Thursday, 13 November 2025

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (17:43): I move:

That the petition be taken into consideration.

When our country communities are threatened by a fire, it is the men and women of local brigades that stand between life and loss. When storms tear through our farms, it is neighbours, not bureaucrats, who clear the roads. And when tragedy strikes, it is country people who dig deep, even when they have got little left to give. But now this government, the same one that claps our heroes, including our United Firefighters Union members, wants to tax them for their service – a tax on sacrifice, a tax on decency and a tax on the community spirit that has carried Victoria through every flood, every fire and every storm.

I remember that when this legislation passed in the Council earlier this year, in the dead of night, over 200 CFA brigades went offline. That alone should have been a red flag. I thank Steve Peel for backing this petition. Steve, we have made history tonight with the largest petition in the Parliament’s history, with 43,748 signatures. But we have to ask the question: why does the government hate farmers so much? Why does the government keep punching down on regional and rural communities already doing it tough? Why hit people when they are hurting now the most? I will tell you why: because the government have made a cold political calculation. They think that on the electoral map, country people do not matter. They think that small communities are small voices, easy to ignore and easy to bulldoze. Well, they are wrong. What we lack in numbers, we make up for in fight, and we are prepared to fight. We have stood shoulder to shoulder at rallies right across the state and even on the steps of this Parliament, where thousands have gathered to send a message to the government: scrap the tax. I have heard the government’s propaganda machine whirl into life recently claiming that all funds go to the emergency services. That is a bit of a stretch, because when this government says emergency services, they do not mean volunteers; they mean departmental bureaucrats. They do not mean firefighters and trucks; they mean paper pushers and pen-pushers in offices. They do not mean investment in boots and hoses; they mean plugging a budget black hole. And that is what this tax is really about. It is not about protecting people. It is not about supporting volunteers. It is not even about improving the system. It is about money, and the government want more of it. Once again they expect regional Victorians and rural Victorians to wear the brunt of this, because to them we are a soft target. As the Treasurer said in June, this was a progressive, proportionate tax based on the capacity to pay. I bet there is a lot of regret around those words.

Tell that to the potato farmers north of Ballarat. Tell that to the cropping farmers in the Wimmera. Tell that to the dairy farmers in south-west Victoria. Explain to the volunteer firefighters who pay already in blood, sweat, tears, time and courage. Take country people for granted at your own risk. We on this side of the chamber will never, ever apologise for standing with rural and regional Victorians. We always have and we always will, because that is who we are and that is why we will fight this tax with every single thing we have got. When the people of Victoria have their say in November 2026, we will scrap the tax. We will end the tax on service, end the tax on sacrifice and end the tax on community, because the spirit of country Victoria is not for sale and it will never, ever be taxed into silence.

 Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (17:48): I thank the member for his petition. It is a shame there are only 5 minutes, because there are a lot of facts that should be facilitated and put on the table. Obviously this petition calls on the government to cease the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund (ESVF) and keep the fire services property levy, which is slightly at odds with the Liberals and Nationals announcement that if they are elected in 2026, they will repeal the emergency services and volunteers levy as Mr McCracken has said. If you go into his electorate office, you can actually pick up a blue Liberal logo sign that says that they will scrap the tax. I am pretty sure the Parliamentary Workplace Standards and Integrity Commission might want to have a look at that, but I come back to –

Members interjecting.

Jaclyn SYMES: Just putting it out there. In any event –

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: Order! Mr McCracken was heard in silence.

Jaclyn SYMES: We have done the analysis on costing up the slogans that Mr McCracken likes to promote, because what that will see is a cut of $11.1 billion in the budget. That means a potential of – if the government changes – $11.1 billion behind where we are currently at. That is a budget black hole that can only be filled by cuts. Will that be teachers? Will that be nurses? Will that be doctors? Will that be child protection workers? Will it be firefighters? As Treasurer, I need to be clear: there is just no way that repealing the ESVF could somehow support a sustainable funding model of our emergency services. Repealing the ESVF will only reduce funding to core emergency services, get rid of the volunteer rebate and make it more difficult for local communities to prepare, respond and recover from natural disasters. As a regional Victorian, former Minister for Emergency Services and former agriculture minister I have experienced and seen firsthand the impact of disasters, and I know that we have more regular and more severe natural disasters happening around the state. They are putting increasing pressure on our emergency services, especially in rural communities, and as a state government it is our job to ensure support is always available when it is needed.

