Bushfire preparedness
Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:37): (279) My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services. In both 2012–13 and 2014–15 there were over 235,000 hectares of fuel reduction burns in Victoria, but under your government’s Safer Together initiative it has dropped to under 100,000 hectares per annum – 40 per cent of what was being done. Minister, given your government has allowed fuel loads to build to record levels in recent years, do you concede that this is leading to more severe bushfires and putting emergency services and volunteer firefighters at greater risk?
The PRESIDENT: I am a bit concerned that is asking for an opinion. It is asking for an opinion, but I am happy for Mr Mulholland, if he would like to, to rephrase the question.
Evan MULHOLLAND: Minister, isn’t it a fact that fuel loads, having built to record levels, are leading to more severe bushfires and putting emergency services and volunteer firefighters at greater risk?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:39): I thank Mr Mulholland for his question, and his rephrased question asks me, effectively, what is putting our firefighters and our communities at risk. There are a range of things. First of all, planned burns are a matter for the Minister for Environment. Of course I have got a keen interest in this, but your second question was actually better. In relation to what is causing risk, our country, Australia, is one of the highest fire risk locations in the world. Climate change means – look at this week – we are going from fire to storm to flood. We are having emergency after emergency, and we have compounding issues. We have just come from three years of more wet conditions, which means generally that more things grow, and then we have moved recently to El Niño, which means that the dryer conditions are coming on quicker, and we expect that the growth will dry out much quicker. There are a range of environmental reasons that mean that our country and our state are at risk of fires, which is why we have been out for several weeks encouraging people and warning them that the season is early, that we are going to have a dry summer and that the danger is something you should respond to. (Time expired)
Ingrid Stitt: On a point of order, President, I just want to point out that the clock is not working.
The PRESIDENT: That did seem like a very short 3 minutes. I think the minister is comfortable with her response.
Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:41): Minister, with fewer controlled burns, resulting in massive fuel loads as a direct result of the lack of preventative action, what discussions have you had with the environment minister to deliver these basic requirements that will protect lives, property, emergency services workers and volunteer firefighters?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:41): I thank Mr Mulholland for his question, and it is a good question. These are conversations that I regularly have. Indeed we have a brand new emergency management commissioner, so he is very keen to get up to speed on these issues as well. Forest Fire Management Victoria are the ones that have seized every opportunity to conduct bushfire risk reduction activities on public land, including parts of the bushfire footprint from 2019–20. Of particular interest to me is the fact that, when we have been out saying that Gippsland is the highest risk component part of our state, I have been asking these questions in relation to the preparedness for Gippsland. Mr Mulholland might be interested in some of the information that I have been briefed on. Over the most recent summer and autumn period FFMVic Gippsland successfully delivered 42 planned burns totalling 36,000 hectares across the Gippsland region. This builds on 62,465 hectares of planned burning successfully delivered as part of the joint fuel management program in 2021. That is over 100,000 hectares of public land in Gippsland that has been directly treated with planned burnings over the last three years. This is a concerted effort to respond to the risk. This is also backed up by 658 kilometres of strategic fuel breaks. Any suggestion that the state –
The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Minister. I am confident this time that time has expired.