Thursday, 2 May 2019

Bushfire preparedness

In reply to Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (20 March 2019)

Mr JENNINGS (South Eastern Metropolitan—Leader of the Government, Special Minister of State, Minister for Priority Precincts, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs):

RESPONSE TO SUBSTANTIVE QUESTION

2019-20 will see the continued delivery of a co-ordinated approach to bushfire risk management under the Andrews Labor Government’s Safer Together between communities and agencies.

Safer Together, the Government’s risk-based approach to bushfire management, sets a state-wide risk reduction target to maintain bushfire risk at or below 70 per cent.

Fuel management, including planned burning, is one avenue to achieve this target.

The number of hectares treated does not equate directly to the amount of bushfire risk reduced, as fuel management in some areas is more effective at reducing risk than in others.

FFMVic has programmed 205,000 hectares of planned burning and approximately 10,000 hectares non burn—mechanical works for 2018/19. I expect a similar area to be identified for fuel treatment during 2019/20.

RESPONSE TO SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION

To ensure planned burns are ready and safe for ignition operations, FFMVic invests significant time and resources in both planning and preparing burns before they are considered for ignition.

Detailed job planning was carried out for 248,000 hectares of planned burns and 274,000 hectares of planned burns had site preparation works carried out during 2017/18.

Once planned and prepared, burns only go ahead when conditions, including the weather and fuel conditions are suitable for it to be done safely.

2017 was Victoria’s sixth-warmest year on record and came with lower-than-average rainfall followed by a dry start to 2018.

Dry conditions across the state during February, March and much of April delayed the start of the 2018 autumn planned burning program, by about 5 weeks.

A constrained burning period was experienced late last autumn before the onset of cooler conditions in May. This resulted in limited planned burning opportunities across most areas.

As well as having committed to and paying for the planning and preparation of these burns, significant changes have occurred in the governments approach to fuel management, and the costs of these are included in the 2017/18 annual report, such as:

• Implementation of the Safer Together policy and the transition towards a risk-based approach to fuel management.

• Implementation of the Reducing Bushfire Risk policy, including roads and fire breaks to be maintained and updated for access for first attack—bushfire response.

• Improvement in engagement of stakeholders through roundtables and other forums.

• Provision of more equipment and vehicles to support field activities.

A risk-based approach also means FFMVic are planning and delivering an increasing number of complex burns closer to communities, which are very resource-intensive burns, and much smaller than remote country burns.