19 May 2026
Cleeland slams inadequate extension of bushfire waste levy exemption amid cleanup delays
The Nationals Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland MP, has condemned the Allan Labor Government’s decision to extend the bushfire waste levy exemption by just one month to June 30, saying fire-affected communities are being punished for the Emergency Recovery Victoria’s failed cleanup response.
Nearly five months after the January 2026 fires devastated parts of Victorian, just over 40 properties have been cleaned up under the Allan Labor Government’s program.
Ms Cleeland said the contrast with the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires was impossible to ignore, with hundreds of properties cleared in the same timeframe during that recovery effort, at rates of up to 60 properties per week.
She said the Allan Labor Government’s decision to run a two-tier cleanup system, excluding insured properties, had fundamentally undermined recovery efforts from the beginning.
“It has taken more than four months of relentless advocacy just to get a single extra month of free tip access, and even that extension is completely inadequate,” Ms Cleeland said.
“This is not a recovery response. This is the government going through the motions while our community continues to wait.”
“By the government’s own figures, this is one of the most dysfunctional cleanup responses ERV has ever delivered.”
“They delayed recovery themselves with a two-tier system that should never have existed, and now they are closing free tip access on communities still waiting for contractors to arrive. It is completely unacceptable.”
Ms Cleeland said the Allan Labor Government had previously demonstrated it knew how to deliver an effective recovery response but had chosen not to do so this time.
“After Black Summer, the government ran a universal cleanup program for insured and uninsured properties alike and cleared hundreds of sites in the same period that has now passed here,” she said.
“They knew how to do this. They chose not to. That is not just incompetence. That is a political decision to penny-pinch on the backs of people who have already lost everything.”
Ms Cleeland said many residents had been forced to manage dangerous cleanup works themselves because the ERV’s program was either too slow or excluded their properties altogether.
“People have been forced to clear dangerous debris themselves, paying out of pocket because ERV either excluded them or failed to reach them in time,” she said.
“And now the government wants to cut off the one small concession available to them, free tip disposal, after just five months.”
“If this government had any heart, they would extend this exemption to the end of the year without hesitation.”
Ms Cleeland is calling on the Allan Labor Government to extend the bushfire waste levy exemption until at least 31 December 2026.
“Recovery is not finished because Treasury wants to close the books on 30 June,” Ms Cleeland said.
“Recovery is finished when families are back in homes, businesses are operating again, and properties are finally cleared.”
“We are nowhere near that point. Extending this exemption to the end of the year is the very least this government can do after everything it has failed to deliver.”