FULL HOUSE FOR FIRE MEETING
Member for Western Victoria Region, Bev McArthur MP opened a public meeting on fire prevention with a plea that Victoria introduce immediate strategies to mitigate fire risk.
The packed meeting at the Terang Civic Hall was attended by more than 200 people from across the state, and saw lively presentations and a lengthy question and answer session.
Guest speakers included: David Packham OAM, a former CSIRO research scientist; Cr Neil Trotter, the Mayor of Corangamite; Garvoc farmer Jill Porter, victim of the Ash Wednesday fires and now energy safety expert; Sally Commins, an experienced former part-time departmental firefighter from a mountain cattle farming family; and Robert Lowe Senior, an Indigenous elder of Peek Whurrong.
Topics discussed included fuel load reduction, roadside grazing, faulty electrical infrastructure, defending threatened property, indigenous land management practices, and practical lessons to be learnt from past failures and past successes.
The meeting was convened by Bev McArthur MP in conjunction with the Federal Member for Wannon, The Honourable Dan Tehan MP, and State Member for Polwarth, Richard Riordan MP.
A recording of the meeting is available on Bev McArthur MP’s Facebook page, where it was live-streamed.
Mrs McArthur also today strongly defended the Prime Minister's handling of the bushfire crisis, highlighting the remedies which exist at a state level: https://mailchi.mp/parliament.vic.gov.au/bushfires-lets-talk-practical-solutions-not-ideological-attacks
Quotes attributable to Bev McArthur MP:
“Exploring Australia’s east coast in 1770, Captain James Cook described the land as ‘a continent of smoke’ and said ‘we saw smoke by day or fires by night wherever we came’.”
“Unfortunately, today’s polarised political climate accompanied by a somewhat sensationalist media, Australians are being told today that this bushfire season is ‘unprecedented’.”
“There was a time when Victoria understood how to manage and utilise the land and its forests… and when rural Victorians were allowed to use common sense to manage the land we live on, rather than being regulated by inside-the-tram-tracks politicians and bureaucrats from Melbourne.”
“The message should be clear – fires have been and always will be a permanent part of Australia’s climate. While we can’t totally prevent them, we must introduce strategies to mitigate fire risk.”
A full version of Mrs McArthur’s introductory remarks can be found here.
Comments made by David Packham OAM:
“Even after 200 deaths, 2000 properties and a lengthy Royal Commission fuel management in Victoria increased only from the meagre 2% to 2.3%.”
“Two things happened the Earth’s atmospheric temperature increased by 1 degree over a hundred years yielding a calculated 3% increase in fire rate of spread and fire Intensity.”
“The fuels however have increased to ten times the Aboriginal managed level with an increase in rate of spread of ten times and one hundred times in Intensity, to account for 97% of the current fire rate of spread and Intensity.”
“We cannot control the weather or ignitions but we can control the fuel. Fuel reduction burning is the only effective path to making our bush healthy and safe again.”
24 January 2020
