Thursday, 20 March 2025

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

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Danny Pearson:

That this bill be now read a second time.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (10:09): I rise to speak on the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. It is important to start on this bill with what the government intends to do by introducing this great big new tax, because that is what this is. This bill is about introducing a great big new tax that is going to further hit everyone – home owners, landowners, property owners – to the tune of $2 billion over the next three years. But that is what this bill is about – imposing a great big new tax on Victorians and in doing so introducing a tax that funds, by part, government service that has always been funded through consolidated revenue. We know that when it comes to new taxes that go to consolidated revenue, this government has repeatedly introduced new taxes under the guise of doing something to support well-meaning causes. However, in practice we know what this government does is impose great big new taxes, and that is what this bill will do.

It is not just my contention that this is a great big new tax; the Treasurer herself confirmed it yesterday. It is important to start with that point. The Treasurer has now confirmed what we thought and knew about this great big new tax. The Treasurer yesterday was confronted with serious concerns from home and property owners and investors that this great big new tax will impose unreasonable additional burdens on them – in fact not just burdens, burdens to the point, as I said yesterday, that hit the final nail in the coffin for investors in this state. What was the Treasurer’s response? ‘Well, they can afford to pay.’ That is what this government and the Treasurer said yesterday. Her view and this government’s view is that taxes are too low and certain people who invest to provide homes to Victorians can afford to pay more – and a lot more, we know, in this bill. Both I and the Leader of the Nationals have repeatedly called out not only the burden but what we have now been proven to be right about, and that is that this government has an attack planned to increase taxes through this great big new tax.

I think it is important to put on the record that when we talk about investors, 403,000 of the 560,000 property investors own one property. Though the Treasurer would like to paint these people as some kind of land barons who are not paying enough tax, the house should remember that 64,000 of those property owners are teachers who are saving every dollar to buy that second property, that investment property, for their future. Perhaps it is for the future of their kids – to provide their kids somewhere to live – or an investment to get ahead. This Treasurer is saying to 64,000 teachers, ‘You don’t pay enough on your salary, and we think you should pay more tax.’ What a disgrace. 55,000 are nurses, who this government is saying are land barons and who this Treasurer wants to pay more tax. 41,000 are office administrative assistants – 41,000 land barons as per this Treasurer – who this Treasurer thinks need to pay more tax. Forty thousand are administrative assistants, who the government describes as not paying enough tax – they are land barons as far as the Treasurer is concerned. 21,000 are electricians and 15,000, almost 16,000, are truck drivers – land barons as far as this Labor government is concerned – who deserve a great big new tax.

Hundreds of thousands of these 400,000 people who own one property are teachers, nurses, office administrative assistants, admin assistants, electricians and truck drivers who are putting aside every dollar – not only for themselves, but I am sure for their kids – to buy that one investment property for their future to get ahead and for their kids’ future to get ahead. This Treasurer’s first response yesterday, when asked about this great big new tax, was, ‘They can afford to pay.’ As I said at the time –

Michael O’Brien interjected.

James NEWBURY: That is right, it is absolutely outrageous that this government would think those hundreds of thousands of hard workers are not doing enough with the taxes they already pay. Frankly this government’s plan is to screw them harder. That is what this government is planning to do, and it needs to be called out. As I said yesterday –

Paul Edbrooke: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I think we heard some unparliamentary language there.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Frankston. I did raise an eyebrow at the member. I think he understands where he overstepped.

James NEWBURY: The government wants to push the tax burden on them harder. The government wants them to pay more tax because they are not paying enough, as this government believes. Any of these descriptions I am sure the member can interject on at any point – hundreds of thousands of workers. As I said yesterday, the Premier needs to take a big deep breath and consider whether this Treasurer is fit for her job, because when we have a great big new tax of $2 billion over the next three years imposed on some of the hardest working people of the community, the Treasurer’s first response, which frankly has shocked people, was these hardworking people – teachers and nurses – are not working hard enough, so they can afford to pay more. That is what this Treasurer has said: these people do not work hard enough and are not paying enough tax, so they should be paying more. What a disgrace. Not a single member from the other side of the chamber – no-one from the executive or the Premier – has come out to say they support these hardworking people and the Treasurer was out of line. Every member who speaks on this bill has an opportunity to correct the record and say whether or not nurses and teachers are working hard enough, as far as the Treasurer is concerned, and should be paying more tax.

That is what this bill is about. It is about imposing a great big new tax. What the government will say is this great big new tax is going to fund emergency services management and support. What they will not tell you is that this great big new tax is also going to fund core government services, the operation of government, not, as they would lead you to believe, just emergency services organisations. It is going to fund department work and agency work of government. That is why this tax needs to be called out. I move:

That all the words after ‘That’ be omitted and replaced with the words ‘this house refuses to read this bill a second time until the government commits to consulting with stakeholders on the rebate scheme and which organisations should receive funding.’

What we know is the government supposedly is introducing a great big new tax to fund emergency services.

When you look at the list of what is allowed to be funded under this great big new tax, it is a broad range: meritorious of course, the Country Fire Authority; meritorious of course, Fire Rescue Victoria and also the Victorian State Emergency Service. But as I raised as a concern before, we have core government work, core government services: Triple Zero Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria, the Secretary of the Department of Justice and Community Safety for funding of emergency management, whatever that may include – the secretary of the department, for emergency services work. The coalition has moved an amendment, because we are concerned – and I can put on the record that not only are we moving this amendment in this place but we will also be moving textual amendments in the other place that go into these issues in more detail in terms of the organisations. But the point is that this great big new tax is not only funding people who need it but also funding core government work, and we say this great big new tax is actually about collecting more money through more tax to do work of government in addition to supporting organisations that do incredibly hard work.

Not only has the government created a list of organisations that we have questioned in terms of the current list, and that goes straight to the amendment, but a number of members have gone to the government about organisations that have not been included in funding. A number of members have advocated strongly to ensure that other organisations are considered who have not been. For example, the member for South-West Coast has advocated strongly in relation to marine rescue Victoria, the coastguard, Life Saving Victoria and St John Ambulance, which the government has confirmed are not going to be funded through any funds raised in this bill. So we would say the government are prioritising core government work but by their own admission have neglected to address any of the funding issues raised by these very meritorious organisations who do incredible work, organisations that the member for South-West Coast has argued and advocated for very, very strongly in the lead-up to this bill, as have, I know, a number of other members who I am sure will refer to the work of emergency services organisations in their communities which the government have said will not be considered as part of this bill.

I want to also touch on, while I am speaking about the amendment, the other matter that has been raised in the amendment, the rebate scheme. The government committed last year, when they announced their great big new tax, to providing volunteers with an exemption, effectively, from the tax for the hard work that they do. When the announcement first came out, that made sense because they do incredible work and they do it as volunteers. Seeing the hard work of the volunteers recognised was fair, reasonable and important. But what we have learned since that announcement, as is always the case with this government, is the government have found a way to claw back that money they have not even given out yet – claw it back from emergency services volunteers – and the Treasurer has more recently announced that the exemption will now come in the form of a rebate.

What the Treasurer admitted yesterday – on what I think we can all fairly say was a very bad day for the Treasurer, after admitting that people do not pay enough tax – was that hardworking volunteers are now going to have to pay the tax. They are going to have to pay the tax up-front. They are going to have to pay. I hear members on the other side are surprised. Well, do not be surprised. You are about to vote for this bill, members.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, member for Brighton.

James NEWBURY: This bill will require in its operation hardworking volunteers to pay the tax up-front – shameful. Then these poor volunteers are going to have to figure out, one, if they are eligible for a rebate – and I think we can all safely assume this government is not starting an advertising campaign on how these volunteers can seek a rebate. I think we are going to find out on page 124 of a Government Gazette on Christmas Day and that is going to be the end of that. This government is going to force volunteers to pay the tax up-front and then somehow seek a rebate. How will they do that? It appears the government does not even know the full details yet.

They will go to an appointed government agency, which I think we can all safely assume will be the State Revenue Office. I think it is probably fair to say it is not the friendliest of front-facing organisations of the government, the State Revenue Office. I am sure that a lot of people who have had experience trying to seek a rebate from the State Revenue Office have got an answering machine message that says ‘No’ before you find a person. Whatever you are ringing about, the answer is no. And then you finally get through to a person who then tells you ‘No’ in person. You will go to the State Revenue Office presumably or somewhere on a website – I imagine 44 clicks in on a website – to find a form, and then you will fill out a form. You might be asking, ‘Who fills out the form? Who will fill out the form? Who’s eligible for it?’ Well, the government does not know. I asked the government, ‘Who’s included? Which volunteers are the government exempting?’ And they did not know who they were exempting. I gave the example of John, who has been a volunteer for 38 years. He is now 82, so he is not volunteering in the same way that he has been previously, but he has given 38 years. Will he still seek an exemption? The government would not guarantee that poor John, who has given 38 years of volunteer work to our community, would still be eligible for this exemption. I do not know why we are calling it an exemption. It is a rebate – if you can find it.

The coalition has moved an amendment which goes to those two matters. It goes to the funding issue and how this great big new tax will operate, and it also goes to the rebate. On the funding issue, not only do we have concerns about how the operation or how the split of the money works, if I can put it as crassly as that. What is going to core government business? What is going to department work? How many more public servants are being funded with this? Will more public servants be funded? The government has not answered that question; the government has not said whether or not this will fund more general public service work. But we also have concerns around transparency, how these funds are allocated annually and what that will look like.

So the coalition in the other place, when we have an opportunity to provide more detail, will be raising further concerns about ensuring that the funding is transparently reported. We talk about that a lot in this chamber as bills come through; very commonly in fact we have moved amendments which simply say, ‘Please annually report.’ That seems like a fair and reasonable thing. So when it comes to this bill in the other place, where we have that more detailed opportunity, we will talk about not only how the funding is split but also how it is reported. We believe that there should be annual reporting. We believe that there should be transparency when you are adding a $2 billion increased cost through a great big new tax on Victorians. It is not unreasonable to be transparent about it, and I would say if you are doing the right thing with the money, why would you hide reporting what you are using it for? That is a fair point, I would have thought. If you are doing the right thing with the tax you are collecting, why would you hide what you are doing with it?

When it comes to the bill, I have raised a number of concerns on behalf of the coalition, which is why we will not support it – this great big new tax. Of course we will not. What this government is doing is saying, ‘We are collecting a great big new tax. We’re going to push part of the money that it raises into core government work – government work that was previously funded through consolidated revenue – and we are doing it through a great big new tax that we won’t even transparently report on.’ It is doing it in a really sneaky way. Earlier I referred to the Treasurer’s comments about how hundreds of thousands of property investors – as I mentioned, teachers, nurses, office administrative assistants, electricians, truck drivers – are not paying enough tax as far as the Treasurer is concerned and the particular measure that changes how an investor pays tax through this bill and substantially increases their tax burden. What we know for certain that will do is push property investors out of Victoria, and we are already seeing it. We are seeing a fleeing of property investors –

Danny O’Brien: We know that. They don’t.

James NEWBURY: Well, we know that last year the property price in Victoria went down, and there have been a number of members on the other side of the chamber who have privately said that they think that it is a good thing that people’s property values go down. That is what they have said. I see the Premier coming into the chamber, and it will be interesting to see whether the Premier chastises her Treasurer. While the Premier is here, let me say to the Premier: Premier –

Daniela De Martino interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair – without assistance, member for Monbulk.

James NEWBURY: Through the Deputy Chair, the Treasurer yesterday said that property investors are not paying enough tax, effectively, and can afford to pay more. I see the Premier in the chamber, but I have not heard the Premier chastise her Treasurer yet, because nurses, teachers, hardworking office administrative assistants, farmers and electricians are not paying enough tax says the Premier’s Treasurer. Instead let the record show the Premier has not taken the opportunity to respond in the chamber and call out the Treasurer’s just appalling remarks, which in my view should make the Premier question whether the Treasurer is fit for the role – and walked out of the chamber. If you are one of the hundreds of thousands of nurses or if you are one of the hundreds of thousands of teachers, office administrative assistants, admin assistants, electricians, truck drivers, just to name some of the hundreds of thousands of people that own that investment property, the Premier walked into the chamber, had an opportunity to call it out and say you all work hard, but did not – she turned her back on you and walked out.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

James NEWBURY: Deputy Speaker, I am observing the fact that the Premier walked into the chamber, and I can understand why members on the other side of the chamber are upset that they have been called out on it. All of those hardworking people deserve to have someone who stands up for them, and the coalition will. And what is the government doing? They are now laughing about imposing a great big new tax on these hardworking people and saying that they deserve to pay more tax. Well, the thing that Victorians have worked out is this government is imposing great big new taxes on everyone. That is what Victorians have worked out, just like they have worked out the streets are less safe and the government is not going to fix it. Press conferences do not fix crime, press conferences do not fix higher taxes, and that is what Victorians have worked out.

