Vol. No. Vol. 2718No. 4427
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Wednesday, January 13, 2025 2016 Wednesday, May 14,
ANNIVERSARY SHOWCASE: A cast of 70 is mid-way through its run of Horsham Arts Council’s The Last 10 Years, which features songs from 16 shows including Annie, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, The Wedding Singer and Rock of Ages. The Last 10 Years is a celebration of the council’s 60th anniversary and a showcase of songs from the past 10 years’ staged and COVID-19-cancelled shows, tailored to suit the whole family. Ebony Hart, Marni Saunders, Kayla Wilson, Brittany Bates and Lara Schmidt are pictured during Forget About the Boy, part of the Broadway Showcase. More pictures, page 21. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
Tax protest pressure O
BY LAUREN HENRY
pponents of the State Government’s new Emergency Services Volunteer Fund hope their growing protests in the past week will result in the proposal being scrapped.
Hundreds of farmers, Country Fire Authority volunteers, councillors and Coalition MPs joined forces at protests at Parliament on Friday and yesterday, and at Premier Jacinta Allan’s Bendigo office on Friday, to voice their opposition to government’s proposal to replace the Fire Services Property Levy from July 1. Accompanied by CFA trucks and
private firefighting units, the protestors, with signs, chanted ‘Scrap the tax’ on the steps of Parliament. The new ESV fund will be collected via council rates notices – Wimmera councils estimate at least an extra $16-million will leave the region through the new tax. The ESV fund will put a total of $1.6-billion into the State Government coffers, which Labor claims is required to fund VICSES, Triple Zero Victoria, Forest Fire Management Victoria, Country Fire Authority and Fire Rescue Victoria. While volunteers will be eligible for an exemption rebate, it is understood
the refunded amount will be minimal. A bill to introduce the new fund was passed in the lower house of Parliament in April, but failed to pass the upper house. The bill was then due to come before the upper house yesterday, but Labor pushed back the date of debate until tomorrow, Thursday, with many saying it was an indication that Labor did not have enough of the crossbenchers’ votes to pass the legislation. Wimmera farmer Andrew Weidemann helped organise yesterday’s rally, which featured speakers Liberal leader Brad Battin, Nationals Victoria leader Danny O’Brien, Victorian
Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking, United Firefighter Union secretary Peter Marshall, farmer and BlazeAid founder Kevin Butler and Member for Lowan Emma Kealy. “It’s not just farmers who are being impacted here – certainly an increase of around 189 per cent for farmers is just insane, but every asset owner, every house owner, anybody who owns a commercial building structure, et cetera, will all be impacted with a doubling of their current fire services levy rates,” Mr Weidemann said. “There’ll be a continuation of further protests should they vote it in.” Horsham Mayor Ian Ross said the
council was ‘deeply concerned’ about the ESV fund, joining fellow Regional Councils Victoria councils in opposition. Cr Ross said the change in funding models would hurt the Horsham municipality more than most regional cities due to the high proportion of farming land in its total property base. The levy will raise an additional $3.26-million from Horsham ratepayers – an increase of more than 84 per cent. He said the increased levy was ‘a staggering impost’ at a time when cost-of-living pressures were already weighing heavily on the community. Continued page 3
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