Farmers and firefighters protest Victoria’s new fire levy

Hear from those on the ground at Parliament House protesting the Victorian fire services levy.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, we've come here to Melbourne today to protest because we've been, yeah, stabbed in the back.

00:05The government has literally done a backflip on us and we're now paying to fight our own fires.

00:12They're just ripping off farmers, left, right and centre, and we can't afford it.

00:16We're in a drought situation. It's just an unfair tax that we've been put on a burden to all farmers.

00:22Oh, look, it's just totally ridiculous, really. It should be scrapped.

00:25We're the guys that put the fires out. We've got to apply a fire levy tax and they're encroaching it to a ridiculous amount.

00:34And I think it proves today how many people are upset about it.

00:38Volunteer CFA, a very large percentage are farmers and farmers are hit with the highest rate increase of tax.

00:47That tax will be felt by everybody because they'll have to put their prices up.

00:51These members put their heart and soul on many, many hours for free and there's no remuneration at all.

01:00And they are offering a discount for firefighting or volunteer members, 5% I think, which is, it's a joke, it's an insult.

01:13This has to go. It's grossly unfair. It's legal theft. That's about all it is.

01:21You're the best.

01:29You're gonna be together.