This is the date and time that this news article was published.
The new Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund is unfair and places an unreasonable tax burden on regional Victorians.
And in applying this tax the Victorian Government is turning Councils into tax collection agencies and hurting regional Victorians.
It is unfair.
When CFA volunteers hang up their uniforms and say enough is enough, you know there’s a problem.
Regional people volunteer in regional fire services and carry out their own fundraising.
The new tax is cost-shifting, it’s unreasonable and there has to be a fairer way of funding a service that is as essential as any other emergency service.
Some of the bills that primary producers will receive for this revised version of the fire services levy will be astronomical.
Added to the burden of battling drought conditions, this will impose considerable hardship on many farmers.
It will rip a further $60 million from the 10 regional Victorian cities alone, with the 2025-2026 cost to residents of the fund projected to be almost $176 million, a 50 per cent increase on the $116.5 million paid in 2024-2025.
The impact on rural and regional shires is even more devastating.
Over recent decades we have seen Councils asked to contribute more to services that used to be entirely or mostly funded by the Victorian Government: libraries, school crossings, maternal and child health services, kindergarten infrastructure, waste services and environmental protection.
The response by CFA volunteers sends a message that the Victorian Government has over-reached when it comes to cost-shifting.
Ben Blain
Mayor
Warrnambool City Council.