Tuesday, 16 June 2026

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (13:38): On Sunday I also joined our leader Jess Wilson and many of my Liberal and national colleagues at the ‘scrap the tax’ rally organised by the CFA Volunteers Group. Over 1000 people from regional Victoria attended, hundreds of them in their yellow turnout gear, and surrounded by a cavalry of red fire trucks. The message from CFA members was clear: this tax must be scrapped. Labor has betrayed volunteer country firefighters by imposing an unfair emergency services tax that will rip billions from rural communities and will not return that money back to local CFA brigades for new trucks or new stations. A new report by the Parliamentary Budget Office has confirmed that under Labor, Victorians pay the highest emergency services tax in Australia: around $43 more than the national average of $177 per resident, and yet half the truck fleet is over 20 years old and past the date that vehicles should be replaced. This rally was held in the home town of both the Premier Jacinta Allan and Speaker Maree Edwards and in the Treasurer Jaclyn Symes’s own seat. All three were invited to attend but refused to turn up and face the firefighters who are hurting because of Labor’s policies. Only a Wilson Liberal government will axe the tax, end Labor’s waste and give Victoria the fresh start it needs.