Mayoral Matters | May 16, 2025

Published on 16 May 2025

Part of my role as mayor is to advocate on behalf of our community. In the past month I have made numerous phone calls and written several letters to government officials and State Members of Parliament about two issues that are of utmost concern: the first being the Fire Services Property Amendment (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) Bill 2025.

I have called on Victorian Greens Leader Ellen Sandell to support a push to help stop the Bill, which will adversely affect farmers in our area.

The Bill will increase the cost of the Fire Services Property Levy for farmers by 109 per cent. Farmers are already struggling with the crippling cost of drought and everyday living. This amendment will see them paying up to three times the levy they paid this year, resulting in an enormous financial burden.

Under the Bill, the levy will be expanded to cover extra organisations, including Triple Zero Victoria and Emergency Management Victoria, which should be funded by the government and not by slugging property owners with additional charges.

In 2013, when the levy was first set up, the government consulted the community. This time, the government introduced the amendment without community consultation – we have been ignored.

My fellow councillors and I hope Ms Sandell will listen and support our concerns.

We want her to stand up for farmers – for all Victorians – and push for a fairer solution.

Our farmers certainly understand the importance of funding emergency services, particularly fire-fighting efforts. Many of our farmers double as volunteer firefighters and when needed, drop everything on their farm to help protect life and property – whether they are personally affected or not.

The rate exemption for emergency service volunteers might provide a discount for some, but that cost reduction is minimal when you look at the overall increase.

We are asking for a more equitable solution.

Many of our farmers played important roles in the December-January bushfires that decimated much of Grampians National Park and threatened Halls Gap.

This brings me to our second topic of advocacy: an urgent call for release and strengthening of business recovery support following the fires.

I have written to Natural Disaster Recovery Minister Vicki Ward to express council’s deep concern regarding both the delay in releasing the guidelines for the business support package announced in March and the adequacy of the package itself.

On Tuesday this week, we finally received the program guidelines and application process, so our businesses can start to access the promised $5000 in support.

We must also highlight that, while we acknowledge the intent behind the current package, the support measures fall significantly short of what is required to safeguard businesses and ensure long-term sustainability.  

We will continue to push for additional support for our affected businesses, which remain under huge strain.

We will hopefully receive a positive response to our above concerns soon and have further updates over the coming weeks.