With this bill the coalition cannot support this government’s great big new tax, this $2 billion new tax that hits people hard. That is what it does; it hits people hard. When the government says, ‘We’re going to raise $2 billion,’ and then in a press release says, ‘We’re going to give out $200 million, aren’t we good,’ just remember the quantum difference between what they have committed to and what they are raising. They raise $2 billion and then in a press release say, ‘Aren’t we good that we’re going to give out $200 million?’ All we are saying –

Members interjecting.

James NEWBURY: I am being told by the other side of this chamber it is a little more than $200 million out of the $2 billion. Well, is it? I am just going to leave it there.

The coalition has moved an amendment to the bill because there are core issues with this bill that need to be addressed. Those issues will also be prosecuted in the upper house when it comes to the distribution of funding and when it comes to the transparency around how funding is reported. I would hope the upper house looks at that transparency measure but also the rebate scheme, which is a really, really nasty scheme to make volunteers pay and then try to claw them back. We have moved that amendment, we will oppose this great big new tax and we will call it out for what it is. The Treasurer’s comments yesterday should stand condemned, and frankly she should apologise.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (10:39): I was just taking some notes, and there is so much to say, so little time. What I got from that 20-minute speech was that the opposition are opposing a $250 million investment in volunteer emergency services, blocking new trucks, new thermal imaging cameras, new rescues, new boats – that is all I got from that – in a time when we are seeing increasing natural disasters that are touching every community in Victoria, even Brighton, we are seeing increased flood and storm events and we are seeing lasting devastation wrought on us by them. I say that because between 2009 and 2013, for example, the Victorian State Emergency Service averaged roughly 20,000 call-outs a year. Twenty thousand is still a huge number, but over the last three years the VICSES have averaged over 35,000 calls a year. The Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund makes sure all our emergency services have the tools and resources they need to keep Victorians safe and brings funding for emergency services in line with other states, as it should be, as is appropriate. It is in response to a campaign from VICSES that was basically calling for a fairer funding model that gave certainty for the future as well as being fair and equitable across fire services and the SES.

With that can I give a big shout-out to our VICSES members. It is the 50th anniversary this year. I know my local team in Frankston and surrounds are just amazing. Seeing what they do now is incredible. Working beside them as a firefighter for years I was always astounded at their skills and how they use them. Can I shout out to someone who is in the gallery today, Mike Bagnall. He advocated for this fairer funding model as well, so congratulations. It must be really hard for some of our volunteers to hear the rubbish that just came out of the mouth of the member for Brighton and from those who will come forward in the opposition talking about this. My first question to them is: how many volunteers did you speak to about this bill? I heard zero from the member for Brighton. He did not consult with a single volunteer as far as we are concerned. I spent the last couple of months speaking to volunteers, and I tell you what, they back this in. They wanted this.

I want to spend some of my time dispelling some of the myths, some of the mistruths, that have been perpetuated in the last 20 minutes. We heard from the member for Brighton that this will be a tax that will go into government consolidated revenue. That is an absolute fallacy. This will be paid into a consolidated fund just like the fire services property levy was. Now, if you do not know the history of the fire services property levy, I will go through it just so some of the newer backbenchers on the opposition benches can actually question their shadow ministers. That fire services property levy was brought in, I think, in September 2013. It was in response to a recommendation from the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. This fund is structured appropriately like that one; there is basically no difference. It goes into a consolidated fund, and it is used for our volunteers.

The opposition shadow spokesman also talked about why some other agencies are involved in this. Again, it is very appropriate that agencies like Emergency Recovery Victoria and the State Control Centre are involved in this, but the control department over them is the Secretary of the Department of Justice and Community Safety. Those agencies have a huge amount to do with our communities when the emergency is over and we go through that huge recovery phase, which is becoming more and more a point that we focus on, as it should be, because in years gone past – 20 years ago – we just did not. We came in, we put out the fire, we cut the trees down, we cleared up from the flood or the storm and communities were left to do as communities do. There was not much support. These days we have a system where communities are helped. They lead their recovery, but they are assisted by us. From memory – Mike might be able to help out here– it is Emergency Management Act 2013 section 7, from my old leading firefighter days. It is absolutely appropriate that those services are in this bill.

It is fine that members on the other side speak about volunteers a lot. I would like to just point out the Leader of the Nationals is an exception here, and there are some exceptions here. When some of those opposite talk about volunteers, it is almost like they are on another planet, because I do not think they talk to them enough. I was just talking to my good friend John here, the member for Werribee. He is a bit bleary-eyed this morning because he turned out at 10 o’clock last night to go and put out some fool’s fire – a farmer lit a fire or something like that. Our volunteers turn out rain, hail, shine, 24/7, and they deserve support from this government. That is what we are doing with this.

I find it absolutely hilarious that we can have the shadow minister stand up and say, ‘The coalition will stand up for you. The coalition will have your back.’ Well, I have got a bit of a personal story about that, because the coalition did not have my back when I was in the Morwell mine fire for about a month and almost killed. They would not push the button and make this a statewide emergency, which it was. We had a whole town pretty much evacuated, people dying from carbon monoxide poisoning, firefighters down in that mine. To give you a bit of a picture, the circumference of that mine is 42 kilometres. It is a huge area to put out. It was like dealing with one bite of the elephant at a time. Every day went down there, just covered in ash, waiting for someone to push the button and say, ‘This is a statewide emergency. It will now become a level 3 emergency, and we will be able to have more resources there to put this thing out.’ As it happened, the Napthine government were coming up to an election. They certainly did not want to admit that they had a problem coming up to an election. So for people like me, and the volunteers around me, that affected us. We have still got people that are affected to this day because of what happened down there – people with health issues, people that will never volunteer again.

The opposition can say all they want that they have people’s backs. But actions count, words do not. It is the actions in this bill that are making change for our volunteers, and it is what our volunteers want. I had a consultation session recently with Mount Eliza fire brigade – a big shout-out to the member for Mornington, he has got a great brigade there, and the member for Hastings – and the Baxter brigade was there on the weekend. They are a great bunch of people, great culture, and they are out the door within a second when they need to go and help their communities. The least we can do as a government, the very least we can do as government, is make sure that we are funding them properly.

This amendment to the Fire Services Property Levy Act 2012 replaces the existing levy and will be used to fund 95 per cent of CFA’s annual budget – that is an actual increase from the 77.5 per cent with the actual levy – and 87.5 per cent of FRV’s annual budget, which is really no change. It will also fund up to 95 per cent of the Victorian State Emergency Service’s budget; the Emergency Management Victoria budget, including our recovery agencies; and the Forest Fire Management Victoria budget.

I have also heard from those opposite about the levy and how it is collected and the exemptions for volunteers. It is our intention that volunteers will not need to pay the full levy before receiving a rebate. An application will be processed in a fast and efficient manner to assist volunteers to get their rebate back as quickly as possible – as they should.

We can stand here today and we can debate this. We have already heard from the opposition that they are standing in the way of a $250 million package for new trucks, new equipment and new resources. $70 million of that is included over the next four years for fleet replacement programs with VICSES and CFA. We are doubling the volunteer emergency services equipment program to $62 million and delivering extra training for SES volunteers at a rate of more than $30 million to get them the skills and the support they need.

What we are hearing though from those opposite is that they do not want this. They are going to stand in the way of our volunteers. They are going to stand in the way of the people that absolutely keep our community safe. We will not hear this argument come next summer or winter when there are floods. We will have everyone in this chamber standing up saying, ‘Our volunteers are so great. I went and visited them. I gave them a donut. I gave them a “Well done, mate. Love your work.”’ They were not getting up at midnight. They were not up to their knees in floodwaters. This is the least that people in this chamber can do. You should be supporting this. I commend the bill to the house.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind members to not acknowledge or refer to members of the gallery and also to be careful not to cross the stream between the speaker on his feet and the Chair.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (10:49): I will not say I am pleased to rise to speak on this legislation, because what this legislation is is a great big new tax of cost shifting, of double taxation by a Labor government that cannot manage money and is now expecting all Victorians to pay. I want to take up some of the very predictable points made by the member for Frankston and make some things clear.

This is not about new support for our volunteer emergency services sector. These sectors, the CFA and the SES, have long been supported by this chamber, and certainly by those of us on this side of the house. Most particularly, when it comes to the CFA it was the Liberals and Nationals in government, as the member for Frankston pointed out, who actually set up the fire services property levy, after a recommendation from the bushfires royal commission, to ensure that those services were properly funded. The previous system, whereby the levies were on insurance, meant that people who did not pay for insurance did not contribute, people who were underinsured did not contribute enough and too many people were facing the burden. It is a complete misnomer for those opposite to try and say that somehow this is about us not supporting volunteers. What this government is doing is simply changing how it collects the levy and who is a recipient of it.

We on this side do not oppose the SES being part of the new levy. We have no issue with that whatsoever. What we do have a big issue with is the list of organisations that the government is now adding, including Emergency Management Victoria, Triple Zero Victoria, Emergency Recovery Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria and the State Control Centre, all of which are things that are core government services and have been forever and a day. They are core government services funded from consolidated revenue. Now they are going to be funded through this new big tax – a massive increase, a $2.1 billion increase, in tax collection on Victorians over the next three years.

What does that look like individually? If you look at the rates that the government has published, the residential rate will double from 8.7 cents per $1000 capital improved value to 17.3 cents, the commercial rate will double, the industrial rate will go up by 64 per cent and the primary production rate will go up by 189 per cent. You will be having a whole lot of farmers paying massive increases in the fire levy, many of whom are actually the people that go out and fight the fires in the first place and many of them are doing it in 35-year-old trucks with very little support from this government over the past 10 years.

Tim Bull: And some are non-CFA members.

Danny O’BRIEN: Some are non-CFA, and many of them are doing it with their own private gear as well. The notion that now they are going to get a bit of an exemption, an exemption that the government still cannot tell us how it is going to operate, is absurd.

I want to come back to that taxation issue. All of those new recipients from this new tax that are currently government-funded agencies through consolidate revenue – what is the cost of those, I wonder? We actually asked, through the briefing, for the government to provide us with a list from 2025–26 of how much each of the new funding recipients – including the existing ones, FRV and CFA – are going to get out of the $1.649 billion that this tax is anticipated to raise this year. The government has not told us; they have not given us an answer to that. In fact the answer that we got was just a list of all the agencies. Well, that is not the question we asked. You can make some calculations, though. The new increase is going to raise – this if from the budget update – an additional $610 million. If we say that we are adding in the SES and if we look at the most recent SES annual report, they received about $115 million in grants. In rough numbers, those government agencies are going to be costing this levy $500 million, half a billion dollars, a year. That is money that has come out of consolidated revenue previously. As the member for Gippsland East has interjected a number of times, where is the corresponding offset in consolidated revenue, a reduction in taxes that Victorians will have to pay because this is now being funded out of this levy?

Tim Bull: Not there.

Danny O’BRIEN: That’s right, member for Gippsland East, it’s not there. What this bill is all about is nothing to do with supporting volunteers; nothing to do with supporting emergency services, volunteer or otherwise; and nothing to do with ‘Oh, we’re getting more and more emergency activity in bushfires and floods and everything.’

It is all about the fact that this Labor government cannot manage money and is desperately looking for a cost saving somewhere. What it has done with this is it has taken these consolidated revenue-funded agencies – many of them are just public servants, not even frontline workers – and it is putting on top of them, through this new bill, a new big tax that Victorians will have to pay, Victorians, I might say, like those at Traynors Lagoon, mentioned in the Weekly Times yesterday. There are 14 farming families that make up the brigade at Traynors Lagoon. Their levy for firefighting is going to go up from $73,000 – across the members of the brigade, this year they are currently paying $73,000. Next year under this levy it will be $212,000, a tripling of that levy. These are farmers. These are not people that are very, very wealthy. They are wealthy in terms of assets, and that is why they are copping such a big whack, because this bill is on assets. I think it was the member for Lowan who suggested that effectively this is a de facto land tax on farms in particular. It is not just the farmers. The people of Traynors Lagoon are one of thousands of communities across the state, hundreds of CFA brigades, that are going to have to pay this massive increase, even with the exemptions they will get, which will not make a huge difference to what they will ultimately pay.

More particularly, we are in a cost-of-living crisis. We are in a housing and rental affordability crisis. The other little sneaky thing that the government has put in – and it still has not updated the figures on its website. Since the bill was presented, we now know that non-principal private residences, in other words, people who have got a property for investment or a holiday home or whatever, will now pay not only double the variable rate – the variable rate will be doubling, but the fixed charge is also doubling. It will be going up from $132 to $276 next year. If the government had any economic literacy whatsoever, it would understand that if you put a new big tax – both of these taxes, both the fixed and the variable charges, are doubling – on landlords, or rental providers, if you prefer, what are going to do? They are going to have to pass that on to renters. This could actually be labelled a renters affordability tax. That is exactly what it is, because in addition to all the other taxes that this government has already placed on property, including the increases in land taxes, it is going to have an impact. It is going to have an impact on the commercial and the industrial sector and, as I said, particularly the farmland. This will have a massive impact.

