2 days ago
Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly plots council revolt over Fire Services Levy, accuses Vic Premier of getting councils to ‘do her dirty work'
A local mayor from Melbourne's inner city is plotting a council revolt against the Allan government's controversial Emergency Services Levy.
The new levy has sparked outrage in regional communities, with critics claiming it will see some property owners pay 150 per cent more than under the previous fire services levy.
Property owners across the states will have to pay the levy through local council rates, and many regional councils are reluctant to collect the tax, worrying residents will simply refuse to pay.
They have been joined by Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly, who is backing a motion for his inner city council to stand up to the state government.
The motion, to be debated next week, seeks legal advice about whether the council can refuse to collect the tax or mount a legal challenge against it. It also calls for Yarra Council – which covers the inner city suburbs such as Richmond, Collingwood, and Fitzroy - to 'build a mass alliance' against the levy.
'We're trying to get a bit of a bandwagon here, so that the council to actually say to the government, no, we're not going to collect it,' Mr Jolly told 3AW on Tuesday, adding that he had recently spoken to the mayor of Hobsons Bay.
"Because… somebody needs to stand up to this Premier, and if it has to be me, well, we'll do it.'
The City of Yarra Mayor hit out at Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan over the levy, accusing the Labor leader of attempting to get local councils to 'do her dirty work for her'.
'I think this fire service levy is an absolute disgrace, but have some balls. If you're going to bring it in, collect it yourself,' he said.
Mr Jolly was previously elected as a Socialist Party councillor and ran as the Victorian Socialists' lead candidate in the 2018 state election.
However in 2024 the long-time Yarra councillor ran with a group of independents called 'Yarra for all' and has repeatedly taken aim at the woke policies of the previously Greens-dominated council.
Speaking to 3AW's Russell Howcroft and Ross Stevenson, Mayor Jolly said the new Emergency Services Levy would undo the work the current Yarra Council had done to reduce the cost of living for ratepayers.
'We've done all this great work in the last six months cleaning up from the greens, fixing up the council area, fixing up the budget, and having a rate bill that people can afford to pay, and they're messing up this work because we've now got to add to our rate bill the fire services levy fund,' he said.
'It's nothing to do with us. We're collecting it for them, and if we don't collect it, they're telling us that we have to pay them anyway.
'Your average person on the street is going to pick that up and go, 'Oh, that Stephen Jolly is full of nonsense. He's on 3AW banging on about how they turned the ship around, and here we have a rate spill bigger than we've ever received.
'And they're not going to read the small print that it's not us that's collecting it, it's for Jacinta.'
Mr Jolly added that combined with the government's other reforms, the Emergency Services Levy raised questions about what the Victorian Labor Party thought councils were for.
'They're making us collect their unpopular taxes. They're telling developers they don't have to pay developer contribution if the building build to rent,' he said.
'So what's the bloody point of councils at all? I mean, be done with it. Just cancel it if that's what you think.'
The Allan government has defended its new Emergency Services Levy by pointing out that all funds raised will be used to pay for the state's emergency services.
And on Monday, a government spokesperson told the Herald Sun that local councils had for years been collecting the previous fire services levy, which was introduced by the former Liberal government.
