I was Victoria’s Environment Minister in 2005 when a fire burnt much of Wilsons Promontory. The fire was the result of a fuel reduction burn which ESCAPED ten days after initial ignition as a result of warm and windy weather. The risks are REAL.
As Environment Minister I don’t recall ever being influenced (or lobbied) by environmentalists, greens or whatever to stop fuel reduction burns.
The Royal Commission did recommend a rolling target of 5 per cent of public land (390,000 hectares) be treated for fuel reduction but also acknowledged that it is risky and available only in limited time frames.
However the Age has ignored the reports of Neil Comrie appointed by the LIBERAL/NP GOVERNMENT in 2011 as Bushfire RC Implementation Monitor. Comrie recommended that the 390,000 hectare target be replaced by a risk based approach focused on the protection of life and property.
The risk based approach has been further endorsed by the Report of the Inspector General for Emergency Management in 2015 which recommended that a risk based approach is MORE EFFECTIVE than a hectare based target. DELWP has adopted this recommendation but the Age ignores it.
In 2019, DELWP treated 130,000 hectares of public land through planned burning. In 2014, the last year of the Napthine LIBERAL/NP government, just 82,022 hectares was burnt. BUT IT WAS NOT THEIR FAULT. Weather (in that case a wet Autumn) intervened.
So when the Age says that a federal effort to conduct more controlled burns will “shame” the states into stronger action. Just what will the Feds do? Burn when it is unsafe? Or perhaps do something about reducing the risks from climate change.
