcare and conservation groups and on people who practise sustainable agricultural practices even when it involves a cost to their efficiency and to maximising their own profit. And today you agreed to tax them for it. You sellouts. You hypocrites. You have burnt a very good portion of any credibility you had today. Your drift away from a genuine environmental party to a party of political game players and activists is complete. The people across this state will not forget it. They have done so to serve a government that is shamelessly, barefacedly doing this purely to cover black holes in their budget. They have done this to prop up their priorities, to spare their blushes, as they are forced into cut after cut to essential services, core deliverables to our state. It is a government so desperate to add anything to its bottom line that it has resorted to taxing emergency services, to taxing volunteers, to taxing every home owner, to taxing the community and to taxing every business to add $2 billion to its bottom line.

You are not going to see any cuts to Big Build expenditure, you are not going to see any cuts to the North East Link, you are not going to see any cuts to the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL). Yesterday we sat through the faux concerns about the lack of housing for the next generation. Well, you are not going to see any cuts to the tax disincentives to builders, to councils and to rent providers. You are not going to see any cuts to the taxes on housing.

If you need to scrape $2 billion back to support the state’s bottom line, well, let us talk about how that might be done. Why don’t we wind up that complete failure called Breakthrough Victoria? I will point out to anyone interested in this issue that Breakthrough Victoria has $2 billion of your money locked up to supposedly invest in new startups and ventures. It has been panned as a complete failure. It has barely invested a thing. It has wasted your money on bad investments to prop up unviable projects. It has wasted your money to prop up unviable companies, thought-bubble businesses and fashionable projects.

Farmer are funding this. The SES, the CFA, volunteers and businesses are funding that $2 billion. We can suggest to the Treasurer and to the government that if they want to return $2 billion to the bottom line, why not wind up this self-indulgent failed cost centre and use that instead? But no, that would disturb the cosy corporate relationship they fund with that. They would not disturb the lovely offices and the high-powered meetings and the patronage it funds. They would rather that you pay for it, and they would rather cut services than do that.

What we are going to see will be cuts to education, health and mental health services. Drought support has been a pittance – $13 million five or six months ago. South Australia provided $74 million and have much more to come. They are going to cut roads – well, they have always cut roads. Local councils are going to continue to suffer cost shifting and be overburdened with delivering state responsibilities with no matching funding. Now they have got to add to this a 64 per cent increased levy to business, a 100 per cent levy increase to property owners and a 189 per cent levy increase to farmers.

This is a choice. The government, the Treasurer and the Premier have a choice. They have a choice between SRL and the farmers and a choice between good project practices or project practices that allow blowouts and health services. They have a choice between the needs of Victorians and Labor’s own objectives, and every time they choose themselves. This is a government that waltzes through every sector of our community, reaming every community. Whether it is communities who want consultation over activity centres or communities that are going to be completely blown up by the SRL, whether it is our fisheries and wildlife services, whether it is cuts to Parks Victoria, whether it is the demonising of councils or whether it is the humiliation of the Commonwealth Games cancellation, they walk through every community, slice their way through every community, and then tell us to be grateful, tell us that they are doing a great thing and tell us that they are investing in things. ‘Investing’ under this government is a code word for ‘borrowing’ or ‘taxing’. When they say they are investing, they are not investing; they are leveraging the state. As my colleague David Limbrick said, they are leveraging the state against our taxes and our incomes or the incomes and the debt of our children. That is what they mean by investment. Nothing is free.

My colleagues in this chamber and in the other place have spoken at length about the impact on communities, particularly rural communities, and I entirely endorse their words, protest and outrage on behalf of our fellow Victorians, particularly those in the regions, particularly farmers and volunteers. But I will bring my contribution around to some of the observations of the impact this will have on business.

