Budget day fire tax rally: UFU and CFA firefighters join forces

Angry United Firefighters Union and CFA firefighters will gather outside parliament again next Tuesday to protest against the new emergency services tax, as the state budget is handed down.

Treasurer Jaclyn Symes (left) and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan will face an angry mob of firefighters outside Parliament as they deliver Tuesday’s budget.

Farmers and other CFA volunteers are preparing to join the powerful United Firefighters Union in a rally against the new emergency services tax at parliament on Tuesday, as Treasurer Jaclyn Symes delivers her first budget.

Rupanyup grain grower Andrew Weidemann, who helped co-ordinate a rally of 23 landholder groups on Tuesday this week, said he had told UFU secretary Peter Marshall “we’d be there”.

Parliament passed legislation to introduce the new tax last last night, paving the way for the government to collect $1.6 billion from all Victorians from July 1.

Mr Marshall said the tax was “a cynical ploy to disguise a gaping hole in next Tuesday’s budget”.

The government did make some minor amendments to its Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025 as it passed through parliament, including a 16 per cent reduction in the tax rate applied to farmland.

Rupanyup grain grower Andrew Weidemann said he had told UFU secretary Peter Marshall (pictured) “we’d be there”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

But the concession still means the tax take from Victorian primary producers will still rise from $76m this financial year, under the current Fires Services Property Levy, to $178m in 2025-26.

Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria chief executive Adam Barnett said “no one is jumping for joy over a 150 per cent tax hike instead of 189 per cent”.

Anger over the tax hike led about 46 brigades to notify fire communications command that they were taking their brigades off line, forcing calls to be diverted to other brigades.

“I hold the Allan Government responsible for treating the volunteer community with such disrespect they have had no choice but to take this sort of action”.

Ms Symes announced the government would also “provide partial rebates of the ESVF for farmers eligible for the infrastructure grants program in the Government’s drought support package”, across 24 local government areas.

But the Treasurer is yet to explain how the rebate would work, given the government had already promised a partial rebate on the tax for CFA and VicSES volunteers.

The bulk of the tax hike will be used to fund public servants working at the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Triple-0 Victoria, the State Control Centre, Emergency Recovery Victoria, Emergency Management Victoria, Emergency Alert Program, Forest Fire Management Victoria.

Just $50m has been earmarked to support volunteer organisations, such as the CFA and VicSES.

Treasurer Jaclyn said the Government would invest $110 million to deliver a rolling fleet replacement program for VicSES and the CFA – and now Fire Rescue Victoria.

Of that $110m, $40m will go towards FRV ruck replacement and Ms Symes has failed to detail how the remaining $70m is allocated.

As it stands the CFA has an ongoing capital allocation of $10m to $12m a year, to which the government has added another $10m from the new tax.

Mr Barnett said the CFA needed at least $55m a year to come anywhere near replacing its ageing fleet, the oldest in Australia.