The Nationals Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland MP, has renewed her calls for rate relief for residents impacted by the Longwood bushfire, warning the Allan Labor Government’s latest round of recovery grants looks like a rushed, election-timed response to underspend in previously announced programs.
The grants, worth up to $75,000 for community groups and not-for-profit organisations, close for applications on 31 August 2026.
Ms Cleeland said the strict eligibility criteria and the timing of the deadline pointed to a program built around underspend and the election cycle, rather than the actual needs of the community.
“My information is that this round of grants has been rushed out because of underspend on programs already announced, with an application deadline that conveniently lines up with the election,” Ms Cleeland said.
“That is not recovery planning. That is politics.”
Ms Cleeland said what the region most critically needed was not another tightly conditioned grant round, but genuine rate relief for residents still rebuilding after the January bushfires.
“The Treasurer stood in the Seymour recovery centre and told affected residents rate relief would be delivered. Months on, we are still waiting,” Ms Cleeland said.
Ms Cleeland said more than 15 per cent of total ratepayers across the Strathbogie Shire were bushfire-impacted, and without genuine relief many faced years of rate bills on properties they were still rebuilding. Three years of rate relief and the waiving of the Emergency Services Tax for those properties is estimated to cost less than $6 million over three years.
“This is a modest ask, less than $6 million over three years, for a Shire where more than 15 per cent of ratepayers were directly affected by the fires,” Ms Cleeland said.
“The Allan Labor Government found the money to rush out a grant round timed for an election. It can find this small amount of funding for rate relief.
“Strathbogie Shire can currently only offer deferrals, because of rate capping. A deferral is not relief, it is debt,” Ms Cleeland said. “Families who have lost everything should not be expected to pay rates for years to come on top of everything else they are carrying.”
“This is not a new or unreasonable request. It is the precedent set after previous disasters in Towong and East Gippsland,” she said.
“If we do not receive three years of rate relief, we will have localities that cannot rebuild and businesses that never reopen,” Ms Cleeland said.
“The very least this Labor Government can do is honour what its own Treasurer promised in Seymour, instead of rushing out grants timed for an election.”