I have personally lived through Benalla being flooded. I have worked closely with communities that have been impacted by emergencies, most notably the fires at the end of 2019 and the October 2022 floods. In response to the floods more than $2 billion was directed to response and recovery. I will use Campaspe shire as an example. Government responded to the needs of the community with more than $10 million in emergency relief payments. 460 organisations received flood recovery and relief. Recovery funding equated to $3.5 million for the clean-up program. Three hundred people accessed the Elmore village, and a provision of temporary accommodation for other impacted residents was provided. There was a $1.4 million recovery hub supported by recovery officers. I use this as an example: it is clear this funding into this community far exceeded any contribution that they made under a levy. But what we want to make sure is that future communities that are impacted can have a similar response, and you can do that by having a levy that is hypothecated for emergency services response and recovery.

Under the ESVF we have shored up funding for our emergency service organisations and hardworking volunteers because every single dollar raised must go to emergency services. It is legislated. Because of the ESVF we have been able to announce new trucks, tankers, equipment, training, station upgrades, upgrades to the VicEmergency app and a doubling of the volunteer emergency services equipment program grants. Just this Monday the Minister for Emergency Services in the other place was in Scoresby inspecting the 50 new 4x4 crew-cab chassis that will become light tankers. She announced that the first seven would be allocated to a range of towns around the state. This builds on the $40 million CFA rolling fleet replacement program announced in December, alongside the provision of a $40 million program for FRV and a $30 million program for VICSES. These are guaranteed minimum amounts, which has the benefit of allowing the organisations to plan their future orders. CFA is also in the middle of rolling out their radio program.

These investments in our emergency services are possible because of the ESVF, and that is why last year when this proposal was announced by the former Treasurer I supported it, because I was the emergency services minister. I wanted to invest in more FRV trucks, more CFA equipment, recognise SES volunteers, support the State Control Centre, update the VicEmergency app and ensure that we are well placed to step in when the very worst happens.

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:53): I am also pleased to talk on this petition, and I thank all the petitioners that signed it. There is a lot of talk in this place and in the community about the cost of living – the cost of food, the cost of rent, the cost of petrol, the cost of gas, the cost of electricity – but no-one seems to be talking about the biggest cost of all, and that is the cost of government. That is borne through taxes, and the Victorian people have had enough. They cannot bear taxes any higher. The taxes are too damn high. And what we see when they institute taxes like this – I am sorry that the Treasurer has left, because she spoke about this $11 billion black hole. Actually she talked about making cuts. I think the government should make cuts. I think the government is far too big, and I am happy to provide some ideas.

Firstly, we should cancel the Suburban Rail Loop. This is a financial black hole that has the potential to send this state into financial ruin. Secondly, we should abandon net zero. We should abandon all renewable energy subsidies and let the electricity market operate on the free-market level as much as possible. We should allow more gas to be mined in Victoria. We have ample gas supplies, yet the government seems to be sitting on their hands and not allowing gas production which this state urgently needs and which would provide more tax revenue. There are many, many ideas here. I know that the Silver review is currently under consideration by the government. I would urge the government –

Members interjecting.

David LIMBRICK: Well, we have not seen it yet. I do not know what is in it, but I would urge the Treasurer to look at middle management consolidation within the public service. The idea that they cannot find $11 billion in savings to cover this without raising taxes and harming regional Victoria is just a joke. We can absolutely do it. We have seen how much money has been wasted on things in the past, like the Commonwealth Games, which we got nothing for – $589 million on nothing. There is so much waste in this state. We can absolutely cut back the size of government and maintain our emergency services as we need without adding more taxes for Victorians.

