While hundreds rallied in Bendigo demanding answers on the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund, Jane Foreman says the Allan government owes Victorians a full, independent account of where the money is actually going — and that means opening the books on FRV’s costs.
The Parliamentary Budget Office report confirms what Victorians already suspected: we are now the most highly taxed residents in the country for emergency services, paying $221 per person per year — $44 above the national average. That is the result of a 44 per cent surge in revenue under the new Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund (ESVF).
Family First’s Jane Foreman stands in solidarity with the hundreds of CFA volunteers, farmers and regional Victorians who descended on Bendigo — Premier Allan’s own hometown — yesterday to demand the ESVF be axed. Their anger is legitimate and it is backed by the numbers.
The government insists every dollar raised by the ESVF goes to emergency services. Family First does not dispute that claim in principle. But it raises a question the government has not answered: how much of this levy is funding the wages and industrial outcomes of Fire Rescue Victoria — and what has the government’s management of that workforce actually cost?
Fire Rescue Victoria was created in 2020, born directly out of an industrial dispute between the Andrews government and the United Firefighters’ Union. The UFU’s enterprise bargaining negotiations with FRV became so protracted that by 2023 the union was forced to seek an Intractable Bargaining Declaration before the Fair Work Commission — a process that has still not concluded. Under the ESVF legislation, up to 87.5 per cent of FRV’s annual budget will be drawn from the levy. Victorians are entitled to know what that budget pays for
“Victorians are not just paying more — they are paying the highest emergency services levy in the country, with ageing trucks, a workforce mired in unresolved industrial conflict, and no independent scrutiny of how the money is spent. That is not acceptable.”
The government froze variable rate increases in December — claiming it needed more time to “get processes right” — yet it had no hesitation passing a levy that will collect $6.55 billion over four years. Treasurer Symes has written to CFA volunteers to assure them the money will be well spent. Assurances are not audits.
Family First is calling for an independent audit of the ESVF’s cost base — including FRV’s wage structure, enterprise bargaining outcomes, and workforce costs — before any further increases are imposed. Victorians are being asked to fund a blank cheque. We refuse to co-sign it
“The people in Bendigo yesterday are not extremists or anti-volunteer. They are Victorians who fought fires for free, paid their levies, and have now been told to pay again — and more. They deserve answers, not spin. Family First will demand a full independent audit of the ESVF, and we will oppose any further levy increases until that audit is complete and publicly reported.”
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