February 1, 2020

This year, the Western Australian Government collected $405m from landowners via the Emergency Services Levy (ESL) that we all pay with our annual council rates. Despite the total number of paid staff (firefighters and administration combined) being less than 10% of the number of registered bush fire volunteers, more than half of the ESL ($233m) was spent on the professionals in employee benefits. Out of what’s left only $33m will go back to Local Governments