Let us be really clear: properly understood, land tax is a process by which the state confiscates the working capital of business and puts it into general revenue. It is a destructive economic exercise because taking working capital from businesses decimates their ability to retain and apply that working capital for expansion, for investment, for innovation – all things that deliver productivity to the state. Without working capital, businesses cannot grow and they cannot innovate. When you have worked through a company’s working capital, then you are starting to take it from their cash flow, and businesses cannot survive without cash flow. That is what land tax does. That is the economic impact of land tax on business, and it is reflected in Victoria because in Victoria since 2009 we have been the laggard across the entire nation. We have the lowest productivity growth in Australia since 2009, and we have the highest number of insolvencies. Land tax is an economically destructive mechanism, and that means that our businesses cannot grow, cannot innovate, cannot upgrade to new technologies and cannot employ people.

They come to the end of a financial year and they have to make a hard decision. Do I keep people on? Do I pay the land tax? Do I have enough cash flow to pay the land tax? Do I go and borrow some more money or do I just wind up? The data says a lot of them are doing the latter, and new investment is not coming into the state, because land tax is a direct attack on the ability of businesses to operate – not theoretically, practically – and the numbers back this up.

With this government it is like being on a game show where the first couple of seasons you sort of enjoy the game show because it is full of surprises and twists, a bit like reality TV, but after a couple of series you actually see the scenes in the way it works. You actually get to see how the whole thing is manufactured for entertainment. This government, for a decade, has gaslit this society because it has used those mechanisms – using terms like ‘investing’, moving and cost-shifting things around budgets so that they can constantly spin. They have also always used the practice of releasing information in salami slices so that no-one can see the full picture and the consequences of their decisions and their strategies until it is too late, and then they will wrap it up in a whole bunch of motherhood statements about how they are investing in care and it is about fairness. Well, it is all a charade. It is a complete charade, and people like us in the political world are a bit closer to it, and you hear us go on about it all the time. But people outside: I know you see it now. I know you have decoded the plot; you have decoded the methodology, and the methodology no longer works. When the Treasurer stands up next week and delivers that budget we will see it revealed for all to see where we are at in this state, because you cannot hide the debt, and you cannot hide the funding cuts that are going to come. You cannot do it anymore – the formula has been exposed. This state has to renew $120 billion of debt over the next 10 years. We are rolling over $30 billion of Treasury bonds every year. When that debt was first incurred, interest rates were around 3 per cent; they are now around 5 per cent on 10-year Treasury bonds. We are paying $26 million a day in interest. We have an SRL project that is going to blow out. We have a pseudo budget where they want to pretend it is only $34 billion, which apparently has no capital costs either. Well, I can tell you now: $34 billion of debt attracts around $16 billion of interest over the life of that project. That does not appear anywhere; we are being lied to. The whole budgetary process has become a farce. The whole budgetary process has been degraded. The accountability and transparency of government is gone, and for taxes like this where they want to say, ‘We’re going to come and grab this from you, but please be grateful for it,’ those days are over. Those days are over, and there is nowhere to hide. You can fool some of the people all of the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time; you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. My time is just about up, but I tell you what: this government’s time is definitely up.

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (11:24): Mr Batchelor did just go and sit in his spot, but if you look around this chamber, you will see that it is just about empty. And do you know why that is? It is because it is hard to face people when you know that you are doing the wrong thing. This is absolutely the wrong thing. It is another move by the government to rip the guts out of rural communities, to crush volunteers and to punish the people that are the lifeblood of this state. I was pretty disgusted when Mr Batchelor finally moved to his place and the first thing he said to Mr Welch, who is fighting for his community, was ‘What are you on?’ I tell you what, that is pretty disgraceful.

So I rise to oppose the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025, a bill that poses a clear and present danger to fairness, transparency and economic survival in regional and rural Victoria This bill does not just rebadge the fire services property levy, it more than doubles it, expanding its scope and embedding cost burdens deep into the lives of those who are already giving the most and receiving the least, which is our CFA volunteers, our SES volunteers, our farmers, our renters and our local businesses. Families and people that support their local communities once again are being crushed by this government.

