ESVF 12 months on: Victoria’s emergency services and volunteers deserv
Published on 13 February 2026
The Longwood Fire, and the fires that have burnt across the state this summer, serve as a timely reminder of how integral the state’s emergency services and volunteers are to life in Victoria.
The state of Victoria has endured dozens of fires that have burned through hundreds of thousands of hectares, killed thousands of animals, destroyed hundreds of homes and claimed one human life.
And while High Country burned, Victorians by the coast were subjected to extreme storms and flash flooding that trapped people in their caravans and washed cars out into the ocean.
Extreme weather events often leave those living in the state, particularly those living outside of Melbourne, at the mercy of nature.
Mayor Cr Steve Rabie, former 1st Lieutenant of the Barjarg CFA, credits Victoria’s emergency services and volunteers for making life in rural and remote areas of the sunburnt country possible.
“This summer, in Victoria, we’ve seen volunteer firefighters stand between walls of flames and the people of Victoria,” he said.
“We’ve seen the CFA, FFMVIC and the FRV coordinate a large-scale response against a complex and changing fire front while our emergency services and first responders worked to ensure the community remained safe.”
“This comes less than 12 months after CFA members across regional Victoria hung out their uniforms in protest, threatening to give up their positions as volunteer firefighters at the announcement of the ESVF.”
At the time of its announcement, the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund was set to drain an extra two million dollars from the Mansfield Shire economy with primary producers expected to be hit the hardest with the tax more than doubling from 28.7 cents per $1000 of their property’s capital improved value to 83 cents.
Though the state government has since given primary producers a two-year reprieve, when they put aside their protests and jumped into their private units and put on their CFA gear to fight the Longwood Fire, they did so with the threat of the ESVF hanging over their heads still.
“When it came to it, when the fire was burning through the state, who was it who stood between the fire and the community?”
“The volunteer firefighters of the CFA, many of them are primary producers. They put away their valid criticisms and their protests, they picked up their uniforms and they got to work. They stepped up for us when it mattered most.”
“They looked out for state of Victoria, now it’s time for the state of Victoria to look out for them. A two-year reprieve isn’t good enough, it just kicks the can down the road. We need this state government to scrap this unfair tax once and for all.
“It’s a drain on small rural economies that already have to contend with the impacts of regular natural disasters. It’s a burden on the heroes who head out in their aging tankers to fight fires and keep us safe.”
“2026 is an election year which means it’s time for the Victorian Government to show us they represent the Victorian people, or it’s time the Victorian people show them the door.”