The Allan Labor Government collected $191 million in extra fire levies from Victorians last financial year but only passed $72 million of it onto Fire Rescue Victoria and the Country Fire Authority.
Data published by the State Revenue Office shows Victorians paid $1.03 billion in Fire Services Property Levy in 2024/25, the first time the levy has collected more than a billion dollars.
But the fire services’ annual reports show only $72 million of this was passed on to the CFA ($22 million) and FRV ($50 million) in increased grant funding.
This followed three consecutive years prior where the CFA grants funding from government was actually cut.
Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Danny O’Brien, said this was further evidence of the Labor Government hitting Victorians with more taxes but failing to adequately fund our fire services.
“Labor likes to say that every cent of these levies goes towards funding our fire services. If that’s so, what happened to the $119 million that was raised but not passed onto the CFA and FRV?
“Labor can’t manage money and it seems levies paid by taxpayers are going to fill budget black holes, not supporting the CFA and FRV as they should.
“We saw three consecutive years of cuts to the CFA budget before a belated increase last year, but in real terms that was still a $55 million cut from 2020-21.
“Now under the new emergency services tax additional core government agencies have been brought under the new levy, meaning even more competition for our stretched fire services.
“Victorians are being unfairly slugged by a government that is desperate for cash to cover its own financial mismanagement. The Nationals and Liberals are committed to scrapping this tax and fairly funding our emergency services.”