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (17:55): Thank you to my colleague Mr McCracken for organising this petition and to the 43,748 fabulous Victorians who have signed the petition. This is a very historic point in time, not only because it is the largest number of petitioners that we have ever seen in this place who signed this petition but also because it has brought together a coalition of stakeholders like never before. Virtually every one of the 79 councils in Victoria has made sure that their ratepayers know that they have been made to be the tax collector for this state, the debt collector for this state. They do not like it, and they are very concerned about the fact that they are having to collect the tax on behalf of the government. It has also brought together our fabulous volunteer firefighters, standing alongside our United Firefighters Union members. I pay tribute to Peter Marshall in the gallery tonight. The paid professional firefighters are standing side by side with our volunteers to make sure everybody knows that they are opposed to this great big new tax, that it is a disgrace. They are standing alongside councillors. I see councillors in the gallery tonight, councillors who have stood with us on the platforms across Victoria as we join all Victorians in fighting this tax. It is an extraordinary coalition when I stand alongside Stephen Jolly, the mayor of the City of Yarra, not known for his conservative views normally. He does say that it is most interesting that he is standing alongside me. But we are joined at the hip on this particular issue.

It has also joined every farmer. At the time this tone-deaf government brought in this tax our farmers in Victoria were facing the worst crisis, probably since 1900. The least amount of rain had fallen in many parts of Victoria, and they brought in a new tax. They have had a few reprieves, but it is a stay of execution for farming communities. They will be hit with that tax next year, and they cannot afford it. Many will go broke. Many councils will probably go broke because people cannot afford to pay this tax. Everyone has joined together with us side by side to fight this tax. This tax applies to everybody in Victoria – every household, every commercial business, every farmer.

The worst thing of all is that it is in the name of volunteers. That is disgraceful, it is obscene and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. And where are you? Look at these empty benches. There are virtually no Labor Party members there. Where is the crossbench? They are not there either – the Greens, who say they care about the environment. They do not care about the environment at all. They are working side by side to tax Victorians out of existence. As for the amount they are collecting, in the first year they will collect the same amount that it cost to not have the Commonwealth Games. But has anybody got a ticket to Glasgow? I do not think so. Nobody has.

Now, recently I visited the Melton fire shed, and guess what? For a 220,000 population, they have got one water tanker. Now, can you believe that? If a fire occurs in that growing community, they are in real trouble. A brigade captain from Bendigo wrote to us recently, very concerned. This is in the Premier’s backyard. He says:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Today we had a ladder platform –

that is a cherry picker –

in Footscray break down during the Fire Ops 101 program. Instead today we have highlighted the major issues we experienced with our truck fleet. Most concerning, last night FRV had no spare trucks across the state. A truck in Melbourne suffered a breakdown, and there was no truck to replace it. What is happening?

The one thing a government must do is keep its citizens safe. You are failing to do that, but you are trying to tax Victorians to keep themselves safe. What a disgrace you are. And it is a disgrace not every one of you is sitting on those benches to actually let the people of Victoria know how concerned you are that you are taxing them out of existence.

 Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (18:00): I rise to speak in support of Mr McCracken’s petition number 9451 on the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund. This petition highlights a very real and pressing concern: the dramatic rise in payments that would fall upon Victorian ratepayers under this new scheme. For many households, farmers and small businesses these additional costs represent a significant financial burden, especially at a time when cost-of-living pressures are already high. The petition rightly calls for the government to immediately halt the introduction of this fund and to maintain the current fire services property levy, which provides an established, equitable mechanism for funding our emergency services.

Equally important is the petitioners’ call for a genuine consultation process. The voices of those directly affected, the CFA and the SES volunteers, farmers, emergency service workers and the broader community, must be central to any decisions about funding. These are the people on the front lines protecting Victorians in times of crisis, and their perspectives are invaluable in shaping a system that is fair, sustainable and effective. I urge the Legislative Council to act on this petition, to listen to the concerns of the community and to ensure that any reforms to the way we fund our emergency services are developed through consultation, fairness and transparency.

 Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:02): Well, here we are again: a similar debate and a similar petition, but this time, I tell you what, you have not fooled 40,000 Victorians – 40,000 Victorians are awake to this government. It is the biggest single fraud on any public in this country since probably the days of Paul Keating. Paul Keating promised the GST, and he never could quite deliver, but this government has gone a step further. They promised a great big new tax, and that is exactly what those opposite managed to deliver. They gave us a tax that they did not even need to pay for fire services, although this government was actually going to also pay for police or ambulances. But they conned the entire people of Victoria – and never took it to an election, mind you; never actually had a mandate. In the same vein that they did with the Commonwealth Games, they promised one thing and did another. But this is actually more sinister than that because they never took this to an election ever.

