Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis won’t rule out further ESL increase to cover cost of Pinery fire

THERE are fears that the Pinery fires will mean another rise in the Emergency Services Levy. But the Treasurer has yet to allay those fears.

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TREASURER Tom Koutsantonis won’t rule out a further Emergency Services Levy increase to cover the cost of the Pinery fire but says no decision will be made until the middle of next year.

The State Government announced in May it would raise the ESL to $285.7 million — an increase of $19.8 million — almost half of which was to pay for January’s Sampson Flat bushfire.

But the damage from last week’s deadly Pinery blaze, which killed Allan Tiller and Janet Hughes and destroyed 87 homes and other buildings, has already surpassed the devastation experienced earlier this year.

Family First MP Rob Brokenshire has written to Mr Koutsantonis calling on him not to raise the ESL to pay for the disaster, as he did after the Sampson Flat fire.

He said a parliamentary committee earlier this year was told the government had changed its policy so that any major bushfire would be funded from money raised through the ESL.

“This government needs to realise it has to budget for extraordinary fire events rather than

putting its hands in people’s pockets for a ‘once off’ tax grab every time we have a major

bushfire and the budget falls short,” Mr Brokenshire said.

“We are only at the beginning of this fire season and by all estimations the work and budgets

of our emergency services are stretched again before the summer has truly begun.”

Family First MLC Robert Brokenshire

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis.

Mr Koutsantonis on Thursday told Parliament neither increases nor decreases in the ESL could be ruled out.

“This government never rules anything in or out, it never has. In fact, Mr Speaker, I don’t rule out a decrease in the ESL,” he said.

Mr Koutsantonis said any change in the rate of the ESL would be made in the Budget next year, after information had been submitted to Parliament’s Economic and Finance Committee.

The ESL is determined by calculating the total cost of services and equipment required, and then spreading it across landholders in a way that leads people with expensive properties to pay more.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said another ESL hike would “show once again how little this State Government values volunteers”.

“Increasing the ESL yet again would add insult to injury to the people who found themselves caught up in the terror and heartache of the Pinery bushfire,” he said.

The Australian Government Mobile Service Centre, which helps people lodge applications for disaster recovery payments, will be based at the Hamley Bridge Institute on Gilbert St today and this weekend from 9am to 5pm.

There have been 558 emergency grants totalling $312,190 awarded to victims of the Pinery fire, while the State Emergency Relief Fund has received 1701 donations totalling $1,277,273.53.

That figure includes the State Government’s $1 million donation.