Bushfire preparedness
Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:23): (238) My question is for the Minister for Environment. Minister, last week in question time the Minister for Emergency Services said:
We work hand in glove with Minister Stitt’s area of responsibility in Forest Fire Management Victoria in relation to preparedness for emergencies. That work is always ongoing, and I can point you to many activities around the state.
Minister, in relation to those activities, what is the percentage of backburning targets for this current year that have been met in areas that were affected by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (12:24): I thank Ms Lovell for her question. It is an important issue and something I know that the team within DEECA in the forest fire management area are really focused on, as you would expect. I would also like to acknowledge the incredible work that they do across the state in conjunction with our other emergency services agencies in Ms Symes’s portfolio. We are one of the most bushfire-prone places on the planet, so this is a key focus for them. As you may be aware, Ms Lovell, there is a risk-based approach that is taken to bushfire risk and fuel load, and when it is safe and effective to undertake those fuel management programs across the public land estate and of course on private land and roadsides, it is a really important tool to address bushfire risk.
I can report that in the 2022–23 period over 92,000 hectares were treated through fuel management, and this included 234 planned burns, treating just under 76,000 hectares, and almost 17,000 hectares of mechanical fuel treatment, and 462 hectares have already been treated this financial year, including 18 planned burns. In June 2022 the interim statewide risk figure was published in my department’s annual report, and the risk figure was 62 per cent, which is well below the 70 per cent statewide target for risk.
Of course we know that we have had three years of La Niña weather patterns, and it is looking increasingly likely that we are going to be moving into a much drier period, and the Bureau of Meteorology will obviously be close to declaring whether or not we are going to be returning to an El Niño condition in the second half of this year. We are actively monitoring the seasonal outlook, and we are going to be continuing to ensure that those preparations are rolled out across the state based on the science, world-leading modelling, which I have just had the opportunity to be briefed on. It is quite impressive what our FFMVic teams can actually now predict in terms of bushfire behaviour in a changing climate. I want to commend them for their work, and I look forward to providing more details as they become available.
Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:27): Minister, on Friday on Melbourne’s 3AW the former mayor of Murrindindi shire and member of the Black Saturday stakeholder reference group Lyn Gunter said that fuel loads are massive and there has been no burning around towns in the area that was so significantly impacted in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. Minister, is she wrong?
The PRESIDENT: I am kind of stuck on if that is asking for an opinion. Ms Lovell, do you want to rephrase it?
Wendy LOVELL: Minister, why have you failed these communities?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (12:28): I have already taken the house through some of the statistics that actually go to the very question that Ms Lovell is trying to get at, and that is: has there been adequate preparedness in the lead-up to this particular bushfire season? This is a dynamic situation across the state, and it is a risk-based approach that FFMVic and indeed those other agencies, like the CFA, will take. I am very confident that the skills and expertise of our FFMVic personnel in all parts of our state are such that they will take an approach that keeps communities safe. We will never be able to stop bushfires in our state from occurring, but what we can do is make sure that if there is a bushfire there are the appropriate resources in place to address the risk to communities and to our public assets.