Let us be clear: revenue from this levy will soar from $1.3 billion to $2.1 billion within three years. That is a 100 per cent increase. The Victorian government will be collecting twice as much from landowners across the state, not because of actual service improvements but because it is offloading responsibility for emergency funding onto everyday people, because it cannot manage the budget. They have made a complete mess of this, and now they are going after more and more Victorians. They are crushing them more than they already have over the last 11 years. Who bears the brunt? Farmers do, and they will see that with a 189 per cent increase in levy payments, jumping from $2525 to $6805 on average. This is not sustainable, and as the Victorian Farmers Federation has rightly warned:

… it could be the nail in the coffin for their farm businesses …

We have already spoken this morning about the devastating impact that drought is having on our farmers. Already in Gippsland six farmers have completely run out of water, according to GippsDairy, and about 30 to 40 are about to run out of water. This is a devastation.

We have been here before. The original fire services levy, introduced after the 2009 royal commission, was supposed to fund firefighting alone, but in recent years we have seen that the money has been quietly redirected to fund Triple Zero Victoria and Emergency Management Victoria – services that were once covered by consolidated revenue. That is disgusting. You cannot just keep mismanaging the state finances and then going after the people that already give so much to this state in order to fund things that should be your bread and butter.

This bill follows the same pattern. It expands the levy to now fund not only the CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria but also VICSES, Emergency Recovery Victoria, emergency alert programs, operational communications systems and even administrative functions within the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, and yet there is no guarantee that the funds collected will go where they are most needed. As East Gippsland Shire Council has said, and I quote:

The new Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund represents a 150% tax hike on some rural landholders … despite a complete lack of guarantees regarding how (or where) the new money will be spent.

We are now being asked to trust a government that has already broken its promises over and over and over again. We are being asked to believe that this expanded, more expensive levy will not be misused, that it will not just disappear into a bureaucratic abyss of salaries, consultants and central administration.

While the city may not notice this straightaway – it will notice it, by the way, but it will not be the first to take the hit – rural and regional communities certainly will, because it is not just the bush where CFA volunteers are being taxed more and supported less. Let us talk about those volunteers. The government boast about the offsets, but let us be honest, they are just tokenistic offsets at best. CFA and SES volunteers are only eligible for a concession on their primary residence, not the farmland they use, not the sheds where they keep all their equipment, not the remote blocks they patrol. The average exemption in fact will be $108 per person. What an absolute disgrace. And they do not get that automatically. They have to pay the full levy up-front, and then they have to apply to the State Revenue Office to get a portion of that back. As Ms Britnell in the other place said, and I quote:

It’s sneaky that the Allan Labor Government think they can fool farmers with a pitiful exemption …

on their home, but not on their farmland. I entirely agree with her.

Meanwhile Fire Rescue Victoria is swimming in taxpayer dollars. In 2023 and 2024 alone its budget was boosted by $192 million, bringing total government grants to $1.7 billion. Employee expenses hit $929 million, with $125 million in overtime and $31 million on consultants. Yet the FRV have still failed to meet their own response times and targets. In contrast, the CFA, the backbone of bushfire defence in our most vulnerable regions and communities, have had their funding cut from $351.6 million in 2021–22 down to $339 million following on. 230 CFA trucks are more than 31 years old. Another 244 are between 26 and 30 years old. The CFA needs $55 million a year to maintain safe fleet standards, but under this bill they will only get $25 million. That is less than half of what is required. This is not support; this is a slow strangulation of our volunteer firefighting forces. A force that we have depended on for so many years to keep our state safe and to keep our community safe have once again been slapped in the face by the Allan Labor government.

The consequences do not just stop there. This bill will absolutely push up cost of living across the board. Residential rates will rise sharply, commercial rates will double, industrial properties will be up 64 per cent and primary producers will now be forced to pay another 189 per cent. This is the 60th new or increased tax this government has introduced. Rental providers will face a new fixed charge of $167 in addition to the increased variable levy. With the rise in land tax and over 130 rental reforms already in place, this levy will be the final straw. My colleague Gaelle Broad said last sitting week:

… rental providers are already stretched … they have no other option but to increase rents or sell …

We have seen this over and over again. In one of my communities we have heard from real estate agents that say for every four rentals that come on the market only one returns to the market. It is because this government is crushing Victorians, and it is cheaper to do business in any other state than it is in this one.