On the question of the exemptions, the government and the member for Frankston said it is not the government’s intention to have people pay up-front and then have to claim a rebate. I would ask the government perhaps to look up what the definition of ‘rebate’ is. More particularly, how is it going to operate? Those of us who were on the bill briefing with the government got a lecture at the start that ‘This starts on 1 July, and so you’re going to have to support this to get it through. Time is of the essence. We need to rush.’ When we asked questions like ‘Okay, so how does the exemption operate?’ the government could not tell us. They cannot tell us how it is going to operate. ‘No, you won’t have to pay up-front and then get a rebate’ – well, how does it work?

Bridget Vallence interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: It is starting, as the member for Evelyn is saying, in a couple of months time, and the government cannot tell us how it is going to work. Indeed, who is eligible for the exemption? The government has outsourced it to the CFA and SES and said, ‘You guys work that out.’ We are in a world of pain. That is without touching on the impacts on local government, who have been collecting this under the fire services property levy for a long time. They are now going to be facing very angry punters who are going to see massive increases in the bill that comes with their rates. This is a government that cannot manage money, that cannot manage our emergency services, and so it is going back to Victorians and gouging more funds out of them – $610 million next year, $2.1 billion over the forward estimates, a massive big new tax that does not help our volunteers and will hurt all Victorians.

Vicki WARD (Eltham – Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Natural Disaster Recovery, Minister for Equality) (10:59): As you would imagine, I stand in support of this fund and of this bill, because we need to do all we can to support our emergency services because they really matter. They are incredibly important to a state like Victoria. I want to thank the member for Frankston for not just his outstanding contribution to this debate and his absolute support for our emergency services but also his incredible contribution as a past firefighter. I think he exemplifies that our emergency services do what they do because they care about people and community, of which we see constant examples from the member for Frankston. Our emergency services deserve our support, they deserve our gratitude and they deserve our respect, and this ensures that they have what they need when they need it.

The cynical manner in which the opposition are approaching this fund is really disappointing. To offer a different perspective to the member for Brighton, whose own community will have to continue to manage rising sea levels due to climate change, property owners deserve to have their properties protected as well as possible. We need to do this as a consequence of the increasing frequency with which we are seeing challenging weather conditions and the natural disasters we are seeing each year. This is why we need to increase our investment in emergency services. Climate change is real and we are living the consequences. Now, living in the gentle enclave of Brighton, the member may think his community does not need to contribute to support our emergency services, but we all have a role to play in supporting our emergency services – every single Victorian. Rather than using them for political fodder, they deserve our respect and support.

I also ask the opposition, in their refusal to support this legislation, why they want to block a $250 million investment in our emergency services. Which property do they not want to see defended? Which emergency organisations do they not want to see an increase in appliances, training or equipment for? This is a significant reform that strengthens the way we fund and support this state’s emergency services. We are amending the Fire Services Property Levy Act 2012 and replacing it with the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund to ensure that a broader range of emergency services are funded in a way that reflects their increasing workload. The demand on our emergency services is growing. It is growing each and every year, and to pretend that it is not, to pretend that every Victorian does not have a role to play in supporting our emergency services, is not only short-sighted, it is delusional. We are also introducing an exemption for eligible CFA and VICSES volunteers and enabling the release of the $250 million support package.

I do want to recognise that this year we are in the 50th year of the SES, which is half a century of absolutely extraordinary service by thousands upon thousands of dedicated volunteers. I had the pleasure of joining some of our longest-serving VICSES members, including Dennis Brain and Peter Weeks, to launch the celebrations of the 50th anniversary recently, and it was amazing to see how far they have come in 50 years from the equipment they had then in the 1970s to what they have got now and what we will need to continue to invest in. It was an absolute privilege to acknowledge their incredible contributions and to reflect on the vital role VICSES has played in keeping Victorians safe for five decades.

In recent weeks I have also visited a number of SES units, including Bannockburn, Moorabbin and Whitehorse. It has been fantastic to meet with these volunteers and to personally thank them for the work – the volunteer work – that they do. Our SES units and our volunteers are absolutely incredible. Without fuss they turn up to so many diverse events. I do not think there is an emergency service that probably has the diversity that the SES experience, events that for so many people can be the worst day of their lives. And they have these incredibly kind, incredibly generous people turn up as quickly as possible and help and support and protect them.

This bill is about listening to the voices of our emergency services, especially our volunteers. My community is well supported by our VICSES Nillumbik and the unit controller Justin Kibell. Justin told me about the new fund. He said:

This is a step in the right direction towards sustainable funding for VICSES.

Units rely on volunteers to turn out, to train, and to fundraise – this levy should lessen that need, assist with critical asset programs, and give our members more time to train, and more time with their families.

With several of our busiest years on record and seemingly more frequent severe weather events, increasing support to VICSES is essential.

This reform also owes a great deal to the dedicated volunteer advocates like Mike Bagnall, the Footscray SES unit controller, and Goldie Pergl from the Fawkner SES unit, who have been passionate voices for change. Just this week when I met with Mike and Goldie I heard from both Mike and his local member, the Minister for Health Minister Thomas, about Mike’s advocacy to her over the need for these reforms. Volunteers like Mike and Goldie continue to push to ensure Victoria’s emergency services are properly funded, are better equipped and are prepared for the challenges ahead. I thank them for all they have done to support their communities, the SES and the emergency services.

Of course the CFA are also included in this legislation. Since I have had the absolute privilege of being the Minister for Emergency Services, I have visited CFA brigades, including Keysborough, Pakenham and Nar Nar Goon. These visits have absolutely been invaluable, not just to hear directly from volunteers about what they need and to have that conversation but also for the opportunity to be able to reiterate the thanks of me as minister, the government, as well as Victorians for the work that they do. Our CFA volunteers continue to be an integral part of the front line of Victoria’s emergency responses. They step up time and time again to protect their communities, and we show our gratitude through being supportive of the work that they do, and that includes the work in this fund.

As I have said, we are asking more and more than ever from our emergency services. Already in this fire season alone there have been more than 4000 fires across Victoria. We saw huge campaign fires in the Grampians, a fire that has been going for three months, involving thousands of those from the emergency services, including CFA volunteers from western Victoria and across our state. Over Christmas, the new year and summer they gave up their time to battle these blazes. Just on the past weekend CFA volunteers volunteered to be deployed to Mount Gambier to support South Australia’s firefighting efforts. In Melbourne on the weekend we saw the Montrose fire, which required a multi-agency response, with over 100 firefighters, 40 vehicles, four helicopters and three bulldozers, in a coordinated effort from CFA, Forest Fire Management Victoria, FRV and Victoria Police. When the initial call came in at 1:43 pm on Saturday afternoon, CFA crews were on the scene within 8 minutes. Later that night, as conditions worsened, the CFA rapidly scaled up their response, with 30 appliances arriving quickly. This is the kind of dedication and professionalism our emergency services bring to every incident, and it underscores why this bill is so important to support them with the resources they need, to recognise the increase in demand that they are experiencing and to respond appropriately.

We are one of the most fire-prone regions in the world, and the effects of climate change and population growth mean we are seeing increased frequency and severity of bushfires, floods and storms that devastate communities. Storms or floods that were once in a lifetime and once in a hundred years are becoming part of everyday life, placing greater pressure on the CFA, VICSES and other emergency services to respond, recover and protect lives. We have never argued against the science of climate change on this side of the house. We have never denied the science that said that changes to our climate would result in greater and increased frequency of natural disasters and severe weather events. The Commonwealth’s Australian Climate Service has said that the State of the Climate 2024 report from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO shows in the coming decades Australia will experience ongoing changes to its weather and climate. Australia is projected to experience continued increase in air temperatures, more heat extremes and fewer cold extremes, continued decrease on average in cool season rainfall across many regions of southern and eastern Australia, where we live, which will likely lead to more time in drought, but with ongoing climate variability that will give rise to short-duration heavy rainfall events at a range of timescales, continued increase in the number of dangerous fire weather days and longer fire seasons for southern and eastern Victoria, further sea level rises and continued warming and acidification of the oceans around Australia.

Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (11:09): I am pleased to rise to speak on the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. I do so not because it is in my portfolio but because I had a fair bit to do, in a previous role in this Parliament, with the institution of the fire services property levy in the first place. I do think it is useful when considering what the government wants to do now to remind ourselves of a little bit of history.

It used to be that our fire services – the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, as it then was, and the CFA – were largely funded through a duty on insurance policies that applied to certain real property insurance policies. It was quite a historical anomaly. You would think that most emergency services would be directly budget funded, but for some reason over many, many decades in Victoria we had funded our fire services largely through this stamp duty that applied on insurance policies. At its heart, this was very unfair, because people who chose not to insure their properties received the full benefit of the MFB and the CFA if they had a need but they did not make any contribution to it. People who underinsured likewise received a disproportionate benefit compared to their contribution. People who may have overinsured were paying too much. At its heart it was an unfair system because everybody benefited but not everybody contributed. This had been identified as an obvious target for tax reform over many years, but no governments had the courage to take it on until the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission report came down in 2010.

It recommended that our fire brigades be funded, not from a levy or stamp duty on insurance but from a broad-based levy that applied to property. My predecessor as state Treasurer Kim Wells and then I were intimately involved in putting together that tax reform. It was a form of tax reform. It was probably the most significant tax reform that this state had seen in many, many years, because it was something that touched every single one of us. It was very important that we got it right, because funding our fire services is critically important to all of our safety. But it was also important to get it right so it would not be an unfair burden. I spent many, many waking hours working on the fire services property levy bills to try and make sure that we did get it right. I was disappointed that the opposition at the time, the Labor Party, did not support the fire services property levy, notwithstanding the fact that it was a direct recommendation of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. It is quite clear that this was a change that needed to occur.

I call it tax reform not just because we moved from a levy based on certain insurance policies to a broad-based property levy but also because previously if you were a concession card holder or a pensioner you received no discount. When that levy was applied to your insurance premium you received no discount even if you were a pensioner or even if you were a concession card holder. What we were able to do through implementing a fire services property levy was to provide for the first time a discount for pensioners and a discount for concession card holders. So it was not just fair in terms of spreading the cost of funding our fire services more equally, but it was fair by giving a cut – a concession, a discount – to pensioners and concession card holders, and that was very, very important.

It was also important because while the government of which I was a part increased funding to our fire services each and every single year, when we implemented the fire services property levy we actually cut the impost on Victorians by $100 million. So here was real tax reform – a $100 million reduction in the tax burden on Victorians, a concession for the first time for pensioners and concession card holders and a fairer system of funding our fire services so every property owner made a fair contribution, not just those who paid insurance premiums.

Notwithstanding that the Labor opposition at the time opposed the legislation and opposed the change, I do note that the now Labor government did not seek to scrap it, and for very good reason – because it was a very good tax reform that needs to be done. But now we see this bill before the house, and what the government is trying to do is not to be true to the bushfires royal commission recommendation; the government is simply trying to cost-shift. The government is now using the mechanism of the fire services property levy in order to put more tax burden on Victorian property owners and less burden on its own central budget allocations. This is a clear case of cost-shifting by the Labor government, putting more burden on taxpayers to try and protect its own budget position. That is why the opposition does not support this bill.

Can I give a shout-out to the great men and women of the Victoria State Emergency Service Malvern unit. They are a fantastic group of people; they are doing an amazing job. I believe that what they do is core government business, and that should be funded as core government business. I do not believe they should be subjected to an extra tax that Victorians have to specifically pay. It is quite politically disingenuous of this government to use the word ‘volunteers’ in this bill when really they are just using it as an excuse to try and make a big tax increase appear more palatable. We all love our volunteers. We especially love our SES and our CFA – not that we have the CFA in my electorate, but we do have the SES. They do an amazing job, and they deserve to be properly funded; they do not deserve to be used as political cover by a government to justify a massive new tax increase.

When you look at the projected revenue from these levies over the forward estimates, it is quite clear what the scale of this tax increase on Victorian households is going to be. The revenue from these levies is expected to rise from $1.033 billion this financial year to $1.649 billion in 2025–26 and then to $1.8 billion in 2026–27. The budget update in December shows the increase is $2.1 billion over the next three years. So this is a $2 billion tax grab by a broke Allan Labor government to hit Victorian households. How much of that extra $2 billion is actually going to the SES? How much of it is actually going to the volunteers of the CFA? Two-thirds of not much is the answer. This is just a huge tax grab from a government that wants to try and take off its own budget issues and put them onto the backs of Victorian property owners.

