DEBATE on the Emergency Services Volunteers Fund (ESVF) bill was adjourned at the end of the upper house's final sitting day before parliament's five-week recess, having faced widespread criticism from the opposition and cross benches. The bill was passed in the lower house on 20 March. Members for Northern Victoria Gaelle Broad and Rikki-Lee Tyrrell also criticised the bill, with Ms Tyrrell telling parliament that there had been a 'troubling' lack of community engagement before tabling the bill, while Ms Broad said the bill was 'mutton dressed up as lamb'. "The government wants everyone to think it is to support our emergency service volunteers, but it is just another tax," Ms Broad said. "Farmers are facing escalating costs already, very dry conditions, particularly in northern Victoria, and this is the last thing they want to see on the horizon." Liberal leader in the Legislative Council David Davis said the bill was a 'big new' tax introduced by a government which had run out of money. "We strongly support our emergency services, we strongly believe they should be funded properly," Mr Davis said. "But the state government should have been making proper provision for them all the way through." Amid calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the bill, Mr Davis outlined three amendments proposed by the opposition, the first being the limiting of spending to only those agencies funded under the current legislation and the SES. The opposition also wants assurances the levy would not fund any other public service and that it is subjected to better reporting. "We want to see what is collected from farming land, what is collected from housing and what is collected from industrial land," Mr Davis said. "We also want to know how much is collected out of the particular municipalities; and the amounts distributed to each funding recipient from the revenue raised from the levy in the financial year. "We want to see where the money comes from and where the money goes. "We are happy to work to scope those. VFF president Brett Hosking also said the peak farming group was welcome to consultation. “Our message to the government couldn’t be clearer," Mr Hosking said. "Talk to us, consult with us and work collaboratively to get ideas that actually work. "Don’t risk taking a sledgehammer to the livelihoods of hard-working Victorian famers."