Let us be brutally honest. This levy will lead to higher rents, fewer rental properties and more sell-offs – an even tighter squeeze on vulnerable tenants that are already battling in a housing crisis. It will move more farms onto the market, stripping our regional communities not only of economic power but of community resilience. One Corangamite shire councillor said:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

This levy, if not restructured, could lead to the closure of viable family farms.

Even councils are being dragged into this. This bill forces local governments to act as the tax collector for the state. Rural communities are being told to absorb this new responsibility without the systems or staff to manage it, while there is no guarantee of where the funds raised will flow back to. There is no guarantee that the people that are footing this bill will see the benefits in their community – there is absolutely none. The mayor of Mansfield said it plainly:

We don’t think it’s fair that we’re the ones being asked to put it on the rates notice – we should not be the tax collector for the state government …

That is absolutely spot on. Just about every mayor and councillor in eastern Victoria has contacted me with extreme concerns about this – about the unfairness that once again the government is shifting the responsibility onto them to be the bad one. It is not fair; it is wrong, and it should be rejected.

We support emergency services; that is why we are fighting for this. We support emergency responders. We support the infrastructure that they need to save lives. I just think this is absolutely disgraceful: a government that is over its head in so many ways keeps punishing Victorians. It centralises power and decentralises responsibility. It shifts costs without guarantees. It inflates budgets while eroding service quality. It redistributes funding from the bush to bureaucracies. And worst of all, it does it without any promise of where the government is putting this money.

Let me finish by bringing this this back to the people. This bill punishes those who give the most and receive the least. It takes from our farmers to fund consultants. It undermines the CFA while inflating urban bureaucracies. It hits regional families with rising bills, shrinking rental options and fewer protections while slashing transparency and accountability. I oppose this in so many ways. It is unfair, it is unsustainable and it is a blatant disregard of those who carry the weight of Victoria’s emergencies on their shoulders. This bill must be rejected – not just renamed, not repackaged, but rejected outright – because Victorians deserve better.

Jeff BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) (11:36): I rise to oppose this bill, which will be no surprise to anyone. When I first came to this place some time ago, one of my principles was not to oppose the government unless I felt it was necessary. Over the time I have probably supported some stuff that has irked some people. I certainly know it is irked the opposition from time to time, as I have been the subject of some of their mean hit campaigns. But there comes a time when you just cannot support something, and this is it.

This is a poorly timed bill – I am being the most charitable I can be. Yes, it brings two-point-something billion dollars into the coffers of the government. We have had enough about all the debt the government is in; I am not going to reprosecute that. It is going to hit the regional communities probably the hardest, but surely just sticking your hand further into the pockets of the public is not the answer. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis; I do not think anyone disputes that. Asking people to pay more is not helping. Asking people to pay more is going to lead to more stress. Interest rates are one thing, but they go up, they go down – that is that is the nature of the beast. This is just a case of extra money they have got to shell out. They have got all sorts of land taxes and this tax and that tax.

Now we have another levy. One of the problems I have with this, as I said, is the timing, because there is a drought coming, and the drought and the problems this is going to cause regional and rural communities and farmers are probably going to be the end for some people, whether it is the end of their business or – I take it to probably the extreme – some people ending themselves because of the stress of these things. It is not one thing – it is not just this bill; it is everything. Life is tough out there at the moment. We are well paid in this job. A lot of people go through their lives not ever earning nearly as much as us, and every time something comes in, whether it is a federal tax or a levy or something like that, it is just another little bit of stress.

In the context of the timing, anyone that knows me knows I am a mad motorsports fan. Formula One is not exactly my top thing, but I will watch it. Ever since Ayrton Senna hit the wall all those years ago I have kind of lost interest. I do not know if it is a contractual obligation or not, but spending more than $300 million on renovating the Albert Park facilities – maybe it is needed, but I do not think that it is timed with perfection, and that is being extremely charitable. I think in the absence of any knowledge of the details, it should have been put off. I am not saying it should not be done, but it should have been put off. Certainly new investment now is definitely a bad thing. We are in dire straits, and I think whatever we do, there is going to be a ripple effect.

