Bushfire preparedness
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:30): (272) My question today is for the emergency services minister. The Age reported that Victoria’s aerial firefighting and waterbombing capability has significantly decreased. Documents from Emergency Management Victoria plus data from the National Aerial Firefighting Centre suggest that our capability for the state has fallen around 40,000 litres below last summer’s level. Emergency Management Victoria dispute this. They suggest that levels will remain around the same as they were last year, which we note was a La Niña wet weather season, even though we are now facing an increased risk of El Niño and an increased risk from climate change. Minister, how many litres of capacity do we have for this upcoming bushfire season?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:31): I thank Ms Copsey for her question and for giving me another opportunity, as well as the officials who have been out, to assure the Victorian community that reports of diminished aerial capacity are in fact false. Unfortunately it took a lot of time having to have the emergency management commissioner and the chief of CFA go out and correct misinformation. It is really disappointing when people are putting this information out there and taking up resources to try and respond to it. It was in Ballarat where I was talking to the chief about this exact issue.
Let me be very clear: there is no reduction in the number of firebombing aircraft in Victoria this year compared to last year and no reduction in waterbombing capacity. As I said, reports have been incorrect, and I am not sure what the motivation for this misinformation is, because anybody would know that misinformation such as this can cause anxiety, can cause stress. I just do not know why people would have that motivation in them. But just to reassure the chamber, I might repeat some of the comments from the officials. Acting emergency management commissioner Chris Stephenson said in response to ‘Do we have enough aircraft to fight fires?’:
Absolutely. We’ve got the same as we’ve had for the last few years …
Victoria remains well prepared for the high-risk period for fires. I want to echo his comments in that our aerial firefighting fleet comes online progressively across the state according to risk. They do play an important role. They are not the only equipment that deals with fire; obviously we have our on-the-ground experts as well. But I can assure you, Ms Copsey, those reports are incorrect and Victoria is well placed for the upcoming season in relation to the equipment and resources provided by the government.
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:33): I do note that my specific question was how many litres of capacity we have for this upcoming bushfire season. To go to my supplementary, there have also been reports that we have lost access to a Chinook helicopter for firefighting due to a contract dispute. New South Wales has started buying their own vehicles for firefighting rather than relying on contracting vehicles from elsewhere for this sort of reason. Will Victoria also now start buying its own vehicles for firefighting capacity?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:34): Ms Copsey, when it comes to the selection of the aircraft, I leave that to the experts, but for the 2022–23 summer season Victoria had 50 aircraft. Procurement for the final aircraft for this fleet is almost complete and will be finalised shortly. I go and have a look at the planes and the helicopters and get briefed on them, but I am certainly not well placed to choose which is the best aircraft to respond to the risk in Victoria. We also have a surge capacity of up to 100 aircraft that we can call on on a needs basis. It is pleasing that we have not had to call on the amount of reserves that we have. But our core fleet will be 50 this year, the same as it was last year, and there are more aircraft available around the state if needed. Hopefully they are not.