On May 15, 2025, Legalise Cannabis Victoria decided to support a Bill to establish the Emergency Services and Volunteer Funding Levy. This decision comes as the state faces challenges brought on by climate change, which have put significant pressure on emergency services.
There have been two recent parliamentary inquiries into government responses to extreme weather and climate change, both showing a clear need for more funding to deal with increasing disasters like floods, fires, and storms.
While we initially had some concerns about the new levy, negotiations between the government and crossbench members secured some changes to the legislation. These include:
- A guarantee that the government will allocate funds towards Emergency Services and audit and report figures annually.
- Exemption from the levy for farmers in drought-declared areas for as long as they remain drought-declared.
- A new drought relief package next financial year for drought-impacted farmers.
- Guaranteed minimum underwriting of 95 per cent of SES and CFA budgets.
- $250 million in additional support for the CFA and SES volunteers.
- Rebate for CFA and VICSES volunteers and life members (fitting broader eligibility definition).
- Changes to the impost on local councils in collecting levies.
The fund will raise approximately $600 million per year, with about 73 per cent of that amount being paid by metropolitan Melbourne ratepayers. This makes sense, as about three-quarters of Victoria’s population live in the greater Melbourne area. Regional ratepayers will cover the remaining 27 per cent.
If there are anomalies in individual levies, e.g. some farmers having to pay a higher amount for reasons unrelated to the value of the property, the government should investigate and consider them in any future changes to the levy.
Read David Ettershank’s speech on the bill here.