What they said was, ‘In order to fund our volunteers, in order to fund our paid professional firefighters, we actually have to have a tax’ – what nonsense. Therein lies the biggest crime that has been committed here: it is propagating a fraud. It is a fraud propagated by the Labor Party and those opposite, not only on the workers of this state, but most importantly, on our first responders – those who we know, in terms of firefighters, on six out of 10 occasions will be the first on scene. They will be the first to help a cardiac arrest victim. They will be the first to help when trying to save property. They will be the first to try and help when it comes to saving lives. When it comes to having their back, what does this government do? Well, they are behind them, all right, but they have got their back in the most wrong way possible. They have perpetrated this absolute fraud that somehow they need to fund it through a new tax when all of us in this place know, ever since Victoria was founded over 150 years ago and more, that every cent of general revenue is there to fund the basic services of this state, from police to ambulance and of course fire. Here is also the very inconvenient truth for those opposite: having introduced this tax, what are they now doing for fire services in Victoria? They are cutting them. This is the lie they are perpetrating. It is absolutely cruel.

Georgie Crozier interjected.

Nick McGOWAN: It is gaslighting. Actually it is worse than that, because I will tell you what: go and spend the night with the firies. Members here today with me, Mrs McArthur and Mr McCracken, thank you for bringing this to our attention yet again. Peter Marshall is here today to join us with all the others in the chamber and all the others in the gallery, and credit to them, because they are relentless in their campaign to make sure that those who save us are being looked after. If they were not there right now, they would be thrown on the trash heap, because that is exactly what those opposite are doing to them each and every day.

Even this afternoon there was a chorus on the other side of the chamber here talking about standing up for workers – what an absolute lie. If you were doing that, you would have done presumptive legislation by now. You have sat on your hands for the better part of 20 years, and you have done nothing – not a thing. You can screw your face up all you like, Mr Batchelor, but have you done anything to progress presumptive rights for firefighters? Nothing – that is what you have done; absolutely nothing. Through you, Chair: that side has done absolutely nothing. And now they are doing worse than that – they are actually denying firefighters the resources they need to do their job safely. Forty per cent of the fire trucks in this state – 40 per cent of the fire appliances – are obsolete. Every time we send a firey out – a female firey or a male firey – guess what happens? They break down all the time, regularly, to the point that we do not even have backup appliances in this state to fight fires, much less save somebody from a cardiac arrest. So the next time your relative – your mother, your father, your son, your daughter – has a heart attack, it is more likely that it will be a firey that is going to save them. But under this government, with their broken-down vehicles, 40 per cent of which are already obsolete – and by the end of this year it will be another 20 per cent, so 60 per cent of the entire fleet of Fire Rescue Victoria will already be obsolete.

In the meantime, what is happening in the fantasy land opposite? They are opening great big train stations and great big tubes. Who are they going to send down the tunnels when people need to be saved? It will be the firies. ‘We’ll send them down – they’ll be all right.’ No, they will not, because their breathing apparatus does not even work. They do not even have breathing apparatus – they all expired, in terms of expiry date, in September. So not one firefighter has a proper breathing apparatus – neither short-term nor long-duration – to get into any of these tunnels to save themselves, much less to save any Victorian. That is the disgraceful state of the fire service in Victoria, because those opposite are so duplicitous. They are prepared to lie and they are prepared to commit a fraud against the Victorian people, all while turning their backs on the workers of this state.

It is not the first time they have done this. They did this just some months ago. We remember that, don’t we? Remember the WorkCover changes, where they threw on the scrap heap everyone with a proven mental health disability – every single one of them. ‘Chop them off. Let’s all chop them off, shall we?’ And they have done exactly the same to firefighters. They are lining up the cops in the same way – no wonder the cops are beside themselves; they have got the same amount of confidence in this government as the firies right now. Ambos – same story. The ambos are lining up one after the other – they cannot get their passengers into hospital because there is no investment going into hospitals. We have just seen in recent reports over recent days exactly the same problem. This government has turned its back on firefighters, and I would urge them to heed the call, because if they do not, the next ones who will need saving will be the Labor Party – and it will serve them right, because they brought it upon themselves.

