What the 2024 Victorian budget means for farmers

The budget has been handed down. We break down all the figures you need to know, including how much more farmers will be paying for the fire services protection levy.

The Victorian budget for 2024-25 has been handed down. We break down all the figures you need to know below.

Victorians will be slugged an extra 23 per cent in Fire Services property levies in 2024-25

This week’s state budget shows the government will lift the amount it collects in FSPL by $186 million, from $847m to $1.033 billion.

The funding will be used to cover the explosion in costs of Fire Rescue Victoria and its United Firefighters Union employees.

For the average farmer it mean the FSPL payments on their new financial year rates’ bill will rise from $450 to $600, businesses from $665 to $738 and households from $156 to $191.

Soaring rural property values means a farmer with a $5m farm will pay 28.7 cents per $1000 of their property’s capital improved value, which equates to $1435, while a similar sized business in town will pay $3320.

The FSPL hike is just one of the many tax hike the Victorian Government has imposed to deal with a debt that has blown out to $135.8 billion this financial year and is still expected to reach $187 billion by 2028.

Payroll tax rates will remain unchanged, but the government expects to rake in an extra $1.087 billion, bringing the total collected from employers in 2024-25 to $9.071 billion.

Meanwhile the budget documents have exposed just how neglected Victoria’s regional roads have become,

In past years the government has resurfaced about 11 million square meters of the state’s regional roads.

But this year’s budget states just 343,000 square meters of regional roads were resurfaced in 2023-24 – equivalent to about 50km of road.

The situation is unlikely to improve much in 2024-25, with the government setting a resurfacing target of just 3.163m square meters.

Resurfacing is critical to waterproofing regional roads, whereby contractors used a spray-seal treatment of bitumen and aggregate to cover the surface, preventing water penetrating cracks and undermining road foundations.

As previously reported, Victorian road contractors have told The Weekly Times road resurfacing had almost ground to a halt this year.

The budget has also revealed the CFA and Forest Fire Management Victoria’s ability to fight future bushfires has been further eroded by the loss of level three incident controllers, with the number declining to just 66 today.

TIGHT STATE BUDGET

Spending on regional infrastructure has been downsized for the new financial year with Victoria’s Treasurer warning of challenging economic times.

Tim Pallas handed down his tenth budget in Melbourne this week, the first since Jacinta Allan was elevated to the premiership last year.

In his speech to the state parliament, Mr Pallas reflected on a decade of spending in regional health, education and transport.

But only a few new regional projects were outlined including $117 million for rural health with Latrobe Regional Hospital singled out for special mention.

Aged care in rural areas received a $28 million package; $11 million for Priority Primary Care Centres and $10 million for mental health care with a focus on regional youth.

“Regional Victoria matters to this government. Since first taking office, we have announced more than $45 billion of funding into the hospitals, TAFEs, schools, roads and rail that country communities need.”

Mr Pallas used several comparisons to the Baillieu-Napthine government in his speech, touching on one of the most controversial areas of regional spending policy- road maintenance.

“This year’s budget will spend $964 million to maintain our state’s road network this coming year alone- including extra funding to clean up the damage from flooding,” the Treasurer said.

“This is nearly double the average annual spend of $493 million between 2010 and 2014.”

Highlighted projects from the regional roads package included an upgrade of the Princes Highway between Melbourne’s eastern boundary and the Latrobe Valley as well as upgrades to the Dimboola Bridge and Dadswell Bridge.

A nine figure package for regional rail was outlined with $133 million set to be spent in 2024-25, with an upgrade of the 150-year-old Geelong rail tunnel singled out as a top cash recipient.

More than $100 million will be spent on rail freight maintenance- although no specific project was given priority in the cash pool.

A further $41 million will be spent on improving VLine services to regional locations- including running additional services on the long-haul Warrnambool and Echuca lines.

Regional bus services operating around Leongatha and Yarram will received refreshed funding next financial year year, as will the Portarlington ferry service.

ANALYSIS:

In the Garden State, the Victorian budget regularly blooms before the federal equivalent has had an opportunity to flower.

You get a taste of the economic times from the language the Spring Street number-cruncher chooses to use.

When the fiscal bull is bucking, phrases like ‘record investment’ and ‘strengthening infrastructure’ beef-up the May parliamentary rhetoric.

Such was he case when former premier Dan Andrews was in power in the pre-pandemic days when he was oft to say he was “getting things done for Victoria” in contrast to the perceived vacillating of the Baillieu years.

But now in his tenth budget, Tim Pallas has been at the helm of the 2010s boom, the coronavirus stimulus years and now the belt-tightening 2020s.

His speech was littered with talk that reflected the bear market: ‘responsible’ then ‘restraint’ with ‘disciplined’ and ‘sensible’ also getting a work out.

Big metro projects like the Melbourne Airport rail were placed firmly on the back burner, big hospital projects promised at the election were scaled back.

With the most controversial of regional issues- road funding- there was talk of what has been achieved in budgets past, with only some talk of the future funds for flood-ravaged roads.

But like his predecessors before- Canberra got the biggest whack from Mr Pallas.

He claimed federal governments past and present had not delivered their fair share of revenue to Victorians during his decade at the Spring Street treasury.

Fortunately for Mr Pallas, it’s only seven days until the federal budget flowers.