We do not know what is coming in the next budget. Maybe there are going to be savage cuts we are not all aware of and this will not have the effect we expect, but honestly I do not believe that. The stuff that has been released has been pretty benign so far, except for stuff like the Grand Prix, but – how should I put it? – the government has been hammered about this.

I am going to talk about my crossbench colleagues. I have been here for 11 years, and I have heard various Greens pontificate at great length about the cost of living, about poor people, about how they stand for the marginalised. Well, I guess even people that live in public housing are going to feel this, because the cost of everything will go up. Those in low-income housing, those with low incomes, those that are living week to week – the people they claim to represent – this is going to hurt them so badly, and the people who are trying to pay a mortgage. If they are paying rent, the increase will go to the owner of the property; that has to be passed on. We heard their reasons, what they said they – I will use the words – ‘sold out’ for, but it is what they did not tell us that I worry about. How many pieces of silver did they really sell out for? What is that silver? When will we find out?

On Legalise Cannabis Victoria, I note, as has been pointed out, it is kind of quiet over there. There is no-one – and I am talking about the other crossbenchers. A lot of my people are young people that shoot, fish, four-wheel drive, love the outdoors. No matter what my personal opinion is on it, they like their weed – their wacky weed. As long as it is done in a responsible fashion, does not compromise safety and is within the laws – except for possession, use and all that sort of thing – well, that is up to law enforcement to deal with. But I do not think my people that express support for LCV – and in fairness to LCV, they have been pushing the cannabis cause pretty hard – realise what they get with it. I do not think they realise that they support this stuff. I say to my people that support the legalisation of weed: come election time, it is fair that you can look at that and say, ‘Well, I support that. I’ll put the shooters second’ or whatever it might be, but this is what you get with that. I may not agree on some things, but you will never get me supporting something of this magnitude.

Now, one of the Greens – getting back to them – is a country representative, and I thought that they would have fought this, would have refused it. Sometimes there is a time when you just have to say no. Animal Justice has a Northern Victoria member, and I am sure her Northern Victoria constituents will be making their views known on this. As a crossbench we are here to prosecute our own agendas, and we have an opposition to keep the government in check, but we also have a little bit of that responsibility ourselves, and that is where we have to step up in times like this. I will not be supporting this bill. That should not surprise anyone. I have not ever said I would – I would not. Before I forget, I do have an amendment.

Amendments circulated pursuant to standing orders.

Jeff BOURMAN: To paraphrase this amendment, it is getting rid of the word ‘volunteers’ from the bill – and there is a reason for that. Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria got in touch with me and said they do not want to in any way have it considered that they are in any way in favour of this, part of this or whatever. So to cut a long story short, they want anything to do with volunteers removed from the bill. Now, it is a statement rather than a wild change. I did circulate this broadly before the break. I urge people to support it, because if nothing else it is a statement. The volunteers do not want it.

We have got a gallery full of paid firies. We all know that the United Firefighters Union Victoria have their own opinion on this – Mr Marshall was quite vocal about that this morning – and I agree with them. This is a time to stand up; there is still time for the left of the crossbench, for want of a better term, to do the right thing. I will not hold my breath waiting. I think this is just another thing of a party that calls itself ready for government proving they are not.

Wendy Lovell interjected.

Jeff BOURMAN: I will take up Ms Lovell’s interjection. It is not just titles; it is also a whole lot of other parts of –

Wendy Lovell interjected.

Jeff BOURMAN: We will do that in committee. It will give me something to do.

