Will the Victorian Parliament commission an independent review of the ESSS Defined Benefit Scheme to ensure it delivers fair, transparent, and accurate retirement outcomes for the firefighters, paramedics, and police who are legally required to join it?

Why this matters

Every career firefighter, paramedic, and police officer in Victoria is legislatively required to be a member of the Emergency Services Superannuation Scheme (ESSS) Defined Benefit Scheme. They don't get a choice — but they're entitled to a scheme that keeps its promise.

When ESSS was set up in the 1980s, the compulsory Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rate was just 3%, and the defined benefit formula was designed around that. Since then, the SG rate has quadrupled to 12% — and every other Australian with a standard accumulation account has benefited from that change. ESSS members haven't. The defined benefit multiplier hasn't moved.

A report commissioned by the Emergency Services Federation back in 2017 already found the scheme's benefits had failed to keep pace and had become significantly eroded. Nine years on, nothing has changed.

On top of that, there are real concerns about accuracy. Members have had to fight, sometimes for months, to get ESSSuper to correct miscalculated balances — only for ESSSuper to eventually admit the member was right and substantially increase their recorded entitlement. If members can only get an accurate figure by challenging it themselves, how many others have wrong balances and don't know it?

This is not a complaint about individual disputes. It's about whether a scheme that thousands of Victorians are compelled to join is still fit for purpose, transparent, and independently verifiable.

What we're asking Parliament to do

Commission an independent review of the ESSS Defined Benefit Scheme, examining whether the current defined benefit formula remains appropriate given the fourfold increase in the compulsory SG rate since the scheme was designed.

Audit the accuracy and transparency of Minimum Requisite Benefit (MRB) calculations, so members can independently verify how their entitlement is worked out — not just be told a number.

Revisit the unimplemented recommendations of the 2017 Emergency Services Federation report, and report publicly on what action has (and hasn't) been taken.

Consider legislative reform to bring the scheme in line with modern superannuation standards, so emergency services workers get a retirement outcome that reflects their years of service and risk.

Sign this petition if you believe:

Emergency services workers who are compelled by law to join ESSS deserve a scheme that's kept up with the times.

Members shouldn't have to fight ESSSuper to get an accurate balance.

A 2017 report warning of eroded benefits shouldn't still be gathering dust in 2026.