Fire levy explodes in Victorian State Budget: Firefighter wages blowout

United Firefighters Union deals to merge services and negotiate lucrative enterprise agreements come at a high cost to Victorians, Budget papers reveal.

Fire Rescue Victoria Commissioner Ken Block has played a key role in the merger of Victoria’s fire services. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

The Fire Services Property Levy that all Victorians pay on their rates notices is set to rise by $80 million to almost $800m within two years, to fund the skyrocketing cost of Victoria’s fire services.

Today’s Victorian Budget shows the Fire Services Bill on all homes, farms and other businesses will surge from the $718m collected this financial year to $770m in 2021-22, then $798m and $805m in consequent years.

The FSPL surge is being driven by a major blowout in the cost of running the CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria services, with Department of Justice and Regulation’s last annual report, showing it spent $1.25 billion on the services.

A breakdown of the allocations shows that in the 12 months to June 30 last year, the Andrews Government’s spending on the CFA had risen from $619m to $791m, while MFB spending has jumped from $417m to $462m.

The MFB was merged with the CFA’s career firefighters and 38 former integrated stations on July 1 last year, to form Fire Rescue Victoria, bringing all of them under a new enterprise agreement that delivers generous allowances and overtime.

Meanwhile the State Budget shows the Department of Justice and Community Safety has forecast further losses of CFA and SES operational volunteers, estimating it will finish 2020-21 with 34,478 members of both services.

That number compares to 37,854 in 2019-20.

Budget documents also show the department’s target of recruiting and training 96 level three incident controllers to oversee major bushfires has been lowered to just 70.

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