That is why I do support the reasoned amendment moved by the member for Brighton. I do believe that the government should commit to consulting with stakeholders on the rebate scheme and which organisations should receive funding. As I say, nobody has any question that our volunteer organisations, especially the SES and the CFA, deserve to be properly funded; they absolutely do. The only question is: should they be funded by a big new tax so the government can shove it off its books and put it on the backs of taxpayers or is it core government business? I happen to think that the great work done by the men and women in orange at the SES should be core government business and it should be funded as such, the way it has been funded for years and years and years. This is simply a tax grab. It is simply a cost-shifting exercise by a Labor government that actually is not putting extra money into volunteers. They are just trying to save their own money and their own political hide.

It is not the first time we have seen the government this week try and put political slogans into the titles of legislation. They tried to do it with the bail bill.

Cindy McLeish interjected.

Michael O’BRIEN: I suspect we will be talking about that later today or maybe even tomorrow, member for Eildon, because I think people in the other place have cottoned onto that. I do not think people in the other place like the government with its so-called tough bail laws which are not that tough; in fact the ACCC would have things to say about that. But on this bill we support our CFA volunteers; we support our SES volunteers. We believe what they do is core government business. It should be funded as core government business. The great work they do and the great contributions they make should not be used as an excuse, as political cover, by a government to justify a more than $2 billion tax grab on the backs of Victorian property owners.

Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (11:19): I also rise to speak on the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. Can I thank the Treasurer for bringing this legislation to the house, and I also thank the Minister for Emergency Services for her contribution and for visiting me at my local SES, the Whitehorse SES, just a few weeks ago to hear some of the challenges that they are facing, and I will get to those a little bit later. The bill does amend the Fire Services Property Levy Act 2012 to replace the fire services property levy with the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund levy to enable it to fund a broader range of emergency services that we need.

As has been mentioned by a number of speakers, not least the minister at the table, the Minister for Emergency Services, our challenges in this space are getting larger and larger, particularly when it comes to storm events. We see the way that our rainfall patterns are changing. Our average might not change, but for years the Bureau of Meteorology and the climatologists have predicted that we are going to be seeing shorter, sharper storms, which much of our existing infrastructure is not necessarily designed to accommodate, particularly people’s own homes. So the call on the SES is going to be continuously greater as the years go on.

The new fund will include additional emergency services and be used to fund up to 95 per cent of the annual budgets for the SES, Triple Zero Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria, the State Control Centre and the state’s recovery agency.

I was interested listening to the member for Malvern’s history of the development of the fire services levy and how that had come from insurance. His statement was that it seemed fair that all users of the fire services should pay a contribution and should pay their fair share and not just rely on those who choose to insure. I think on that policy basis I would say that this is exactly what the government is trying to do here. We know that there is going to be a greater call on the emergency services, particularly the SES, and that is why the fairest way of attributing that cost is that the community in its entirety pay for the cost of fire services and emergency services. They do service anybody who is in need. You do not call them up and say ‘I need help from the SES’ and they ask ‘Have you paid your levy or have you paid your insurance?’ They will come, no questions asked, at any time of the day or night, and I do thank them for it.

I also want to just reflect on some of the feedback that we have received from SES members in my community. Many members would have actually received similar correspondence, I believe, around this time last year. I have got an email here from May 2024, which was a long email talking about how important VICSES are and the amount of work that they do. It says:

The reliance on volunteer-led fundraising to procure vital equipment, maintain facilities, and replace end-of-life fleet assets is simply unsustainable.

It mentions that VICSES is not included in the current Victorian fire services levy, despite being the control agency for a significant majority of the costs associated with disasters caused by natural hazards in the state. It then says:

As our elected representative, we urge you to consider the following points:

The urgent need for indexed, sustainable funding to ensure VICSES can continue to deliver critical emergency services to all Victorians.

It goes on to say:

In light of these pressing issues, we propose expanding the existing Fire Services Levy into an Emergency Services Levy to secure stable funding for VICSES.

This was an email which I am sure was sent to many members. I received similar emails from many members of my local SES calling for this exact change.

When the government announced the change in December I received a further email from our local unit controller, who said:

Last Friday was an exciting day, with the government announcing the new Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund now inclusive of the VICSES. This is a great step forward, as it provides SES with additional, sustained funding which will assist with vehicle fleet management, training programs for volunteers, additional equipment budget et cetera, placing a higher value on the SES and the services delivered to the state and reducing the need for volunteers to fundraise. Great news. Thanks for your support.

I come to this bill particularly in that light, seeing what it will do to our SES to set them up on a sustainable footing and listening to what our local SES members have had to say.

I do want to spend some time just reflecting on the Whitehorse SES and the wonderful job that they do. The Whitehorse SES is an extremely busy SES station. They have mentioned before that they respond to about 4 per cent of the total case incidents across the state. A large part of that is because we are lucky that we still have a fairly dense tree canopy throughout Whitehorse, and they also look after about half of the Boroondara council area. When you have storms and high winds and fairly dense housing, that often results in trees limbs falling and blocking access ways or falling on roofs, which triggers a lot of their call-outs. They also have an urban search and rescue team. Much of their patch covers parts of the Yarra River and also the Koonung Creek, so there is often search and rescue that they need to do in that urban bushland setting. They also punch above their weight. They are always on call to go and help other SES units when needed. I noticed on their website earlier this week that three of the local SES members have answered the call to go and help out in Queensland in the cyclone recovery. All of these members are volunteers. They all have other jobs, and it is a fantastic commitment to service that all of our SES members provide.

I do want to also just read out a few other statistics about the Whitehorse SES. They have over 80 active members in their unit, which makes them one of the largest units in Victoria. As I said, all of the members are volunteers, and they are aged between 26 and 77. Once in my life I was thinking of joining the SES because I know what great work they do, but it was just at the time that we were expecting our first child and I did not think that was the most appropriate time. But it is good to know that there is never an age limit, there is ever a time where you cannot start to volunteer. There is a huge age range, and we see people from all walks of life coming to help out on the SES, all types of professions. There are students, there are workers and there are retirees all coming to give back to their community, and I want to thank them all for it. The Whitehorse SES along with the Victorian SES in general does have a long history – 50 years this year. Originally it was the Nunawading SES; it is now the Whitehorse SES. They do a wonderful job. They want this fund delivered, and I support the bill.

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (11:29): I rise to make a contribution on this great, big, fat tax bill that is just being introduced now under the guise of the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. There is quite a bit in that title that I will come to shortly.

When you look at the purposes of this bill, it just simply says:

… to amend and change the title of the Fire Services Property Levy Act … to expand the coverage …

But what it does not say is that this is another great big, fat tax grab because the government have lost control of their finances. They need an extra couple of billion dollars to meet their commitments and what they would like to do. They know no other way of growing the economy – cutting costs, reducing waste, getting on top of some of the issues on their Big Build projects – so their only other mechanism is to raise tax. This is a great big, fat tax, and it is also under the guise of the changing landscape of emergency services. To include the SES in this is not a problem, because they do some really great work, and I know people have talked about that. Of course everybody in this chamber knows the work that they do, supports them and is very grateful for the work they do. But also, I would like to just make sure that the government understands that some of their policies around the emergency services to date have seen a decrease in volunteerism. You see many CFA brigades around the state with morale that has been shot because they have been kicked around by this government too many times.

I want to give a very brief outline of some of the background, because it has already been told to us in full by the former Treasurer and member for Malvern. The fire services property levy came into effect in 2013, and it was in response to a royal commission recommendation. The fire services levy was inequitable, and from 1 July they introduced this new property-based levy, replacing the current arrangements of raising funds through insurance companies. So it moved to that property base from the insurance. It has been collected since that time in the council rates of all Victorians. That has gone fairly smoothly. Not many people have come to speak to me about that to date. The levy was used to fund the fire and emergency services.

It is interesting that the government are whacking their charges. They are not just extending the coverage, but they are whacking the tax to collect so much more. They are really whacking Victorians here. I found it really interesting to look at 2013, when the coalition introduced this. The Labor opposition in August of that year wanted the tax reviewed because they thought people were paying too much. Well, goodness me, the Shadow Treasurer went on to become the Treasurer for a decade and taxed Victorians just continually. Every time we have turned around, we have ended up with another 55, 56 of 57 new taxes. He said at the time:

… some property owners have seen massive hikes, and self-funded retirees and community housing organisations are among the hardest hit.

What he has done with land tax to self-funded retirees since is just the greatest hypocrisy, if he really was sincere about this levy at that time. I doubt it very much. What also happened after this levy was introduced in 2013 was the following year the coalition was able to actually reduce that as well. We were able to introduce it and then take a look at it and think, ‘Okay.’ The average household in metropolitan areas, instead of paying $193, was paying $143. In a CFA area it was paying $142 compared to $262. We were able to bring the levy in, make it a lot fairer and then even reduce it. It did not take long for this government to get in and change the tune of what they think this should be used for.

This expansion is going to hit landlords, farmers and commercial businesses really hard. Over the forward estimates it is looking to bring in an extra $2.1 billion. I think the most recent budget update talked about an additional $610 million. The government in December announced a host of commitments that they say are contingent on this funding because they cannot do it at all. Some of those were about rolling fleet replacements and the volunteer emergency services equipment program grants. I have got to say they are years behind delivering on those already. Brigades and units that heard that they were getting a new apron, breathing apparatus or upgrades have been waiting for years for it to come to fruition. They are just rolling their eyes and thinking that this is just how the government treat volunteer services.

I have over 50 volunteer organisations within emergency services, the CFA mostly and six SES units. I know that at Hoddles Creek they have been waiting for years and years for their new station. Yes, they are supposed to be getting it, but they have been waiting for so long. Yarck have their old tin shed of a station in the main street. This gorgeous quaint little town of Yarck on the Goulburn Valley Highway has been waiting for years. It is not fit for purpose. We purchased the land when we were in government; that is how long they have been waiting. I know the SES at Mansfield are under particular pressure. They need a new station or unit, absolutely, because it is not fit for purpose. They have boats, they have dinghies. What they need is quite different. They have been waiting. They need the emergency services precinct, and they need investment in a new station. Alexandra – they need another boat as well; I think they need the smaller one this time. We do very much support the emergency services to help fund them. They do too much tin-rattling. It was not so long ago that they were asked to hand over all of the equipment – the trucks, all of that – that they had fundraised for for years to the government. They said, ‘We paid for this out of our own pockets and we don’t think the government should have the right to ask to own it.’

One of the most extraordinary things in this bill is that the fund will fund up to 95 per cent of the following budgets, and these are budgets that should be already paid for: the Victorian SES; Triple Zero Victoria; the State Control Centre; Emergency Recovery Victoria; Emergency Management Victoria and the emergency alert program and the emergency management operational communications program; Forest Fire Management Victoria, heaven forbid; and it will support some of the functions of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. This is government business. This is what government should be using the taxes and revenue that they collect for, not an additional tax. It is just extraordinary that they will do so.

I am very alarmed at the amount that that is being slugged on farmers here. We have asked some questions of the government, and I have not had a response about how they determined the levels for the farms with a value of $1.25 million or over $5 million. I think we got ‘integrity measures’ as the response. A $1.25 million farm is not really a big farm – it is not doing much at all – or even a $5 million farm. Farmers have done it really hard, and a lot of them have mortgages. For the government to use our farmers as their cash cow is just completely reckless and irresponsible. They think all of these farmers have loads of money. Well, let me tell you, that is just not the fact. We have had floods, we have had droughts. They are going into drought at the minute. There are so many dams that are drying up in and around my area. One of my councils has had a look at how these farmers are going to be levied, comparing 2021–22 to 2024–25. For a residential assessment this is looking to be a 121 per cent increase. For farmland valued at $1.25 million it is a 236 per cent increase, an extra $922. If a farm is valued at over $5 million, it is a 411 per cent increase, so $3500. It depends on the value of your farm. As I said, you do not have to have a lot of acres to have a property valued at a couple of million dollars. A lot of them at that lower end are not viable as farms and people would have an alternative income.

I fully support the amendment put forward by the member for Brighton. I am concerned that if there is a lot of increased expectation on councils, they will not be recognised for this. The costs are being shifted to them. They need to be supported too.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (11:39): I am very happy to rise to speak on this bill. I think one has to take a bit of care here because you can say, ‘I really support VICSES and CFA, but I don’t want to fund them adequately.’ There is a bit of a contradiction there, and we are getting those vibes, if I can put it in that language, from the opposition. We are about making sure that through listening to our emergency services we actually deliver the support that they are looking for. I know, having talked to my local Port Phillip SES, as it so happens, that when there are extreme weather conditions and other serious matters that they attend to, they do not tend to necessarily be between 9 to 5. It is often 3 am, the ugly hours of the morning when it is freezing and not necessarily terribly pleasant. Nevertheless they put themselves on the line day in, day out, and we are extraordinarily grateful to not only the Port Phillip SES – I am just saying that because they are my closest unit that serve our local community – but of course all the services that are provided across the state for the incredible work that they do.

