Tuesday, 1 April 2025

Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:13): (870) My question today is for the Treasurer. The new emergency services and volunteers levy is becoming more and more of a concern for farming communities in Northern Victoria. They feel unfairly targeted by the huge hike in the levy they will be forced to pay. Imagine their outrage when they discovered that large-scale solar and wind energy facilities have been classified into the lower rate category of ‘public benefit’. Can the Treasurer explain to the farmers of regional Victoria why large-scale solar and wind are being favoured over primary producers?

Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Treasurer, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Regional Development) (12:13): I thank Mrs Tyrrell for her question and for mentioning the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, which is a really important initiative about supporting our hardworking volunteers, whether they are responding to fire, floods or a range of other emergencies. You mentioned farmers. Obviously regional Victoria is one of the most fire-prone areas in the world. They are regularly afflicted by storms and floods as well. They are becoming more and more frequent and more and more severe, and part of our policy settings is about ensuring that we respond to those demands. The Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund is all about making sure there is sustainable funding for equipment and making sure that our services are supported to ensure that they can train, recruit and respond as they do. When it comes to the average farm, the increase that is proposed – and that will obviously be subject to the Parliament’s consideration of the legislation – is around $13 a week. This is a levy as a percentage of operating costs of an average farm. It turns out to be very, very small. The average increase in liability from the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund for 2025–‍26 is equivalent to 0.5 to 0.8 per cent of the value of agricultural production.

We know that farmers are very regularly the ones that are hit the hardest by fire in particular. As a former emergency services minister, having visited lots of farms in relation to their impact, I know that being able to rely on this service is something that I really want to stand behind.

We will always back farmers. There are a range of other measures that we take into account. We have slashed payroll tax for regional businesses, which obviously includes our primary producers. It is the lowest in the country. We also have exempted primary production land from land tax, so there are a range of other measures that go to supporting farmers, not to mention that farmers under 35 have exemptions or concessions on their stamp duty if they purchase a farm. What we want to be firm about is that when disasters happen – and they have a huge impact on regional Victoria – we are in the best position to support not only recovery but resilience and future mitigation.