The belated release of the 2024-25 CFA Annual Report confirms what everyone already knew: Labor has cut funding to the CFA.
Grant funding to the CFA is $55 million less since 2020 after taking four years of inflation into account.
Over the past week, Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Emergency Services, Vicki Ward, have continuously misled Victorians over this overdue report and their mismanagement of the CFA.
Today’s annual report reaffirms funding cuts to the CFA in the 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years, despite the Premier repeatedly claiming her government “has only ever increased funding to the CFA”. Incredibly, the Government is now using the same line item (grant income) in the 2024/25 report to claim a $22 million increase in funding. Victorians should be clear on the facts:
- The “funding increase” is just $10 million more than the CFA received in 2020-21. Just to keep pace with inflation, it should have risen to $416 million.
- Funding was topped up by $20.3 million to cover costs of the Grampians and Little Desert fires (as reported at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings in November).
- The CFA is now running a $50 million deficit.
- Spending on internal IT consultants and contractors rose $16 million.
- Funding for PPE and equipment fell $8.3 million.
- Spending on volunteer compensation and insurance fell nearly $14 million.
While spending on volunteer firefighters has fallen dramatically, Premier Allan is currently seeking to hire a new spin-doctor for the CFA on a salary of up to $430,000 a year.
As a consequence of Labor’s waste and reckless spending, Victoria’s net debt is growing by $1.7 million an hour and is expected to reach a record $192.6 billion by 2028-29.
Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Minister for Emergency Services, Danny O’Brien, said: “The report shows that Jacinta Allan has cut the CFA’s funding by $55 million in real terms since 2020.
“Under Labor, the number of CFA volunteers continues to decline because they are not being appropriately supported by this tired, out-of-touch government.
“Instead of giving CFA volunteers the resources they deserve, Labor is more interested in hiring a $430,000 a year spin doctor to explain away and cover-up their own mismanagement.
“Labor cannot manage money, cannot manage the CFA and Victorians are paying the price.”
