For many in the bush, this issue is no longer just about a tax.
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It has become about respect.
For generations, CFA volunteers, farming families and regional communities have stood up when Victoria needed them most. They have left dinner tables, family events, jobs and farms to protect neighbours, livestock, homes and entire towns often at great personal cost.
They never asked for applause. They certainly never expected to be taxed for it.
Yet that is exactly how many people across country Victoria now feel about the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund.
The anger in the bush is real. Raw. Personal.
And 12 months after the historic brigade offline protests that swept across Victoria, that resentment has not faded. It has hardened.
In sheds, brigade stations, main streets and community halls, people still talk about the moment volunteers felt they had finally been pushed too far. The memory of brigades going offline in protest was not political theatre, it was a warning from communities that felt ignored, disrespected and taken for granted.
What cuts especially deep for many volunteers is the Victorian Government’s decision to include the word ‘Volunteer’ in the title of the tax itself.
To those in the city, it may have sounded harmless.
But in the bush, many saw it as deeply insulting.
Because volunteers know what volunteering actually means.
It means missing birthdays and Christmas lunches because the pager goes off. It means sleeping in trucks during campaign fires.
It means exhausted farmers leaving their own properties at risk to save someone else’s. It means communities fundraising for equipment while paying increasing levies and charges.
To then attach the word ‘Volunteer’ to a tax many see as unfair felt, to many, like a slap in the face.
Especially when questions continue to grow about where the money is actually going.
Regional Victorians are asking why billions can be collected while ageing tankers remain on the road, stations still need upgrades, and volunteers continue raising money locally for basic operational needs.
The recent Bushfire Parliamentary Inquiry and public hearings only intensified those concerns. Volunteers and communities again raised serious issues around resourcing, preparedness and support concerns many say they have been voicing for years.
And yet, across the bush, there remains a growing sense that the people making the decisions are not listening.
That frustration is now turning into political resolve.
The ESVF has become far bigger than a funding debate. It has become symbolic of a widening divide between regional Victoria and a government many in the bush believe no longer understands them.
People are angry not because they oppose properly funding emergency services. In fact, regional communities overwhelmingly support strong emergency services.
What they oppose is being treated as an endless source of revenue while the volunteers carrying the burden feel increasingly unsupported.
The Allan Government may hope the anger fades.
But the mood in the bush suggests otherwise.
Twelve months on from the historic brigade stand-downs, the resentment remains deeply personal for many volunteers, farming families and regional communities. In fact, many would argue it has only intensified as questions continue about transparency, resourcing and whether those making the decisions truly understand the burden being carried on the ground.
What began as anger over a tax has evolved into something much larger a growing political movement across regional Victoria driven by people who feel ignored, dismissed and taken for granted.
And unlike the daily political cycle in Melbourne, the bush does not move on quickly.
Country communities remember who stood beside them during difficult times. They remember who listened. And they remember who didn’t.
Around brigade stations, football clubs, stockyards, pubs and kitchen tables, the conversation is no longer just about the ESVF itself. It is about trust, respect and whether regional Victorians still have a genuine voice in decisions that directly affect their communities.
That sentiment is now hardening into political resolve.
Many volunteers and rural communities are making it clear that this issue will follow the government all the way to the ballot box.
Not because regional Victorians oppose properly funding emergency services, they overwhelmingly support it, but because they believe the current approach unfairly burdens the very people already giving their time, their energy and in many cases their livelihoods to protect Victoria.
The determination to repeal the ESVF is growing stronger, not weaker.
And as the next election approaches, the government may discover that the political consequences of losing the trust of the bush are far greater than it anticipated.
Because in country Victoria, memories are long.
And when communities that have spent generations protecting this state feel disrespected, they do not simply forget.
— Leigh Harry
CFA Volunteers Group