General News
7 June, 2025
NOT OVER YET
Temporary reprieve fails to quell tax anger VOLUNTEER firefighters, farmers and community leaders have steeled themselves for a 12-month battle to have the State Government’s emergency services tax ditched. The Government on Friday gave farmers...
Temporary reprieve fails to quell tax anger
VOLUNTEER firefighters, farmers and community leaders have steeled themselves for a 12-month battle to have the State Government’s emergency services tax ditched.
The Government on Friday gave farmers a temporary reprieve from the 150 per cent tax hike, pegging their hit for a year to the old fire services levy.
But homeowners and businesses will still be slapped with a doubling of the tax from July 1 with the Government forcing local councils to be collection agents.
The reprieve has been linked to the Government extending drought relief packages across Victoria that now make Loddon farmers eligible for infrastructure grants.
Local farmers, however, say the greatest need during the current big dry is finding and paying for stock feed.
Loddon Shire last week called on the state’s 78 other municipalities to refuse collection of the tax that will rake in more than $600 million in its first year.
Fentons Creek Fire Brigade captain and farmer Brett Collins said the fight was not over.
Mr Collins and brigade members were among thousands of protesters on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne last month calling for the tax to be axed.
Victoria Farmers’ Federation president Brett Hosking said the reprieve was a start in dismantling the emergency services tax that disproportionately impacted primary producers. “I don’t think the Government will want this issue still hanging around in 12 months’ time and an election only a few months away.”
Ripon MP Martha Haylett, who voted in State Parliament for the new tax, said she would continue to take farmer concerns to Premier Jacinta Allan and Treasurer Jaclyn Symes. She claimed on Monday that the temporary reprieve had been achieved by the Government listening its rural MPs.
Ms Haylett said said the tax “has a disproportionate impact on farmers ... it is not fair”.
Loddon Mayor Dan Straub said councillors would continue to oppose a “land tax by stealth” on residents. “The Government must come to its senses and stop using country Victoria as a milking cow.”