Thursday, 7 April 2022

Bushfire preparedness

Mr McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (17:03): (6328) My adjournment is to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, and the action that I seek is that the minister come to the Ovens Valley and inspect a recent planned burn in the Warby Ranges. I have met with Marty Hogan, whose property borders the Warbies, and Mr Hogan has confirmed that on the Labour Day long weekend, Sunday, 13 March, a fuel reduction burn was ignited in the Warby Ranges near Wangaratta. The burn did not achieve any meaningful fuel reduction outcomes, and it is clear that the short-term change in fuel load is negligible. In the medium to long term there will be increased fuel fire hazard. Furthermore, the burn destroyed thousands of old large live and dead trees. Significant irreparable environmental damage was caused by this planned burn in a site of national significance. Whilst the stated goal of the burn is to control fuel risk, there has been a failure. We respectfully invite you to urgently tour this site with us. Our objective is to try and ensure that this totally avoidable outcome does not happen again, and I appeal to the minister to visit the Warbies with me to look at these outcomes.