I will just speak to a couple of matters that have been raised in the chamber to provide some clarity, and hopefully that will help assist the opposition with maybe seeking to support the bill. I should say the emergency services are currently already funded by government through tax and other sources of government revenue. This is just a more efficient way of funding the entities, bearing in mind something that has already been mentioned in the chamber: when we know that an extreme weather condition does not just pick one or other person but can impact anyone in the community, it is important that we back in our emergency services, these volunteer services, to do the important work that we value. I also meant to say that the CFA and VICSES are leading on the definition of eligible volunteers, as is appropriate. What has led to the development of this bill is listening to them. I think maybe that should be considered too, that we have very much taken on board the advice that has been provided by the CFA and VICSES.

The other concern I have is when we are looking at the purpose of this bill, which is to allow government to fund a broader range of emergency services through the levy to better reflect the make-up of the emergency services sector. There is a further point I want to make here: it will also introduce a volunteer exemption from the levy for eligible CFA and VICSES volunteers and allow the release of a $250 million support package for the CFA, VICSES and the VicEmergency app. I really question whether the opposition want to be part of blocking this $250 million package for trucks and training and so forth. Do you really want to be blocking that? Because that is the net effect of what you are doing now. I think you really want to think about taking that, I would say, very negative backward step.

I should also clarify that every single dollar raised is going to our emergency services. I have heard a lot of smearing and blurring of the lines, and I think we need absolute clarity on these points if we are going to have a decent debate on this issue. It will not be used on other matters. The legislation literally says that. We have a copy in the chamber. If the opposition are not clear on that, they can access that, because it is a really fundamental element when we are talking about how we actually fund these services. I hope very much that they will support it because it would be a darn shame, to say the least. I am actually minimising the impact when it comes to this $250 million package, which I am happy to unpack a bit further in a moment.

We know we are seeing the huge impacts of climate change. One cannot resile from these facts. Yes, Australia has always been a country of droughts and floods. However, instead of happening every 100 years, they are happening with a shocking frequency. I know my local area is certainly a flood-prone area, to say the least, and so we need people we can rely on who will go out there and assist as they do at any time of the day or night. We cannot just stick our heads in the sand and pretend that these dramatic changes in climate are not happening and therefore not fund this system appropriately into the future.

I do not think that would be very fair or reasonable, and hence the imperative to get these reforms through today. The important point that I really want to reiterate is that it is about listening to the people who put their lives on the line to help their communities and showing them that they matter and that they should be supported fairly by government for the work that they do. You cannot say, ‘Oh, yeah, I really love the SES, but I just really don’t want to give them the funding they need.’ You cannot have it both ways. Of course alongside the VICSES our other emergency services are also being asked to respond to increasing and overlapping natural disasters, so these are really prudent measures that have to be taken to be sure that our communities are able to be supported to the best that we can.

I should say – and I do want to emphasise – that every dollar raised will go towards vital life-saving equipment, vehicles, staff, training for volunteers, community education and recovery support for when Victorians need it most. I would hope that the opposition would gain some comfort from these facts, because surely these are elements that the –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: Well, I mean, if you do not want us to take –

Emma Kealy: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member is misleading the house. It clearly is outlined in the bill report, it is in the bill, that not every dollar of this tax goes to volunteers. I ask you to invite the member to correct the record.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Juliana Addison): As the Speaker reminds us constantly in question time, we expect our members to speak but it is not the Chair’s position to determine if something is factual or not, so I will ask the member for Albert Park to continue.

Nina TAYLOR: This is the point of having a debate: the opposition are entitled to their point of view across as I am entitled to express the facts that are being put before the chamber. I should say there are elements in terms of streamlining this process, so the government has been undertaking consultation directly with councils and our emergency services. I am just going to repeat that: our government has been undertaking consultations directly with councils and our emergency services. So if those opposite do not agree with VICSES or CFA, well, they are entitled to that point of view, but we are listening to them, so I am just putting that out there.

We will also allow eligible volunteers to claim the rebate against a farm of which they are an owner, even if it is not their primary place of residence, making it fairer for farmers who do not live on their farms. So I am just pointing out some of the necessary caveats that are built into the legislation. We will also allow the rebate to apply across a range of farm ownership structures, including trusts and companies and farm businesses with separately titled land, with a full exemption available for farms valued up to $5 million, and we will also provide additional funding to support councils in the implementation of the fund. Just with that $250 million package that the opposition are putting at risk, in December last year we announced that we would be delivering $250 million direct to CFA and VICSES volunteers across the state because we need to recognise the hard work of our emergency services and the ongoing sustainability of units and brigades across Victoria. This will be funded through the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund and is conditional on the passage of this bill.

As part of the package the government will invest $70 million to establish a rolling fleet replacement program for VICSES and the CFA, ensuring volunteers right across Victoria get new and upgraded trucks, tankers and pumpers to keep doing what they do best, and the popular annual volunteer emergency services equipment program will be doubled with more than $62 million to ensure more volunteers have new or upgraded vehicles, equipment and better station facilities.

Timely, accurate and accessible advice is critical during disasters – that goes without saying – and that is why the Labor government will invest $53 million in a modernised VicEmergency app and the central database for emergency services EM-COP. This will also make sure the app can be translated into different languages – also extremely important when we think of our diverse and multicultural communities – ensuring everyone has the information they need to keep themselves and their families safe. We are also supporting VICSES to upskill and train more and more volunteers by investing almost $30 million to deliver training and support programs to local brigades. I commend the bill to the house.

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (11:49): I am so happy I can speak on this bill to correct the rubbish that we have just heard from the Labor government, the spin and nonsense and the clear misrepresentation of the fact that this is just another great big new tax from Labor that will hit country people hardest. It will hit farmers the hardest. It will hit CFA volunteers who run the farms and who work on farms the hardest. It will hit every Victorian who enjoys eating Victorian food the hardest, because they will have to pay more for their food. It will hit people who are looking for rental housing harder, because there is no rental property that is exempt from this great big new tax from Labor. It will only be passed on to renters; they will be the ones who help to pay for this. They are what the facts are, and that complete and utter nonsense from the member who just spoke from the Labor government – to say that every dollar of this great big new tax goes to volunteers is just an outright lie. It is an outright lie. Even the Treasurer says that this money will go back in to fund core government services, core government services that they already receive tax revenue for that they are not using appropriately.

Nina Taylor: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I am concerned about the use of the language ‘outright lie’. I think it would be unparliamentary.

Roma Britnell interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Juliana Addison): Member for South-West Coast, I would ask you not to contribute while a point of order is being made. I remind the member for Lowan about referring to someone as a liar. I know you said it was an outright lie – just be cautious.

Emma KEALY: Farmers’ contribution for this great big new tax from Labor will increase. It will not just increase a little bit, it is going to increase from $76 million a year to about $204 million a year. That is money out of country Victoria that is going to be funnelled into major core government services, which are predominantly to service people who live in Melbourne.

Our people are happy to pay their fair share of tax, but at the same time that you are putting a surrogate land tax on country Victorians to subsidise the fact that Labor cannot manage money, Victorians are paying the price. Country Victorians are paying the price, and they are putting hands in their pockets to pay even more tax for core government services and bureaucrats who sit on their bums in Melbourne and do not deliver for country Victorians. What they are paying more taxes for is more of those bureaucrats, because it is not coming back to fix the potholes. It is not coming back to fix our crumbling road edges. It is not coming back to duplicate the Western Highway, where there are more and more fatalities every single month. It is not coming back to our region to help fund CFA volunteers to make sure they have got up-to-date appliances.

I spoke to a CFA volunteer the other day who could not get funding for a $24 chock to put under the back wheels of the CFA truck so it did not roll back over them when they were filling up from a dam. How do you think that this great big new tax is going to go? Do you think it is going to go back to the CFA volunteers or the SES volunteers? No, it is not. And the government has actually outlined that it will not do that. So the member for Albert Park wants to say what she is doing with nuance and concern about saying, ‘You’re lying.’ When you say that every dollar is going to volunteers, I can tell you, you can put your own language on it, but you know what, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, we know it is a duck.

Firefighters in my area are very, very concerned about this. I want to get some of this on the record. I wish I had an hour, but I know you are not going to give me an extension of time. This is so hard for people in my electorate, because it is the CFA volunteers who have spent the last three months on the backs of fire trucks who are going to be contributing the most to this tax. I want to pay credit to all of those volunteers, all of the people whose land was being burnt at the same time they were on the back of a fire truck, the people who paid their staff to be on the back of a fire truck so they could keep that support going, not just for a couple of days but week on week on week. It was not just through Christmas, not just through New Year and not just through the time that they should have been managing and doing some key things on their property. They were actually there fighting fires and standing up for their communities.

These are the same groups that were involved in this fire that have been told they are not going to get as much money next year. They are the same groups who have given these outlines of what they are paying, more and more, in this volunteers tax, because that is what it is, and I want to get some of these numbers on the record. In the Wickliffe area, there are about 400 private fire units that fought the Grampians fire. It was a huge cost. He wants to get the costings about this, which has not come through. He wants to invoice the state government for what he believes are unnecessary costs incurred that he should not bear, especially given the large amount that he pays in levies, and this is a huge amount of additional stuff. There is a huge amount of money that is being taken from our region, and it is not coming back to support our CFA volunteers.

Down in Hamilton, John Northcott got his rates notice this year – an increase in his levy of 90 per cent. Another volunteer, a very good friend of mine who has been impacted by fire and is also suffering from a cancer as a result of his firefighting, cannot access full coverage of his costs through the government’s program, and we have been heavily advocating for that. He is going to be paying the price. His costs have gone up 70 per cent, plus he is facing even more through this new volunteers tax. For Pat Millear, a champion who heads up the Westmere fire brigades group, at the moment it has gone up by 60 per cent. There are some farmers in that area who are looking at their cost for this tax going from about $24,000 to $80,000 a year. There are hundreds of millions of dollars coming out of my electorate, and it is not coming back.

I did say earlier about this being a surrogate land tax. This is just a tax on farms. We know that farms are currently exempt from land tax, and this is just another way of Labor sticking their hands in the pockets of farmers who are doing their darndest to keep our people fed, to keep them clothed and to drive the Victorian economy. Farmers find it very, very difficult to fund a higher rate. They always have high input costs, and they are struggling for water at this point in time. There is no doubt that this will come at some point in time as a tax on food. Every Victorian is struggling with the cost of living. Last week we heard that grocery prices have gone up by 30 per cent over the last six years under the Allan Labor government. This tax will mean that they will pay more and more.

The volunteers exemption that has been spoken about today is not a broad-based exemption. Rental properties are ineligible to be included, so what this means is that people who rent get no benefit out of the time that they volunteer, apart from feeling darn good about it, and good on them for getting out and doing it. You know what, I have seen those volunteer firefighters and I have seen volunteer SES workers, and they do an incredible job. They do it because they love it, and they do it because of the rewards that they get in the community and in looking out for one another. They do not deserve to be slugged with a great big volunteers tax. This just goes to show that Labor cannot manage money, and it is our country Victorians and our country farmers and our country volunteers who are going to pay the ultimate price.

I commend all of the councils in my region, because while it has been spoken about in this chamber – and contributions from the Labor government would indicate that there has been extensive consultation with councils – this is not what they are saying. They are saying that they have not been consulted and did not know that this tax was coming. I believe councils are willing to put on the public record their concern around this, and I have got articles in front of me which I have not got time to reference, from West Wimmera Shire Council, Southern Grampians Shire Council and Glenelg Shire Council. I spoke to the Little Desert action group last night. There was a motion from the Hindmarsh region that they outright reject this great big new tax and the money that it will take from our region when we get nothing in return under a Labor government.

If anybody has any heart at all, you will see this for what it is. This is just a tax grab. It is getting money to fill the budget black hole that Labor have created by not managing projects appropriately and by happily allowing for corruption on our major projects, with money being funnelled through to bikie gangs and the government doing nothing about it. My community knows exactly what that is about. It was another motion last night. They are sick of their taxpayer money going to Labor so they can just blow it on paying off bikie gangs. That is exactly what they were saying last night. That is not me; that was them. Everybody is sick to death of the way that this government thinks that taxpayer money is their own that they can waste and just fritter away on anything. Our people have had enough. Labor cannot manage money, and Victorians are paying the price. For once, stand up for CFA volunteers and vote down this tax.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (11:59): I rise to support this bill and to stand with every single emergency service worker across this state, including SES and CFA volunteers. I know at home as we speak today I have got many from my local SES station watching this debate with great interest and great support, and to them I say: this bill is about you and providing you the funding and the resources you have asked for, you need and deserve. Yet the member for Lowan, just prior to me, stood up and said that her CFA station needs more funding, but at the same time she opposes the very bill that will raise the funding to improve services, to improve infrastructure, to improve resources for those very CFA volunteers.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Order! Member for South-West Coast! Through the Chair, member for Pascoe Vale.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Thank you for your guidance. It is absolutely disgraceful, and that is why I rise to support this bill, because it is about the volunteers, it is about supporting those emergency service workers who make those selfless and brave contributions across our state and across all of our local communities.

