Today there are 125 incidents on the CFA's member website - and it is only mid-afternoon. Sure, a lot of that is building damage, however a lot are fires. And it is mid September. Please, make a plan, make it realistic, stick to it.

If you couple that with this: news.cfa.vic.gov.au/news/victori... - the prospects are not good.

Have you thought about making the rollers convex so that it self-centres?

@emv-alerts.sushifeed.org is going bonkers at the moment with the number of alerts of trees down and building damage, right across the state.

There is a shorter highlights video although the quality is a bit lower. youtu.be/-MYhMW7lTso?...

And the ABC have now updated their text to remove references to firefighters and replace with "staff" - but how much damage have they done in the meantime?

Given that the Fire Services Reform, which is into its 5th year, separated out paid firefighters into FRV and left the CFA as a volunteer only organisation, except for administrative and support staff, I'm confused as to where these paid firefighters are, and how they are disrupting operations.

And I realise I'm shouting into the void, but this bill should be renamed "The Budget Blackhole Top Up Fund Act". Let's have some truth in politics. Oh, did I mention that the creation of this bill contravenes the CFA Act 1958 Clause 6G?

What's more is that this levy doesn't even guarantee extra funding for the emergency services. It doesn't even fully meet current budgets, let alone have provisions for expanding that. It just shifts it from General Revenue to cover for the holes in the state budget.

A word on the woman in the foreground. Probably less than half my age, yet a Lieutenant, so highly regarded in her brigade. I know I can count on her on a fireground as she knows she can on me - not because of the helmet sticker. Because we both wear the CFA yellow. We look after our own.

The ESVF is a cynical use of the goodwill of the CFA volunteers to blind people to the fact that there is a budget shortfall and rather than fix that, they have carved out services that they think people won't complain about paying for into a levy (read TAX).

Why should we turnout to car accidents on public highways, often to stand there doing traffic direction, when that is the job of the paid Police? Washaways on VicRoads highways? That is their job. Rescue? That is SES. But CFA is expected to turn out every time.

The Premier stated that volunteers would still turnout. And we probably will, but with a lot of caveats. Why would we investigate a fire on public land when FFMV paid firies should be doing that?

It is galling that this government would use that against us. Farmers are being asked to pay more than 4 times what the general public does and still show up without pay, and often foregoing paid work, to fight fires. Fires that often start on government land.

The CFA membership is the old, the young, men and women, and is often a family affair. It is both the core and a representation of rural communities. We are part of the community and put our lives on the line to protect community. It seemed to be a surprise to Melbournians that we don't get paid