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (11:46): I rise to speak on this Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. This is an egregious tax. It is an extremely and conspicuously bad tax. It is a typical Labor government bill because this is about hurting those who are the most vulnerable in our community. This is not a tax on the wealthy, this is a tax on everybody, and this tax will impact, as Mr Bourman said, every Victorian, right down to the poorest Victorians. This is typical of Labor and the Greens, who grandstand about caring about people, colluding to actually hurt the most vulnerable in our community. This tax will drive up the cost of living, this tax will drive up the cost of food and this tax will drive up the cost of rent, and it will drive up the cost of rent for the most vulnerable in our communities. Many of the cheapest rentals in this state are old houses on farming properties that some of our poorest families will reach out to farmers to rent. This will drive those taxes up too, because farmers are being hit the hardest by this tax.

I am proud to stand here in the red and white colours of the CFA, wearing my CFA badge, and oppose this tax, because at the CFA firefighters games in March that were held in Mooroopna, the volunteers were coming up to me and saying, ‘We do not want this tax – this tax is bad – but particularly we do not want the word “volunteers” in the title of this bill because people are blaming the volunteers for the increase in the tax.’ And the volunteers get such a small proportion. Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria has done the numbers, and they actually think that next year it will be about 6 per cent that goes to volunteer organisations and only about 11 per cent in outer years, and yet the volunteers are being blamed. Volunteer firefighters were saying, ‘Our neighbours are coming to us and saying, “It’s your fault our bills are going up, because all of this money is going to volunteers.”’

This is about the government once again politicising the title of a bill for their own purposes. This is a bad bill, and this bill should be opposed. This is a de facto land tax on top of the existing land taxes that we already have, and we know that this bill is going to hit primary production the hardest, because we know that the increases in the levy rates that will be imposed are the harshest for farmers. Primary production will cop a 189 per cent increase in what they pay on the fire services levy now; commercial properties, 100 per cent; residential properties, 99 per cent; and industrial properties, 64 per cent.

As I have already said, this will hurt farmers and regional Victorians the most. It will drive up the cost of food production at a time when we are trying to fight inflation and bring down the cost of living, but Labor and the Greens – and the Legalise Cannabis Party and the Animal Justice Party; we cannot forget them either – are colluding to actually impose this tax and to hurt all Victorians.

What we see if we look at the budget papers and the budget update from 2024–25 is that the government expects next year to collect $610 million in additional revenue just on this tax alone and then $735 million in the 2026–27 year and again an increase in 2027–28. This tax will actually collect an extra 2.14 billion in revenue for the state government over the first three years of it alone. That extra spending is not going to cover our fire services or our volunteers, it is actually going to cover the delivery of core government business that has always previously been funded through consolidated revenue, things like Triple Zero Victoria, things like Emergency Management Victoria, things like the operations of the department – they are all in there being funded out of this money – things that have always been funded from consolidated revenue. But there is no offset. There is no offset to land tax or anything for people for the transfer of this tax. We are just paying more. So the government will use that money that was traditionally funding those things in consolidated revenue to prop up their bottom line and fund their pet projects, and they will charge Victorians more to deliver emergency services in this state. This is wrong.

We know that the government actually outlined that only $250 million – over five years, by the way, so only $150 million of the $2.14 billion that they collect in the first three years will actually go to replacement vehicles and equipment for the CFA. That is not very much, and we have a spending breakdown on that: it is actually only $70 million over the three years that will go for fleet replacement. There will be $62 million, which does increase the volunteer emergency services equipment program (VESEP) grants – something that I think I actually do like, an increase in VESEP grants. There will be $53 million for the VicEmergency app; well, that should be core government business out of consolidated revenue. And $30 million will go to the VICSES for training and support programs. So that only totals $215 million – out of the first three years’ $2.14 billion. So where does the other $1.75 billion go? It goes to prop up the government’s bottom line; it goes to fund what should be core business of the government.

And what we know too from what the definitions of this bill set out definitively is who can benefit from these funds, and in that we see that it is all those government departments, emergency management, the CEO of emergency management, the chair of emergency management, Triple Zero; what we do not see is a number of volunteer organisations listed there. The Shepparton Search and Rescue squad is not listed. The Echuca–Moama Search and Rescue Squad is not listed. Marine Search and Rescue is not listed. Australian Volunteer Coast Guard is not listed. Life Saving Victoria is not listed. Alpine Search and Rescue Victoria is not listed. Bush Search and Rescue Victoria is not listed. These are volunteer organisations; they are not going to get any funding from the government.

