Thursday, 3 April 2025

Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. The Labor government’s new emergency services levy will see hardworking Victorians having their tax doubled and farmers hit with a 189 per cent tax increase. Rural Councils Victoria is calling on the government to ‘abandon this flawed levy’. Why won’t the Premier listen to Rural Councils Victoria and abandon this dog of a tax her government is imposing during a cost-of-living crisis?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:18): I am very pleased to receive a question from the member for Brighton, because I have been a bit worried about him. We have not heard much from him in question time over the last five weeks. We have not seen much of him at the dispatch box asking questions over the last five weeks, so I am very pleased to see the member for Brighton has got a question up in his question tactics committee. I am particularly pleased to answer this question and say just how wrong the member for Brighton is in terms of the claims he is making in his question about the emergency services levy.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Evelyn, you are warned, and I do not give warnings lightly.

Jacinta ALLAN: The member for Brighton had a lot to say in the way he characterised this levy. The way we characterise this levy is protecting homes, businesses and farms right across the state by backing in our hardworking emergency services, career and volunteer, by making sure that they have the resources they need to continue to keep our community safe. I also say this to the member for Brighton, who has had a lot to say about this levy – he quoted Rural Councils Victoria and their calls about this levy: the Liberal Party have not said what they would do with this levy. They are calling on the government to do all these things.

Members interjecting.

Jacinta ALLAN: No, but you have not said you would abandon this levy.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, under standing order 58, the Premier is required to be factual. We voted against the tax.

The SPEAKER: The Premier to continue.

Jacinta ALLAN: Let us be clear: the fire services levy that is in place right now and we are wanting to expand through these changes is what you opposed. That is what you introduced when you were in government, and it would leave emergency services like the SES without the support that they need. We think the SES deserve support. We have seen many members of the opposition go out there for the photo opportunity, standing there with the SES in their orange overalls. We want to do more than that; we want to back them. We want to back them because, you know what, those SES volunteers back us. They back us on the most dangerous of days; in windstorms and storms they back Victoria.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is required to be factual, and the fact of the matter is that the volunteers will actually have to pay the tax up-front.

The SPEAKER: Order! I am not countenancing points of order on facts. I made a ruling on facts yesterday. There is no point of order.

Jacinta ALLAN: The fact is this: the opposition has not said that they would scrap the fire services levy, because of course they introduced it. We are wanting to say to all emergency services: you deserve our support because you support Victorians every single day. It just demonstrates once again to Victorians that we cannot trust this opposition. We cannot trust this outfit to do what is needed to be done to support our emergency services.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (14:22): The Treasurer has said that this $2.1 billion tax hit is targeted at those who ‘can afford to pay more’. Why should any Victorians be asked to pay more because Labor cannot manage money?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:22): The member for Brighton is wrong because the purpose of this levy is to support the emergency services. Whether they are career members – like those career firefighters who turned up on Black Saturday, the ones that the Leader of the Opposition attacked – or whether they are the volunteers in the CFA or the volunteers in the SES, we are going to support them. Every dollar collected through this levy is going to go back into those emergency services, because when you consider it, whether it is storms, wind damage, fires or floods, they are supporting us.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is required to be factual. This government collects tax that goes to core government services.

The SPEAKER: The Premier has concluded her answer.