Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:55): (1660) My adjournment is to the Minister for Emergency Services, and the action I seek is for the minister to outright revoke this cruel and ill-conceived fire services property levy. This is a cash grab from all Victorians, particularly from our farmers, who are already suffering enough with drought and increased costs. Farmers are hit hardest with this levy and are facing up to 150 per cent increases, with some forced to pay thousands more each year. Home owners, renters and business owners will also pay significantly more under the funding grab. It is approximately $600 million to $765 million per year in extra taxes on homes, farms and small business people.

The coalition has made a public commitment to repeal this tax and to restore certainty. We will scrap this tax from homes, families, farms and businesses. This levy is just another tax hike disguised as a genuine investment in emergency services. But we know that this funding is not going back into emergency services. It is not being used to update badly needed vehicles and equipment for our firefighters. It is a massive land tax by stealth. CFA and SES volunteers are offered nothing more than a convoluted delayed rebate scheme. These are the very people who deserve proper funding and respect, not empty gestures or words not matched by actions, because they work for our community for free. A coalition government can ensure that SES and CFA and other emergency services are properly funded directly from the state budget, not via a new land tax. The coalition funding model respects the contribution of volunteers and delivers real support.

This is just an Allan Labor government grab for money for its budget black hole. Labor cannot manage money, and all Victorians are paying the price. In a further attack on farmers already facing a levy increase of 189 per cent, the legislation states that exemptions on farmers will be capped at a yet-to-be-determined land value. Under the proposed changes the median fire services levy for primary producers will jump more than a staggering 100 per cent. This change will result in some landholders receiving hikes in the tens of thousands of dollars, and under the pretext of supporting volunteers what Labor is actually doing is taxing Victorians more for services that have always been funded from the consolidated revenue and in the process asking our volunteers in the country to pay more for services that they provide voluntarily. So if the government has any conscience at all, it must revoke this heartless legislation.

The Liberal coalition will repeal this legislation, restore the fire services property levy as the sustainable and equitable funding model and ensure that SES funding is provided directly from the state budget, not through a tax that burdens families, business owners and regional communities.