Murrindindi Shire Council has welcomed the State Government\u2019s announcement to cap the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund levy for primary production properties at 2024\u201325 levels for the next financial year.
\u201cThe cap offers much-needed short-term relief for farmers facing the worst drought conditions in over a decade, and follows strong, coordinated advocacy from farmers, local communities, Council, and industry bodies,\u201d said Mayor Cr Damian Gallagher (pictured).
\u201cThis is a positive step and a direct result of rural voices coming together.
\u201cWe thank the Treasurer for listening, but a one-year cap won\u2019t fix a system that continues to impact residents, hurts commercial and industrial property owners, and remains deeply unfair to many primary producers, especially those managing multiple land titles.\u201d
Farmers across Murrindindi are dealing with escalating freight costs, feed shortages, and water scarcity.
Many have had to destock or euthanise animals due to poor conditions and limited options. The emotional toll is growing, with the wellbeing of farming families under increasing pressure.
Murrindindi Council has also welcomed the formation of the State Government\u2019s Drought Response Taskforce, which will advise on drought relief measures for farmers, businesses and rural communities.
Cr Gallagher, representing Murrindindi on the Hume Region Local Government Network, has joined other mayors in putting forward a clear case for further action.
The group\u2019s advocacy includes calls for:
n A drought declaration to unlock Disaster Recovery Funding;
n Emergency funding for water cartage and feed;
n Permanent abolition of the ESVF levy;
n Local delivery of mental health support;
n Relief for those already impacted by issued levy notices;
n Action on freight and fodder price gouging by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
\u201cSupporting emergency services and supporting rural communities shouldn\u2019t be a trade-off,\u201d Cr Gallagher said.
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to work alongside our community and regional partners to push for a fairer, more durable approach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Murrindindi Shire Council has welcomed the State Government\u2019s announcement to cap the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund levy for primary production properties at 2024\u201325 levels for the next financial year.\u201cThe cap offers much-needed short-term relief for farmers facing the worst drought conditions in over a decade, and follows strong, coordinated advocacy from farmers, local communities,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-council-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9437,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9434\/revisions\/9437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}