Victoria’s emergency services play those essential life-saving roles and they deserve our support, and that is what this bill is all about, which the Liberal-Nationals are opposing. Right across Victoria, including my community of Merri-bek, demand for emergency services only continues to rise to all-time highs, because the facts speak for themselves. Victoria is one of the most fire-prone areas in the world, and in recent years we have seen a huge impact from climate change –

Emma Kealy: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member appears to be reading a speech.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Member for Pascoe Vale, are you reading from notes or reading a speech?

Anthony CIANFLONE: I am simply referring to handwritten notes, as I always do, Acting Speaker. The truth hurts, doesn’t it? The truth very much hurts the member for Lowan, because –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): The member for Pascoe Vale to continue.

Anthony CIANFLONE: Thank you again, Acting Speaker, for your guidance. But the truth does hurt the member for Lowan, because when we talk about volunteers, when we thank our volunteers in the emergency services, we back them in with funding, and that is what this bill, again, is about – $250 million in new funding for our emergency services, which the Liberals do not support providing them. That is a fact. That is what they are opposing.

We are seeing more floods, storms and fires. Black Saturday, the Black Summer bushfires and the 2022 floods have had real, lasting devastating impacts on all of our communities. Events that were happening only once every 100 years are, sadly, happening more often because of climate change. As I said, we always thank and regularly thank our emergency service volunteers in this place. This bill is about backing in those thanks.

Many from my local SES community have asked for this bill and this reform, and many of them have emailed and written to me. I would like to name and thank them: Goldie Pergl, Kate Turner, Lynne Clark, Shane Lapworth, Yehuda Harmor, Jon Saunders, Tom Timothy and Michael Casha. There are so many emails that I got from so many of our volunteers, I just want to thank as many as I can. They said:

I am writing to you as a dedicated member of the Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) FAWKNER Unit to urgently request your support in securing sustainable funding to ensure all volunteers across Victoria can continue providing our community with an effective emergency response.

VICSES, as you may know, is a volunteer-based organisation committed to providing emergency assistance to minimise the impact of emergencies, reduce trauma in those exposed to emergencies and enhance community resilience across Victoria. Our volunteers, numbering over 4,800 strong, work tirelessly to prepare and respond to a wide range of emergencies, including floods, storms, tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, and road crashes.

Our efforts are significant, as evidenced by the staggering 287,373 volunteer hours contributed between July 2022 and June 2023 alone, equating to an economic value of over $503 million. Despite our dedicated volunteer base, VICSES is currently facing critical funding challenges that threaten our ability to effectively deliver essential services and maintain operational readiness.

The reliance on volunteer-led fundraising to procure vital equipment, maintain facilities, and replace end-of-life fleet assets is simply unsustainable.

…

As our elected representative –

yours truly –

we urge you to consider –

pressing issues, including:

… expanding the existing Fire Services Levy into an Emergency Services Levy to secure stable funding for VICSES.

That is exactly what I am standing up to support here today.

The SES has 155 volunteer units with, as I said, over 4900 volunteers covering the entire state. Between 2009 and 2013 VICSES roughly averaged around 20,000 call-outs a year, and over the last three years they have averaged 35,000 call-outs. That is a massive increase over recent years, and that is why from 1 July 2025 we want to replace that fire services property levy with a new Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, making sure our emergency services have the resources they need to keep us all safe.

The bill will amend 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 July 2025. It will replace the fire services levy with that ESVF, which will include additional emergency services. It will be used to fund up to 95 per cent of the budgets of such organisations, including the SES, Triple Zero Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria, the State Control Centre and Emergency Recovery Victoria, the state’s recovery agency. In addition, the ESVF will fund up to 87.5 per cent of Fire Rescue Victoria’s budget and up to 95 per cent of the CFA’s budget. It will support the delivery of an additional $750 million a year when fully implemented and provide an extra $250 million for the VICSES and CFA to support rolling fleet replacement, volunteer training, doubling of the volunteer emergency services equipment program and modernising the VicEmergency app. Every dollar raised, unlike what others opposite are claiming, will go towards each and every one of those organisations I have named to support vital life-saving equipment, staff vehicles, training, education, recovery support and much more – for when Victorians need it most. That is what the bill is about and what the funds raised will be about. It will introduce an exemption from the levy for eligible CFA and VICSES volunteers and life members on their primary place of residence or on a farm which they are the owner of. When combined, it will bring Victoria’s funding into line with the rest of the country.

In supporting this bill, it will complement the efforts of our previous investments to support my local emergency services. On 15 July 2023 we officially opened the new SES Fawkner precinct, a $2.8 million upgrade as part of a $125 million VICSES capital works package for a new 5000-square-metre space with a five-bay motor room; modern kitchen; expanded office; learning and training spaces; and modern, fit-for-purpose IT and communications equipment. It will help the VICSES attract, recruit and retain more dedicated volunteers, continue to expand their reach to respond to local emergencies and support their efforts in working with Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and fire services.

On 13 December 2024 I was delighted to welcome the Minister for Emergency Services Jaclyn Symes to the Fawkner SES – and the member for Broadmeadows – where she officially unveiled and announced this very bill and the additional $250 million in funding we have committed to through this bill for SES and our emergency services. It was announced in Fawkner, which we are very proud of indeed. In supporting the bill, I would like to again acknowledge many of my Merri-bek SES volunteers – some of whom are watching right now, live streaming it from the station, I believe – including unit controller Goldie Pergl; operations deputy unit controller Shane Lapworth; training director Jon Saunders; administration director Michael Casha; members director Kate Turner; and Amanda Opie as well, who is the community director and does a great job, especially with collecting the cans, bottles and containers for the container deposit scheme to fundraise for the SES.

Today’s SES volunteers in my community build on a long-time tradition of local SES volunteerism. The Broadmeadows civil defence unit started in 1952, joining the State Emergency Service in 1955 – a bit of a history lesson here. They commenced operations at the Maygar army barracks site in Broadmeadows and then moved to Mahoneys Road in Campbellfield in 1999, next to the old pipeworks factory, which, sadly, is no longer there. They then moved to the existing Hadfield site, on the corner of Sydney Road and Boundary Road, in 2023, which we just opened and announced. I just touched on the funding of it. They changed their name to VICSES Fawkner unit to better reflect their location. They work across Merri-bek and Hume. They have 63 members, 14 of whom make up the unit management team. Their volunteers train weekly, on Mondays at 7 o’clock, and respond to requests for assistance 24/7. They responded to 612 requests for assistance in 2024 and contributed over 10,000 hours of volunteer time to the local community. They have three trucks, one provided by the state and two by grants and fundraising, and two four-wheel drives. They also have a great lighting trailer, a staging/crime scene trailer and a flood trailer. They work across so many disciplines, including chainsaw, safe working at heights, land-based swift water rescue, air search and rescue, incident management, urban search and rescue, fire support, air monitoring, domestic rescue and land search rescue. They were involved in Black Saturday assistance. They have recently helped over in WA, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. They even went out three times to the Grampians, the member for Lowan might be interested to note, to help out at the fires recently. As well, currently they are in Queensland, after Cyclone Alfred. They are an amazing unit that celebrated their 50th year in 2022 and many more of their achievements.

I really commend this bill in the name of all the volunteers across our state, but particularly the Fawkner SES, who do an amazing job to keep our community safe, resilient and prosperous.

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (12:09): I rise to speak on the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. This is a bill that facilitates the government of the day, the Allan Labor government, to bring in an extremely unfair tax on volunteers – much higher than we have seen in the past and much higher than I could ever imagine we would do to people. This is a disgrace. This bill is an absolute disgrace, and I cannot support it.

This is a great big tax. This is a tax that will collect $2 billion over the next three years. Unlike what we are hearing from these members across the chamber who are absolutely misleading the house, only 10 per cent of that will go to the CFA and SES. This is a bill where the Allan Labor government have rebadged the fire services property levy as an Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund. Much of this will not go to the hardworking volunteers; much of this will go to core government services. This tax will be listed on local government tax notices, as we have seen in the past, but we will see ratepayers suffering bill shock. They will not realise it has come from the state government and that the reason it is so incredibly raised is because of the government’s mismanagement of Victorian finances.

I am getting letters from councils. I am getting calls from councillors who are saying, ‘Why are we having to be the tax collector of this great big tax?’ They want to put on the public record that the government should not be standing behind local council and cost-shifting and making it difficult for them to stand up in their communities because they are forced to grab tax from the community, who are already struggling due to government mismanagement.

It is meant to be for emergency volunteer organisations, but the majority will be going to fund services which will be funded and should have always been and have always been funded out of consolidated revenue. So they are going to fund organisations that do not have volunteers that the government already fund; they are departments, effectively. This is purely due to government mismanagement and cost blowouts. They are just digging into the pockets of families because they are desperate as a government to find money. You have to ask the question: how much of this is going to fund their mates in the CFMEU?

The government has tried to present this to volunteers as a levy exemption to fund their trucks and equipment, but only 10 per cent of this massive tax grab will actually go to that cause. That is why the volunteers are so disappointed. They do not feel like they have been listened to and represented. When the fires in the Grampians were taking place over the summer period, so many were calling me. My CFAs who had gone up to that area to help their fellow volunteers were saying, ‘It’s a disgrace. This is a government that is expecting us to volunteer – and we want to do that, we want to protect our communities, we need the surge power – but they continually insult us and destroy our ability to keep up our resolve to keep volunteering,’ because they just keep getting torn down by this Allan Labor government.

Local member for Western Victoria Jacinta Ermacora came out in December when this tax was announced and said that hopefully this will put an end to fundraising and sausage sizzles. Well, guess what, the government have admitted that one-third of voluntary emergency services organisations will have to fundraise for the rest of their funding. Jacinta, are you choking on that sausage? There is going to be a lot more fundraising. Absolute disgrace. Just yesterday –

Daniela De Martino: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, members should be referred to by their correct titles.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): I will remind the member for South-West Coast to refer to members by their correct title.

Roma BRITNELL: The Treasurer just yesterday came out saying that this tax will be on landlords, who she says are home owners that can afford it, but really, as this government keeps missing, over 500,000 homes which are available for rent –

Pauline Richards: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I am just checking if the member is reading from notes. Is the member reading from notes or reading a speech?

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Member for South-West Coast, are you reading notes or from a speech?

Roma BRITNELL: I am referring to notes.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): You may continue.

Roma BRITNELL: There are over 500,000 homes that are available for rent. The government claims they are owned by land barons. They are not. Over 400,000 of these rental homes are owned by hardworking Victorians. 64,000 in fact are owned by teachers, 55,000 are owned by nurses, 41,000 by admin assistants and many others by tradies, electricians and truck drivers. The government believes that these are rich land barons that should pay more tax. They have only got one other house, which they are putting on the rental market because they are trying to save up to make their lives better and be able to perhaps fund their retirement – really reasonable goals – but the government calls them land barons when they are hardworking Victorians.

The Allan Labor government stated in their media release that every single dollar raised in this new fund will support our emergency and disaster recovery services. It clearly does not. Precious little will actually assist emergency service volunteer organisations. This new tax is supposed to help very worthy volunteer organisations, such as the CFA and SES. But the reality is it will actually fund core government services, as I said earlier, like Triple Zero Victoria, the State Control Centre, Forest Fire Management Victoria and Emergency Recovery Victoria, as well as Fire Rescue Victoria. These are not volunteer organisations; these are departments. Even the department secretary for the emergency services will be funded under this new tax. Only $200 million of the billions being collected goes towards the equipment, and it still will not be enough for the equipment so fundraising still has to occur. It is so insulting to volunteers. Core government services that have always been paid for by the taxes we have already been paying – it will be going to these areas instead of consolidated revenue. That is because the government have mismanaged their budgets.

Two very worthy volunteer organisations who work very hard, and we have seen that recently over the fire period particularly, did request exemptions, including the CFA, so they could attract more volunteers. How insulting to them to not only not get a reasonable exemption but to actually have to pay triple the amount, which makes it a paltry exemption in the end. How insulting also to the other emergency service organisations who want to attract more volunteers. The Labor government have rebadged this as an emergency services fund, yet the volunteers of other organisations, such as coastguard, who put out fires on ships, St John ambulance, marine rescue Victoria and surf lifesaving, who are also emergency services, have totally been ignored. This is a government that picks winners and losers.

