‘Insult to farmers': Fireys and farmers descend on parliament to protest controversial levy
Rows of firetrucks were lined up on Spring St in front of Parliament House early on Tuesday morning in protest of the new levy. Signs and banners called for Premier Jacinta Allan to scrap the controversial tax ahead of the state budget, which will be handed down on Tuesday afternoon.
The Emergency Services Volunteer Fund (ESVF) levy is set to replace the existing Fire Services Levy that's attached to land rates in the state. The ESVF would increase the fees payable by farmers, many of whom are volunteer firefighters.
Money raised would go towards fire services, the state control centre, SES and triple-0, the government said.
Struggling farmers say they can't afford the tax increase, which opposition agriculture spokeswoman Emma Kealy said could be as high as 189 per cent.
Traffic was at a standstill as the firetrucks rang their sirens through the concrete streets, sharing words of support to other farmers and volunteers standing at the steps of Parliament House.
The protest began at 10am, with 3000 people expected to take to the streets, but dozens of firetrucks and CFA vehicles were already snaking around the streets of Melbourne before 9am as a crowd gathered at the steps.
Dressed in CFA uniforms and waving signs and banners, a sea of farmers and volunteer CFA members blocked off Spring St.
Protesters propped up bones of cows, sheep and other farm animals on the steps of parliament, while another dangled a plastic skeleton on the back of a vehicle.
Among the protesters were CFA members from Stradbroke, Glenaladale, the Grampians, Allambee, and Fish Creek, whose firetrucks crossed the West Gate Bridge shortly after 4am.
'Scrap the tax,' one sign read.
'We fight your fires and grow your food. Now we pay your debts too?' read another.
'Fight your own fires, Jacinta,' was written on the side of a firetruck.
'We quit,' another read.
Police lined up at the entrance of Parliament House as the sea of protesters marched the streets.
Two firefighters from the Region 17 Parade in the Grampians region, who did not wish to be named, told NewsWire that the CFA was 'struggling for volunteers at the moment', and the levy would only add further strain to the load.
'A lot of people … are that close to jumping ship as it is,' he said.
The Grampians firefighter urged Ms Allan to 'think hard about what (she's) doing'.
'(The Victorian government) can't do what (it's) doing,' he said. 'You're going to have a lot of people revolt within the communities here.'
The firefighter told NewsWire their region was already suffering through a 'massive drought', and the new tax was adding fuel to the fire.
'Our area (is) looking very dicey at the moment … because we haven't had very much rains there,' he said.
'(Farmers) don't need much to be pushed over the edge.'
Geoff Kendell, a farmer and former fire captain from Kerang who recently celebrated 50 years with the CFA, said the levy was an 'insult to farmers'.
'When there's a call-out, we stop everything we're doing, drop our tools and we go,' he said, adding the firefighters and volunteers 'put (their) lives on the line and the Labor government wants to go ahead and actually tax the living daylights out of us'.
'We're the guys that actually give the voluntary service and (the Premier) wants to tax absolute insides out of it,' he told NewsWire.
While the majority of protesters took to the streets of the city, there was also a march in Victoria's Gippsland region.
About half a dozen CFA firetrucks and between 250 to 300 people marched down Commercial Rd in Morwell about 11am – past the courthouse where Erin Patterson's triple-murder trial is being held.
Protesters chanted slogans including 'axe the tax' as they travelled down the street, taking advantage of a large media pack outside for the trial.
One protester told media they decided they might as well use the media presence in Morwell to voice their opposition to the government's emergency services levy.
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