$616m emergency services levy hike: just $50m for volunteers

“It should be called the emergency services and public sector wages fund,” says CFA volunteers chief Adam Barnett.

The bulk of an extra $616 million the government collects towards its Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund will go to paying public servants, not volunteers.

CFA firefighters have accused the Allan Government of using a $616m hike in fire services property levies to fund public servants, with just $50m of the extra revenue supporting emergency service volunteers.

The government has rebadged the FSPL as the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, increasing the amount collected from $1.033bn this financial year to $1.649bn in 2025-26.

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said the new ESVF would not only be used to fund the CFA and FRV, but for the first time VICSES, Triple Zero Victoria, the State Control Centre, Emergency Management Victoria, Emergency Recovery Victoria and Forest Fire Management Victoria.

CFA volunteers, including Merino group officer Wayne Munro, said the government was doing nothing more than slugging farmers and hard-working people with higher taxes “because they can’t afford to pay their public servants”.

“As a volunteer I’m extremely disappointed,” Mr Munro said. “As a farmer I’m pissed.”

The variable levy rate for primary producers will lift from 28.7c per $1000 of a property’s capital improved value in 2024-25 to 83c/$1000 of CIV in 2025-26 – an almost three-fold increase.

It means farmer contributions will jump from $76m this financial year to $204m in 2025-26.

2024-25 Fire Services Property Levy versus 2025-26 Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund charge.

The Weekly Times analysis shows the average primary producer’s year-on-year FSPL payment will rise from $2525 to $6805, based on there being 30,000 farmers in Victoria.

But the government has tried to downplay the impact on farmers, releasing its own analysis that the “median liability” on primary producers would rise from just $621 to $1299.

However Ms Symes failed to explain the government’s median calculation was based on 163,000 primary production assessments, not the actual number of farms, which massively distorted the impact given most farms are made up of multiple assessments.

Ms Symes said the extra funding was going towards a package of measures that would “make sure our hardworking emergency services have what they need to keep Victorians safe – with a massive funding boost for new trucks, equipment and technology”.

Yet outgoing Treasurer Tim Pallas released a budget update on Friday that showed just 8 per cent of the extra $616m the government intends to collect will go to volunteers.

The update states that just $50m a year of the new tax take would be spent “supporting our emergency services and volunteers”.

Ms Symes said $70m would be spent establishing a rolling fleet replacement program for VICSES and the CFA, plus $62m for equipment, as part of a $250m package, but failed to mention the funding was spread over four years.

Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria chief executive Adam Barnett said the CFA would gain about $21m per annum under the announcement, “a far cry from the $250m announced.”

Mr Barnett said the CFA would gain an extra $10m to replace old trucks, on top of the $10m in base funding it already allocates - well short of the $55m a year needed to replace its 1925 heavy vehicles on a 20-year rotation.

He said 80 per cent of the new $1.65bn fund would not be going to volunteer bodies, but instead to paying the costs of running EMV, FFMVic and other government agencies.

“It should be called the Emergency Services and public sector wages fund,” Mr Barnett said.

Danny O’Brien.

Victorian Nationals leader Danny O’Brien said: “It’s hard to comprehend why Labor needs to expand a tax to cover agencies that have always been core government business such as Triple Zero Victoria and EMV.”

“This is again Victorians being asked to pay the price for financial incompetence and regional Victorians in particular are being asked to pay double for their emergency services.”

Ms Symes also announced active CFA and VICSES volunteers would be eligible for an exemption from paying the ESVF on their primary place of residence.

But farmer and Lake Goldsmith CFA volunteer David George said the exemption would only apply to one of his six assessments, which was “a drop in the ocean”, given his levy bill would jump from $7000 to more than $20,000.

People living in towns and cities will also pay more towards the ESVF with the residential variable rate rising 98 per cent. Businesses will pay an additional 100 per cent and major industrial users will pay an extra 64 per cent.

The hefty levy hikes imposed on farmers and other businesses sit in stark contrast to the public benefit rate the government has applied to solar, wind and battery developments.

Renewable developers contributions will rise by just 0.1 per cent in 2025-26, as the government only charges them the public benefit rate of 5.7c/$1000 CIV.

The latest levy hike comes only three months after the government raised the FSPL rate for farmers by 70 per cent, from 16.9c/$1000 in 2023-24 to $28.7c/$1000 of CIV.

All up the latest hike equates to an almost 400 per cent increase over two years.

The Weekly Times reported earlier this month that the state government had stripped the CFA of almost $70m to fund other emergency agencies.

Under the new body, the ESVF will now fund up to 95 per cent of the CFA’s budget, up from 77.5 per cent under the FSPL.