Rural Victorians and volunteer firefighters descended on Melbourne, demanding Jacinta Allan’s government scrap a controversial new levy they say will cripple them.  

I’ve covered plenty of protests in Melbourne, but this one felt different. The crowd wasn’t the usual activists — it was farmers in battered work boots, CFA volunteers in weathered yellow jackets, and locals from towns like Mansfield and Minhamite who’d driven hours to be here. Their message was blunt: the Allan government’s new "fire services levy" isn’t just a tax — it’s a betrayal.  

“Does [Jacinta Allan] want to get out and hold our hoses? Because she might have to — there won’t be any of us left,” one firefighter snarled, summing up the rage. The levy, pushed through parliament in a late-night deal with the Greens last week, hikes costs for farmers by up to 189%.

Mansfield Shire Mayor Steve Rabie was among those fuming. “They have not engaged with local government ... it’s just unfair,” he said. “My message to Jacinta Allan? We don’t want to collect this tax.”  

The mood was raw. A fifth-generation farmer from Karimba told me his family’s levy would jump from $5,000 to $15,000. “We’re in drought, and now this? School camps, groceries — what do we cut?” Another volunteer, a 60-year CFA veteran, scoffed: “Who taxes a volunteer? We run toward fires while everyone else flees.”  

City folks might think this isn’t their problem, but the crowd had a warning. “When your fridge is empty because farmers go broke, you’ll get it.”

The government insists it’s not a new tax — just a pre-budget “levy.” But as CFA trucks blocked Flinders Street, the crowd wasn’t buying it. “She’s full of shit,” a farmer yelled. “Call it what you want — it’s a tax.”  

By afternoon, the protest’s symbol was literal: a bag of fresh cow dung dumped outside parliament. “A shit tax from a shit government,” a protester noted.  

Allan’s Bendigo base might want to listen. As one local put it: “If she keeps this up, she’ll lose her seat. And good riddance.”

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