RECOMMENDATIONS
David Packham:
“…Some of us have read enough pathologists reports of people who have died a horrible death through bushfires to know that this is completely beyond politics and ideology – we have to find a solution….”
· Fuel Load Reduction: Target required, must be set and met without fail:
“An overall target is useful for planning, quality control, transparency and efficiency purposes.”
“For the State of Victoria the experiential guidance provided by the "Sneeuwjagt curve" indicates that the minimum to achieve a tolerable fire occurrence would be 6% of the area of forests and National Parks burnt with low intensity prescribed burns.”
“The ideal burn program would amount to 12% p.a. which would extinguish the fire threat in Victoria and return "Victoria Felix" to a "healthy and safe" condition.”
· Local management of emergency response:
Local leadership and decision making in firefighting operations – total central control does not work in emergency circumstances. Local decision makers have greater understanding of their own area, and can respond more quickly to immediate unfolding circumstances. They are also highly motivated to defend their area.
· Accurate, timely, relevant weather information to be provided:
Essential in prevention of fire, in informing public’s decisions, and in emergency response. Weather information, especially wind change information should be publicly available by making the Bureau of Meteorology Fire Weather Forecasts available through the Bureau's website / a Fire Weather App.
· Better education for public land managers, etc.
“We do not have a forestry school in Australia – no real tertiary forestry education – “Scomo, this is one thing you can do if you’re going to help us fix this problem.”
Jill Porter:
“…Bushfires alter lives and livelihoods of families and communities forever. When the smoke clears, and the grass is green again, the long process of the recovery journey really only begins. Building a home, a business or a herd of cows takes a lifetime, or several lifetimes.”
“When we look at Victoria’s history we can see that over 80% of bushfire fatalities since the 1950s have occurred from power line started bushfires.”
“In 2009 Black Saturday 6 of the 11 fires were caused by electrical assets. Of the 173 people who died, 159 were directly related to power line started fires.”
· Fix Energy Safe Victoria – implement 2009 Royal Commission recommendations fully:
Requires total overhaul of the current regulator – Energy Safe Victoria.
“There is no accountability or transparency of government and ESV. ESV that’s our state safety regulator the one that was identified back in 2009 as a weak regulator. Today it continues to lack independence, it functions as a truly captured regulator. It has a lack of technical capacity, it has poor technical skills and electrical skills, it has a lack of good governance and it has a continued reliance on data sought from the network business, from Powercor, from Ausnet.”
· Change the lack of incentive to avoid burns:
Need to correct the lack of incentive for power providers to avoid burns.
“Currently there is no incentive for the network distributors to do the right thing. There is little to no cost to a company like Powercor when they start a fire. When their assets get burned they apply to the AER and get a cost pass through to replace them. A cost pass through means it gets passed through to our electricity bills. So we pay to replace their burnt infrastructure. Or if we say “you need to pay for what we’ve lost” and then ends up a legal battle, their insurance company steps in. What then happens is the insurance company raises their premium.”
· Involve communities in decisions:
“The State Government, DWELP and ESV continue to be disengaged from communities like ours, and we are the communities that are most affected by bushfires. We stand to lose or gain the most from bushfire mitigation. Our local knowledge, our expertise, our values and our expectations have not been valued, And there has been no meaningful consultation. True community involvement would allow the contribution of all stakeholders rather than at the moment the current uneven playing field of predominantly just the network businesses.”
Sally Commins:
“If, as records estimate, as few as three or four hundred thousand Aboriginal people with no resources or machinery were regularly able to burn much of southern Australia in safety and create a magnificent landscape, then surely with the resources we have available today it is possible to reduce fuel loads.”
· Fuel load reduction: Reverse ban on mountain cattle graziers:
Arguing the benefits of cattle grazing in the High Country, she showed striking pictures from 2003, from the family’s grazing lease at Nunniong, which demonstrated the ferocity of the fire in the area, and the devastating environmental disruption and huge losses of wildlife it brought.
But she noted: “the area where our cattle grazed was untouched. As a result we lost no cattle in the mountains and the area where they grazed provided a sanctuary for other fleeing animals.”
“The problem we have today is that Government land management authorities are not adapting to Australian conditions.” “Burning is now not permitted… it used to be done by the graziers themselves, without heavy equipment.”
Robert Lowe Sr:
“Our ancestors taught us, when you light a fire in the middle of the summer there’s going to be a big explosion… And we’ve seen that. We’ve seen that in the fires around the state this year.”
“We can control our own destiny by having controlled burns.”
· Fuel load reduction – reintroduction of traditional land management:
“We learnt from our ancestors …. My grandfather, my aunties…how to do controlled burning... it’s a legacy we hold, but it’s a legacy that got lost somewhere along the line.”
“I can always remember my Grandfather always used to round up all the young fellows on the Mission station and we’d follow him down to the river side of the river and we’d watch and learn.
And all he would have was a box of matches and a hessian sack and he would burn the majority of that river in one day. And all he had to do was control that fire with a wet … and we learnt. And when we got a bit older we used to do the same with the help and the guidance of my grandfather and my aunties. And we’d do controlled burns around the forest, and not once did those burns get away.”
“What our ancestors left us was a legacy we never forget… can’t teach my son or grandsons, because the government has taken away our rights. My uncle was actually charged for arson for controlled burning on the mission station we were raised on…. Because our rights are gone…
“Somewhere someone’s got to make that choice, and the only people who can make that choice is the government…”
Cr Neil Trotter:
“Overregulation has lessened the community’s ability to be resilient.”
“Our roadsides have become unfit for purpose…”
“The community will hold us to account if we do not make safety and the preservation of life and property a much higher priority.”
· Fuel load reduction: Roadside Grazing – Urgently reconsider Government priorities on native vegetation protections.
Shire has Introduced $1 permits for roadside grazing. Allow and encourage, is the council approach. “..but there are a number of controls and regulations by state government that limits our capacity to do so.”
“Restrictions on classification of native vegetation and grasses… make permitting a bureaucratic nightmare. It has become too hard to negotiate council and government regulation. As a consequence it is safer to do nothing.”
[n.b. this legislation is:
· State:
o Victorian Planning Provisions, Clause 52.17
o Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (Vic)
· Federal:
o Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act)
Q&A Session:
· All levels of Government to facilitate roadside grazing, by changing or relaxing the implementation of existing legislation protecting native vegetation, which is currently an almost insurmountable obstacle.
Richard Beggs, of Glenthompson, called for a show on hands in support of roadside grazing. Of the 200+ audience, only two opposed it.