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:07): I am also very privileged to rise to speak on this petition today. It is the petition that has the largest amount of signatures ever in the history of this Parliament – 43,748. I congratulate my colleague Joe McCracken for his hard work and his thoughtfulness in putting out this petition, and I thank and congratulate all members of the community that have taken the time to actually sign this petition, because it really matters to them. They are aware of how this particular tax is going to impact their lives. Many of them are farmers that are already struggling and finding it incredibly difficult to just get through each day, let alone to have a tax like this imposed on them.

What is even more astounding is that not only has this got the most number of signatures ever, but all 79 councils have now united against this tax and said, ‘We don’t want to do it.’ They are putting it out and making it very clear to their ratepayers that this is not their tax, this is a state government tax – as they should. Why should councils have to reel in money for a state government that is not working within its budget, blowing out budgets all over the place, making promises it cannot keep and then making the taxpayer – hardworking Victorians – pay for their blunders with these sorts of levies? This is an outrageous situation. To say that it is a fire tax levy – give me a break. We know these services are being completely depleted of their resources. They need significant increases, and those increases are not coming as quickly as they are required.

We know that we are heading into a very difficult summer – there has been so much rain – with all the additional grass growth, and we also know that many of these farmers have been forced into taking transmission lines on their properties, which is a huge concern for people that have to work in fires. The CFA are really stretched already. In fact you are not only asking them to take on transmission lines that could actually cause fires, but now you are going to tax these same farmers – who give up their time voluntarily – with taxes they cannot afford as you cause fires. This is an irresponsible decision from a government that is failing the Victorian people. This is an irresponsible situation, and everybody is paying the price. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to be able to address the fact that so many people have come forward, and I can see the heads nodding in the gallery because they know how difficult it is to be paying these extra levies. Every Victorian is paying this price. It is like an additional property tax that nobody asked for and nobody can afford. As I mentioned earlier today, the number of people that are lining up because they cannot feed their families, they cannot put petrol in their cars, they cannot sustain their bills – it is impossible for Victorians now. And we are now hitting regional Victoria in such a massive way – along with every person in Victoria. Our fire services are paying the price as well, with heavy taxes. It is simply not sustainable. It is irresponsible.

I want to thank the people for standing up and being part of the largest petition we have ever known in this state. Congratulations to those who have come out today. And for those who are watching online, this is an absolutely disgraceful situation. It is appalling, as has been noted, that we have so few people in the chamber. The government has not thought to bring out its ministers and to bring out its backbench to at least show respect for the largest petition that has ever been tabled, to show respect for the Victorian people about something that absolutely matters to them. You show that absolute lethargy, that you could not care less and you are not even prepared to turn up in your numbers to the chamber to at least show that you care about what happens to the Victorian people and how they are struggling. Shame on you. I am appalled by this government.

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (18:11): I want to thank my colleagues Mrs McArthur, Mr Limbrick, Ms Tyrrell, Mr McGowan and Mrs Hermans for their contributions. But I will never be lectured to by this Treasurer about managing Victoria’s finances – not now, not ever. Not when the government has $200 billion in debt. Not when the government spends millions of dollars each hour just servicing that debt. I am sorry, I am just not accepting that – it is a disgrace. Not when you sold half of VicRoads, not when you have cut police funding – and who pays for that? Every single Victorian pays for that. And not when you have wasted $600 million on the Commonwealth Games. Do not lecture us about finance ever again. You forfeit that right.

I want to go back to the words of the Treasurer: ‘progressive, proportionate tax, based on the capacity to pay’. Those words will ring in the Treasurer’s ears and haunt her for years to come when she understands the damage that this tax is doing to regional and rural Victorians. How she can look those people in the face staggers me. The Treasurer walked out of here today when the debate was continuing, just like she walked out on every single regional Victorian. It was a disgrace. Stop ignoring country people. Stop pretending like we do not exist and start respecting us. We do not ask it – we demand it.

Motion agreed to.