Ashleigh Fagan, Secretary of Cobden Country Fire Authority, has been volunteering for 45 years. His father, as of next month, will have volunteered 70 years of service to Cobden CFA, and his grandfather was a foundational member of the brigade. All up, according to Mr Fagan, their combined service is just short of 200 years.

“We’ve never asked for one cent from the government for doing that,” Ashleigh says. “It’s a real kick in the face when you get your rates notice and that’s on it.”

The Emergency Services Volunteer Fund (ESVF) has been in effect since 1st July 2025, and is set to fund 90% of Fire Rescue Victoria’s budget and 95% of the CFA’s budget and Victoria State Emergency Services budget.

Jacinta Ermacora is a Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Council, representing Western Victoria. According to a spokesperson from Ms Ermacora’s office, “every single dollar raised by the new ESVF will support our emergency services, helping them to keep communities safe year-round”.

The levy has seen a considerable increase in rates for different property types. Primary producers are one of the groups most affected, including those in the Barwon South West Region.

“It’s very cunningly worded, being an emergency services levy,” Ashleigh says. “It’s not a levy. It’s a tax.”

Under the new ESVF, farmers were set to pay a variable rate of 71.8 cents for every $1000 of their property’s Capital Improved Value. This is a 150 per cent increase from the variable rate of 2024-25, farmers paying 28.7 cents for every $1000.

For the 2025-26 financial year, primary production properties were capped at the 2024- 25 rate, as part of the Drought Package announced in May 2025.

“By capping the rate of the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund for primary production properties, we’re ensuring farmers can remain fully focused on their drought response and recovery,” Treasurer Jaclyn Symes said in May last year.

Katy Millard, Captain at Port Campbell Fire Brigade and Deputy Group Officer at the newly formed Apostles Group, recalls when and where she was at the time the levy was first introduced.

She had been volunteering, putting out a fire that had been going for five days. For those five days the fire had taken place, Katy had shown up to help extinguish it for four of them.

“When the fund came in, it was a bit of a slap in the face, for these people who are doing it tough, who volunteer their time,” Katy says.

For Katy, who runs a small beef farm, the levy was another compounding stressor for herself, particularly in the face of the drought.

“When there was a lot of talk about the Emergency Services Levy, it was at a really difficult time because we were in drought,” Katy says. “It came at a very bad time, emotions were high, people were stressed. It was the principle of being targeted for something that we’re doing for nothing, really.”

Katy says the stress primary producers are being subject to under the new levy is something The Labor Party won’t truly understand until they are in the position the farmers are in themselves.

“I think unless you come and walk the walk, unless you come and live a day in my life, as a farmer and a volunteer, you’re not going to truly understand now what you’ve asked me to do,” Katy says.

Under the ESVF, volunteers that are primary producers can apply for a rebate to their rates. This rebate is capped at farmland with a capital improved value (CIV) of $5 million. The maximum rebate available, where land is capped at $5 million, is $1710.

Katy received her first rates notice with the new levy recently and saw an “obvious increase” to her rates, something “much more than [she] expected.”

She is concerned about the application process for the rebate, particularly for volunteers that are “older and computer illiterate”. Applying for her own rebate took her “half an hour minimum”, and she is questioning what position this puts these volunteers in when they go to apply for their own rebates.

“A lot of volunteers who have been around, and are not digitally proficient, are going to really struggle to get their head around this rebate,” she says.

Katy is unsure “whether farmers want to spend that time… to sit down and actually apply for the rebate” given their time is “valuable on the farm”.

Whether all off the increased funding from the ESVF is truly going back to solely fund emergency services is something else Katy is still questioning.

“I’m still not confident that we’re going to see what happens at the other end, whether the Emergency Services Levy is actually going to the brigades,” she says.

Farmers say the deferral of the levy until 2026 and the rebates have offered little reprieve.

“Not compared to what farmers are outlaying,” Katy says.

“The bottom line is that it’s still there,” Ashleigh says. “Once the tax is introduced, it is very hard to get rid of it.”

This story is part of a project exploring regional Victoria and the issues farmers are facing. See the whole collection here.