Every career firefighter, paramedic and police officer in Victoria is legislatively required to be a member of the ESSS Defined Benefit Scheme. There is no opting out. No choosing a different fund. No voting with your feet.
That compulsion comes with an obligation. If the law forces you into a scheme, you are entitled to a scheme that keeps its promise.
We have launched a petition asking the Victorian Parliament to commission an independent review of the ESSS Defined Benefit Scheme, to make sure it delivers fair, transparent and accurate retirement outcomes for the people who have no choice but to rely on it.
Here is why.
A formula frozen in the 1980s
When ESSS was set up in the 1980s, the compulsory Superannuation Guarantee rate was just 3%, and the defined benefit formula was designed around that world.
Since then, the SG rate has quadrupled to 12%. Every other Australian with a standard accumulation account has benefited directly from that change, with more of their pay flowing into their retirement savings every single year.
ESSS Defined Benefit members haven't. The defined benefit multiplier hasn't moved.
This is not a new discovery. A review, informed by a submission to 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.
When you can't check the maths
There is a second problem, and in some ways it is more troubling.
Members have had to fight, sometimes for months, to get ESSSuper to correct miscalculated balances. In cases we are aware of, ESSSuper eventually admitted the member was right and substantially increased their recorded entitlement.
Think about what that means. If members can only get an accurate figure by challenging it themselves, how many others are sitting on wrong balances right now and simply don't know it?
This is not a complaint about individual disputes. It is a question about whether a scheme that thousands of Victorians are compelled to join is still fit for purpose, transparent, and independently verifiable. Right now, members are told a number. They are not shown how it was worked out in a way they can check.
What we're asking Parliament to do
The petition calls on the Victorian Parliament to take four concrete steps:
- 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 review, 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 if you believe
Sign this petition if you believe:
- Emergency services workers who are compelled by law to join ESSS deserve a scheme that has kept up with the times.
- Members shouldn't have to fight ESSSuper to get an accurate balance.
- A 2017 review warning of eroded benefits shouldn't still be gathering dust in 2026.
The people who run toward emergencies for a living shouldn't have to mount a campaign just to know their retirement is being calculated correctly.
Then share it with your crew, your station, your branch and your family. Every signature makes it harder for Parliament to look away.