Now, when the Shepparton Search and Rescue squad met with Minister Ward, Minister Ward told them that, ‘Oh, yes, you will be able to get funding. It’ll come through the SES.’ But if you read the definitions of who can actually receive funding, it does not include them. It is very definitive about which groups can receive funding under this, and it even goes on to further define what the SES is. So it does exclude those volunteer organisations from receiving any funding out of the direct funding for organisations out of this fund.

There is a clause on who can benefit from the rebate that may be used to allow volunteers from those organisations to actually get the rebate, because it does say that the Treasurer can gazette other organisations to receive a rebate. But that is only the rebate to volunteers, and we all know that the rebate to volunteers is an absolute joke anyway, particularly when you are talking about farmers who are volunteering and their bill may be $80,000 a year.

Whilst they may be able to gazette that volunteers can receive a rebate, it does not allow for these volunteer organisations to actually receive funding. The government would need to fix that if this bill gets through, because those volunteer organisations deserve to be supported as well.

What we know also about the rebates – and this is revealed in the budget update as well – is that although the tax kicks in from 2025–26, the rebates actually do not start until 2026–27. So why are the government not giving a rebate in the first year of collecting this tax? That is really nasty, sneaky and nasty, but typical of this Labor government.

There are a whole lot of criticisms that have come in about this tax from all sorts of areas. I have had a number of organisations contact me. I want to quote from the letter that was sent to Ellen Sandell, the Leader of the Greens, this morning from Peter Marshall, the branch secretary of the United Firefighters Union. He started out by saying:

Dear Ellen,

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.

He went on to say:

It is a blatant lie, a gross perversion and, put simply, misleading, to dress this tax bill up as something that supports Victorian volunteers and emergency service workers.

He noted that there has been little or no consultation, he talks about the impact of the Victorian government’s position on firefighters and he talks about the costs of the tax to the Victorian people. He went on to say that the passing of this egregious tax:

… was only made possible with a complicit crossbench.

I am pleased to see one of those complicit crossbenchers has actually come into the chamber now, a member of the Cannabis Party, because none of them have been here to listen to this debate, to hear about how it is impacting on Victorians and particularly on farmers in Victoria. Peter Marshall went on to say:

… the Greens – and, it appears, Legalise Cannabis and the Animal Justice Party – have put their own interests ahead of the safety of Firefighter and public safety. This is unforgiveable and will follow you into the next State Election.

It is frightening what these people are willing to do to sell out Victorians.

Regional Cities Victoria have done some analysis of the increased taxes that will be collected in regional cities. In my area in the regional city of Bendigo it is an extra 46.94 per cent, in Mildura an extra 54 per cent, in Shepparton an extra 55 per cent, in Wangaratta an extra 67 per cent and in Wodonga an extra 43 per cent. But that money will not come back into our communities. We will not see that money spent on increasing the capacity of firefighters or increasing the capacity of our SES. It will not come back to our areas. It will be spent on other things: to prop up government departments, to run Triple Zero, to run Emergency Management Victoria, core functions of government that have always been funded from consolidated revenue. This is a disgrace. In the Yarriambiack council it is an extra 123 per cent; Macedon Ranges, 62 per cent; Swan Hill, 62 per cent; Mansfield, 73 per cent; Benalla, 81 per cent; Murrindindi, 85 per cent; Indigo, 99 per cent; Strathbogie, 91 per cent. It is not coming back to our areas.

But you need to look too at the breakdown. In a shire like Indigo residential properties will go up by 29 per cent, commercial properties by 63 per cent and farms by 197 per cent. This is so unfair on the farming community and on those who are actually the volunteers who put out our fires. The local government do not want to be the tax collectors. They have not had any contact from this government since Tim Pallas was the Treasurer, and they do not believe that they can be ready in time for the rates notices this year anyway.

Business interrupted pursuant to standing orders.