They are a government who have not even thought this through. They have not worked out how they will be getting that rebate back. A farmer who was paying $2500, an average farmer, is now going to pay $6000, nearly $7000 actually, a year. They are going to get an exemption of $109 back if they go to the trouble of finding, on the State Revenue Office website, how to do that. It will probably take them a couple of hours of wading through that to get $109 back. It is the most insulting contribution; the government could not be more insulting if they tried. The government will also cap the eligibility. They have gone right down the line of working out how they will cap people. They do not know who is actually going to be eligible yet. They are saying, ‘We’ll leave that up to the CFA and the SES.’ They have worked out how to vacuum up all this money and bring it into their coffers, but they have not worked out yet how the paltry $6 million that goes back in exemptions out of the billion that they collect this year alone will even be allocated back to the people who are eligible for the rebates if they are.

So who is benefiting? It is not farmers, who have been working hard fighting fires for years and managing the landscape. What will farmers do when these costs go up to $7000 for the average farmer, and much more, as we heard from the member for Lowan, in some cases? It will be passed back to the consumer. We have seen grocery prices are already high. The consumer will struggle.

John LISTER (Werribee) (12:19): I rise to speak on the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. Our emergency services personnel and volunteers are on the front line of Victoria’s natural disaster and emergency response. They put their lives on the line every single day without a second thought. My time as a CFA volunteer has instilled in me the importance of ensuring our emergency services are well resourced and well equipped, particularly in my role on the brigade management team. My brigade, Werribee CFA, responds to an average of 800 incidents per year, and we are on track to hit 1000 for this year, which I think says a lot about the need for these changes. That is over three calls every day, with nearly a third supporting paid firefighters at nearby stations 57 and 58.

The day I was elected I was out at 3 am putting out a grass and scrub fire out the back of Manor Lakes and protecting the community I now have the privilege of representing in this place. While I was out there, just like every other time, the importance of having adequate support was front of mind. I was surrounded by brand new tankers funded by the Allan Labor government, driving one of those tankers myself.

This bill is exactly what the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund is all about. It amends the fire services property levy to replace that with a new Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund. It is about making sure our emergency services volunteers and personnel have what they need to keep us safe. We know that climate change is real, and we are feeling the impacts each year, particularly in the CFA. We have seen our fire season stretch into March and now April. This is a serious problem, and we need to have a sustainable funding model that will continue to support volunteers year on year as we see the effects of climate change. It is affecting all types of communities. I acknowledge the communities in the Grampians that have had it rough; my former comrades at Dimboola fire brigade copped it this summer as well. But it does not discriminate; it is not just the bush, it is also our interface suburbs, like Werribee, Wyndham Vale and beyond. As conditions worsen and the intensity of fires increases and other severe weather events increase, our emergency services are feeling the pressure. That is why we are introducing this new way of funding them.

Every single dollar raised by this fund will go back into our emergency services. For the first time it will be used to fund up to 95 per cent of annual budgets for the SES, Triple Zero Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria and Forest Fire Management Victoria, and I will come back to some of the comments from the member for South-West Coast in a moment on those different agencies. It is also going to fund up to 95 per cent of the CFA’s budget and up 87.5 per cent of FRV’s budget. That means that we will have more vital life-saving equipment, vehicles, staff, training for volunteers, community education and recovery support, importantly.

Volunteers who give up so much of their time, effort and lives helping our communities are the reason so many across Victoria are still able to have their homes, belongings and lives. We calculated at Werribee fire brigade that the average time spent by each volunteer at an incident is around an hour and a half, and if we are responding with multiple of my comrades on those trucks, that is dozens of hours every day of those people’s time.

This government recognises this. I recall during the debate about presumptive legislation and fire services reform many people called on government for some recognition of emergency service volunteer work through our state revenue system. This is why eligible volunteers will be able to offset this levy through their eligible organisation. They will be able to claim the rebate against the farm of which they are an owner, even if it is not their principal place of residence, making it fairer for farmers who do not live on their farm. This reflects our ongoing commitment to supporting the work of volunteers, who take so much time, like me at 10 o’clock last night when I got home from Parliament, to look after our communities.

But this is not just about the tin shed fire brigades that we associate with the Country Fire Authority and the amazing work they do, and I recognise a lot of the Nationals representatives here, and a lot of those small brigades that they represent do amazing work, and that is often what we see on the news at 7 o’clock at night – we see those brigades – but this is also about those SES volunteers who are out in some of the worst flood and natural disasters that we are increasingly experiencing. I would like to thank Mike and Goldie, who knows me from a previous life, for their advocacy for this change. On Monday night I met with the Wyndham SES unit at their training night. Their group controller Mark Schier took me through the different emergencies they respond to.

Working closely with local police, they can be called in to help with crime scene support and at a moment’s notice could be searching through bushland for a missing person. At some of our big house fires they come and set up lighting and salvage equipment. Mark and I reflected on the last time that we saw each other when were both at Wattle Avenue in the middle of the night, where their lighting helped us on a long salvage effort on a three-storey building that I happened to be inside of when it was on fire. For 50 years our SES have proudly stood by their fellow emergency service workers, and it is about time they were given the same funding security and recognition of that work as the fire services through this modernised levy.

The member for South-West Coast raised the other organisations that will be funded through this levy, and I would like to reflect on that. Some of those organisations, like Triple Zero Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria, all those other ones, and Forest Fire Management Victoria, are not just bureaucrats sitting here in Spring Street. They are people out in our incident control centres in the bush. They are out there supporting volunteers to do their jobs. We need to make sure that we have a sustainable funding model so that everyone on that fireground works together, because we emergency service workers work as one – unlike the member for Berwick’s bin fire of an opposition.

We have heard a lot about our amazing rural fire brigades. This levy recognises their work, as I have mentioned about that rebate for principal place of residence, farmland or a portion of land they have an interest in. What I would also like to highlight is a great proportion of our CFAs are peri-urban brigades like mine. We are backing our suburban brigades with upgraded facilities and new appliances. In the Mount Cottrell group that Werribee is a part of, a new fire station at Truganina has been constructed and we are working through one at Wyndham Vale. New modern tankers are at Little River, Truganina and Werribee, as well as a new pumper tanker that they are trialling at Hoppers Crossing. Those opposite are standing in the way of $250 million of equipment for my fellow volunteers to use, and I think they should be ashamed.

I know I have got myself worked up, but this is something I am very passionate about. Someone asked me, ‘Are you going to give up your volunteering now that you’re a member of Parliament?’ I thought about it briefly. We have to be here at all sorts of hours, and I am stuck here in Spring Street when I would rather be back home on Watton Street. I was reflecting on it. Trucks still need to get out the door. We need to make sure that our trucks are out the door every night in Werribee and across our state, and our volunteers are a vital part of doing that. We need to stand with them and back them with these changes to make sure that they have a sustainable funding model into the future as well as that important funding that will come from it.

Last night I got home to Werribee from here at Parliament, and the pager went off straightaway. I apologised straight away to my partner, who looked at me disappointedly because she had not seen me for about 14 hours that day. I apologised, I got in the ute and I went to the fire station. Off I went, proud to see that our first truck at Werribee was out the door in under 2½ minutes. We have to be out in 4 minutes. We were out in 2½ minutes, with all three of our trucks out within 6 minutes to this code 1 emergency. We got down there. It was okay. It was just someone burning off without a permit. It happens too often, by the way. For those watching at home, please get a permit during a fire danger period. It has kept me up way too much at night – literally.

When we got back, one of our younger members, who has just bought a house – lucky; I am still renting, so I rib him about it all the time – asked me about the levy bill and asked when I was speaking about it. I said hopefully at about 12:30 today. With a cheeky grin, he asked if he could get a note to say he could get his rebate now. I laughed. I had to politely decline, but I assured him that today I would fight to make sure that we get this legislation through. That is how keen our volunteers, particularly our volunteers in the suburbs, are to see this recognition happen.

In concluding – because I am still new at this and I am still trying to get my time right – this bill will mean that our volunteers, who give so much to our state and its people – can keep doing that important work that they do. I have to say on behalf of my fellow volunteers at Werribee, in particular our captain Michael Wells, and the people of Werribee: I commend this bill to the house.

Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (12:29): I am pleased to rise to contribute to the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. I want to start by acknowledging and thanking Victoria’s SES volunteers for everything they do in our community and also congratulate them on 50 years of very hard work, the tireless hours they commit during times of disaster, whether it is attending storm damage, bushfire recovery, road accidents or searches. Whatever it is, they give their time and work hard when it is needed in their communities. Of course they support other communities around Victoria as well as interstate, and obviously we know that that is happening right now in other states that are in need of assistance. The fact that our amazing SES volunteers are prepared to give their time to other states and other communities as the need arises just shows the calibre of those volunteers and their commitment to supporting our communities, to keeping our communities safe.

They do spend a lot of time away from their families, and I do want to acknowledge that. Sometimes it is for days on end, and not just for first-responders situations but also for training – use of equipment, driving the trucks – education, fundraising and all those situations that they have to deal with as volunteers with the SES. For many volunteers there is an impact on their families and recreation time because of their commitment. Just recently I was talking to the Bannockburn SES volunteers, and some of them have been volunteers for many, many years. I acknowledge that they have missed out on different things with their families – taking their kids fishing, whatever it might be – because they were called out to an incident. And as mentioned, sometimes that can be for days, sometimes it is an incident that lasts a number of hours, but it can impact on their family and what they are doing with their family. So again, a huge thankyou to them for giving up their time. I think sometimes our communities forget that they are volunteers and that they are giving up their precious time with their families or doing recreational activities, so we should be reminding our community that that is exactly what they are doing. We need these incredible people.

The SES Geelong unit and the SES Bannockburn unit play a critical role in supporting my community. As I mentioned, I recently visited the Bannockburn unit. We had the pleasure of having a get-together to celebrate the fact that they now have the land to build their new Bannockburn SES unit on, which has been a long time coming. I was so pleased to join the Minister for Emergency Services out there last week to celebrate that but also to thank those volunteers for not only the work they do but the advocacy and time they put into getting this new SES unit in Bannockburn. Bannockburn is a growing community. It is fast growing, actually. The SES volunteers saw the important need for an expansion of their service. They were co-located with the CFA. That had worked for quite some years, but they have now outgrown that space and need the additional space. So to have that celebration last week was really important to them. It will give them dedicated training spaces, wellbeing areas, parking – things that they have not had for a long time – and the ability to park their second truck under shelter, because at the moment it needs to be kept outside because there is no room at the current station that they are at. As part of modernising those facilities, the unit will also feature environmentally sustainable materials, including solar panels and water recycling, which is of course really helpful to those volunteers.

The legislation will effectively amend the Fire Services Property Levy Act 2012 and replace it with the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund Act 2025 to allow government to fund a broader range of emergency services through the levy to better reflect the make-up of the emergency service sector.

The bill will also introduce volunteer exemptions from the levy for eligible CFA and VICSES volunteers and allow the release of the $250 million support package for the CFA, VICSES and the VicEmergency app. It is important to note that by those opposite opposing this bill, it is blocking that $250 million investment in more trucks for the CFA and the SES. We know how important those facilities are for those emergency services, so I would ask that the opposition support this bill. It is really important that that money is invested for the CFA and the SES. We know the value of the work that they do. We need to be providing the funding to them, and this is the mechanism to get that funding so that they can deliver those important services.

We also know that Victoria is one of the most fire-prone areas in the world, and in recent years we have seen a huge impact of climate change and population growth in our state. I certainly know in my seat of Geelong, which also now incorporates Bannockburn, just how much we are going to need those services more and more. Obviously we do not have bushfires in central Geelong, but now that I have Bannockburn in my electorate, which I am very happy about, these are things that are on their agenda every single day. Whether it be the local council, the local community, the SES or the CFA, they know that the demands are going to grow. That was the discussion I had with them last week. They know the population growth in Bannockburn is far exceeding predictions. They know that they are going to need these services more and more. They have a great volunteer team out there, but some of those people work. Because they work, they are not necessarily able to respond to calls during the day, and that means that there is another group of people who are not working that are required to respond. Developing their volunteer base is really important for them, and they are doing more work. I think it makes more attractive to have a whole new SES unit based at Bannockburn. They will be working to continue to build up their volunteer base.

We are not only seeing more floods and storms and fires – with Black Saturday, the Black Summer bushfires and the 2022 floods – but also the very real and lasting devastation that brings to our communities. We rely on those volunteers to go out and do that work. Whether it is putting tarps over roofs, cutting people out of car accidents or dealing with flood damage, whatever it might be, it is part of their everyday life, really, to be there and available for their community. I really do admire their commitment to community.

We have spoken about the families who have lost their homes, the loss of our natural environment and farming lands, and how we know that the communities affected by these disasters have been changed forever. And each time we come back to acknowledging and thanking our emergency services, because time and time again it is our VICSES and CFA volunteers who have stepped up to keep us safe. This bill is about listening to our emergency services, listening to the people who have put their lives on the line to help their communities and showing them that they matter and that they should be supported fairly by government for the work they do. I can only stress the importance of this bill for ensuring those funds for the investments into SES and into CFA. It is absolutely critical that this passes this place today. Again, I ask the opposition to reconsider their objection to this bill. It is really important that we continue to support our communities. We know that SES volunteers have come to us saying, ‘We need more.’ How do we fund that? This is the bill that does. I commend the bill to the house.

Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (12:39): It is a pleasure to make a contribution on the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. I will start off by making the point that, as much as the government wants to talk about supporting our emergency services, this bill is primarily around a new tax. I do not think there is any member in this chamber who does not support their emergency services. In my electorate I will go as far as to say we probably rely on our emergency services and volunteers more than any other area in the state. Our volunteer CFA firefighters are the backbone of our community; our SES do a great job; and down to our surf lifesavers, who look after the beaches along the Ninety Mile Beach there, it is an area that is highly dependent on volunteers. But this bill will increase the cost of living and create a new tax. The bill says it is expanding to include supports for the SES and Triple Zero Victoria and those sorts of entities, but they were previously funded out of general revenue. So if this is not about simply raising a new tax, the government must show us where that commensurate saving is in general revenue. I have not heard a speaker yet outline that. There is an extra $600 million to be raised. That has got to come from somewhere, and it will be coming out of the pockets of property holders. It is simply a case of moving the funding of agencies, previously provided out of all the other taxes we paid, to a new levy.

The renaming of the fire services property levy fools no-one. I was here when that came into play in 2013, and there are a few in the chamber who were not. The reason that it was moved from insurance onto council rates is because there were a number of people in our community who benefited from our fire service response who either were not insured or were underinsured, and those who were paying full insurance were paying overs. The idea of moving it to the rates-based system was that everybody who was a recipient of fire services had to pay their fair share. I can remember sitting in my office with people ringing my office saying, ‘I’m not insured. Now I have to pay this new tax.’ ‘Well, yes, you’re the very person we’re trying to catch, because you were a beneficiary of the fire services when the fires hit last year.’ That was a common discussion. That was the background to it. The fire services property levy made it fairer on everybody.

The other services that this incorporates have always been funded out of general revenue. There was not an intention to include them in the fire services levy at the time. But if we want to do that – and no one is denying our SES and Triple Zero need greater levels of support to deal with the challenges that they have to deal with. I do not think any member of the chamber would disagree with that. But it is cost shifting. We are raising over $600 million to fund those services. Someone point us to where the tax cuts are coming out of general revenue, because what is happening is that money is still going to be collected and it is going to go into paying this excessive debt and the interest on this debt that the current government has incurred. Over a million dollars a day in interest we are heading to, a billion dollars every six weeks in interest, without paying off your capital. So it fools nobody that this is anything other than a tax grab.

The impact that this will have on housing and rental properties is disastrous. We already have land tax increases being passed on to renters. We have rates and insurances for rental providers going through the roof, and now we are going to have another tax. Your mum-and-dad investors – and there are plenty of mum-and-dad investors; the majority of investors in second properties are mum-and-dad investors – will leave and either invest interstate or go into the stock market. Rental properties will again be in decline, and then we will have people coming in from both sides of the chamber saying we have got a housing crisis. Housing availability is not there, yet we have introduced taxes that are putting pressure on rental providers and forcing them out of the system. You just cannot have it both ways. It is as simple as that.

I spoke to one of my councils last week, and we had other councils from Gippsland in this week from our area, the Gippsland local government network – now known as One Gippsland, I should say. They spoke openly about their concern that this is going on their rate bills. They said people only read the bottom line of their rate bills. How can they put up rates when the fire services levy on that rate bill is almost double before they start? One councillor said, ‘If we put up rates to any level, it will exacerbate the blowout on the bottom of that council bill, and we’ll end up with pitchforks in the street.’ That was the term that was used. So I would urge the speakers on that side who are yet to speak on this bill: if this is not a new money grab, stand up and tell us whether $610 million in savings is coming out of general revenue, because that is where the SES, Triple Zero Victoria and these agencies have previously been funded from. Explain why you are doubling the fire services levy but not giving the tax respite in another area.

I want to briefly mention the exemptions that have been promised. I cannot believe we are in this chamber debating a bill that talks about exemptions for CFA volunteers and we have no detail on how it is going to work. I heard the member for Frankston before, and it sounds like CFA volunteers are going to have to pay their levy and then be bothered to fill in the paperwork to get the repayment returned to them. I mean, what a disastrous system that will be. Will all volunteers be eligible for this? The volunteers who attend every fire? I am assuming they will be. What about the non-active members of the CFA – do they get it? Because when this has been discussed in other jurisdictions in the past, that has caused angst within those services.

What about our surf lifesavers, who I touched on before? What about our ambulance community officers (ACOs)? They do pretty important volunteer work in our community, just not in the area of fire – I would say equally important work in our community. Are they going to be able to access this eligibility to not have to pay? The bottom line is we are debating another bill in the chamber where the government are openly saying they do not know how it is going to work, that detail has got to be sorted out.

It would be good if we had a bill come into this chamber where all the details were sorted out so we know what we are actually debating and we can prosecute the detail of it. That is how this Parliament should work. That is how a Parliament in any jurisdiction should work. We should be debating and prosecuting the detail, not having people standing up and saying, ‘Here’s the bill, here’s the law, but we’ve got to work that stuff out down the track. Just trust us’. We should be debating that detail in here, and I only hope that between houses we get that level of detail so that we can prosecute those matters and make sure there is even and fair representation.

I would like someone to stand up there and tell me if our ACOs and our surf lifesaving volunteers are going to be eligible for this exemption just like our CFA volunteers are. No-one has touched that yet. All we are getting is, ‘Oh, we’ve got to work all that stuff out.’ Well, that should be here in front of us now.

I will conclude my remarks with that. I know there are a lot of people that do want to speak on this and we are running out of time today. I have spoken for longer than I intended, but gee whiz, it would be good to get some answers at least between houses.

John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (12:48): It is a pleasure to rise in favour of the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025, and from the outset I would like to thank the Treasurer in the other place and her team for their efforts in bringing this important piece of legislation to this house. I trust that these changes will make a positive impact for Victorians. I also note the excellent contribution by the member to my left the member for Werribee and his erudite speech on sharing his experience as a CFA volunteer with both Dimboola and Werribee. Again, it is great to have a new yet lived-experience voice in this chamber.

This is an important piece of legislation that builds on the Allan Labor government’s record investment in our emergency services. Since coming into government we have stood by, not against, our emergency services personnel, who do such a wonderful job in serving the Victorian community.

Since 2013 the fire services property levy has been the primary source of funding for our fire services for both the Country Fire Authority and Fire Rescue Victoria, formerly known as the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. This levy is collected by local councils on behalf of the state government, and this process is monitored by the State Revenue Office. It is a system which is fair and equitable, and it is based on both fixed and variable charges which include property classification, location and capital-increased revenue. The purpose of this bill is to replace the existing fire services property levy and transform it into the expanded Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, and this change will allow the funding of several additional fire and emergency services. This new levy, starting on 1 July this year, will fund up to 95 per cent of the annual budgets of numerous emergency and volunteer services as well as allowing for the release of a $250 million support package for the CFA and the VICSES that this government committed to, and therefore it is absolutely critical this legislation is supported. The ESVF is estimated to raise more than $610 million in the years 2025–26 and more than $765 million in the 2026–27 year. Every single dollar of these vital funds will be used to purchase and maintain life-saving equipment, vehicles, recovery support as well as volunteer training.

To further emphasise this point as to why this change is so important, I want to take a moment to go through each emergency service that will be funded through the reformed levy policy. The Victorian State Emergency Service, known as the SES, is a volunteer-based organisation that provides critical support in times of flood, storm, fire and other emergencies. The volunteers provide immediate responses to minimise the impact of emergencies in cases of natural disaster such as floods, storms, tsunamis and earthquakes. This quick and on-the-ground response is appreciated by Victorians in both regional and metropolitan areas, and I know this applies to my local area as well. The team at the Forest Hill SES and the Monash SES do an incredible job in the Glen Waverley district in supporting them during their most critical times. I would like to thank the unit controller Graeme Stanley and his team at the Whitehorse SES and unit controller George Haitidis and his team at the Monash SES for all they do to help our community in our most pressing times of need. We literally saw this last year in the Monash area when we had some very severe storms that particularly hit Monash. We had over 1000 jobs that the Monash SES replied to over about a period of a week. Basically we had trees come down and trees land on people’s roofs. There was debris all across the Monash area, and over several weeks the Monash SES quietly and diligently went about their job to clean up that mess and ensure that people were looked after. It was great to have the Premier down there at the end of that busy week to thank the Monash SES and all the volunteers that were still helping out at that stage. Such rapid responses not only help those in need in the moment but also set the groundwork for an easier clean-up in the aftermath. They also lead emergency management plans to help protect the community, with more than 5100 SES volunteers serving our state.

The ESVF will also support Emergency Management Victoria, which leads the management of emergency situations when they arise by coordinating responses as well as strengthening the Victorian community’s ability to prepare and respond to emergencies. The changes to the funding model will also assist in strengthening the work of Triple Zero Victoria, and I recently had the pleasure of visiting Triple Zero Victoria that is located right in the centre of my electorate, just off Burwood Highway. I got to see the amazing work that Triple Zero Victoria do, and it was great to have the Minister for Emergency Services there visiting with me. I was fortunate to be able to listen in to a couple of calls by the wonderful Archer. It was just amazing to see how good she was in responding to these people that are calling with very difficult circumstances. The professionalism that I was able to see from her gave me great strength and great hope about the great work that they do to make sure that Victorians are kept safe.

Triple Zero Victoria serves as a critical link between the people of Victoria and the emergency services agencies that they rely on in times of need. It is where the calls are received for 24 hours a day, and it is where cases are triaged and help is dispatched. This magnificent institution is located on Lakeside Drive in Burwood East, and the new structure will fund both the State Control Centre and Emergency Recovery Victoria, as well as Forest Fire Management Victoria’s role within the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. In addition to what is already a wide range of changes, the funding model for the CFA and FRV will be reformed.

Although I do not have a CFA in my electorate, the headquarters of the CFA are in my electorate. They are located not far from Triple Zero Victoria. I also got to visit that with the Minister for Emergency Services, where they have got a lot of training that is done there. All the CFA members can come from across the state, come back to that location and be upskilled in training so that they are best prepared when we need them the most. We had some vision goggles, where they put me in a fire situation where we were trying to put out an EV fire in a garage. We got the fire out, which was good. It was good to see technology that was created here in Victoria by Deakin University, obviously creating technology to train the next generation of our volunteers in making sure that they can help our state when we need it.

The transition to the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund will mean that the CFA’s budget will go from a fixed 77.5 per cent revenue to now receiving up to 95 per cent of its funding from the new levy. I remember as a candidate going out and visiting the Monash SES and George and his team, and George was on my back from the first moment he met me with regard to the fact that when we need them in a time of crisis they will be there. The issue is that then they have to go out themselves and shake the tin on the corners of streets and raise funds that way. I am happy that this bill will make sure that they do not have to do as much of that work. I am very happy with this bill being passed here today. This is in conjunction with the continuation of the existing $50 concession for veterans and pensioners. It means that this levy will be applied fairly while still meeting the intended objectives.

Victoria as a state is unfortunately very susceptible to natural disasters, including fires and floods, and this of course is exacerbated by climate change. I used to live out in Meredith when I was a young lad.

Michaela Settle interjected.

John MULLAHY: It is a wonderful place, member for Eureka. I remember we had a fire just up the back of our farm a couple of farms away. We dashed up there to give a hand, and it was just great to see the Meredith CFA there when we needed them the most.

I have got a few more things that I would like to say, but time is getting away. In thanking our hardworking emergency service staff and volunteers who are always there to keep us safe, our families and puppies alike, I urge the Victorian community to always stay vigilant and aware of any potential dangers. Your cooperation will help our emergency services to protect our community and keep us safe, including saving 000 calls for emergencies. I commend the bill to the house.

Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (12:58): I have a couple of quick observations on the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025. It is mutton dressed up as lamb. It is a tax dressed up as a levy. The primary producers of our great state are really copping it from the behind. I have been here for a while now, and it is interesting to observe the number of members that are successful in winning a popularity contest in their respective districts who have experience with firefighting and those sorts of things. For the new member for Werribee, there are quite a few more of us that have actually been on the fire front and put the wet stuff on the red stuff too, mate. You have got people here that leave the politics behind when doing that. It is the same for my old mate from Frankston. We put that down and set our swords aside and protect our great state.

Significantly, there is a lack of transparency and honesty in relation to the intended outcomes of this bill. I have heard in the house, watching it on the telly downstairs, the number of people that have said that this is going to return $250 million to new equipment and blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you, it is going to raise in the next three years –

The ACTING SPEAKER (Wayne Farnham): Member for Benambra, it is now time to break for lunch.

Sitting suspended 1:00 pm until 2:02 pm.

Business interrupted under standing orders.