A BIG increase in fuel reduction burning is a key part of the Victorian Government's $867 million response to the bushfire royal commission.
Also part of the government response is funding for 612 new career firefighters and 231 seasonal firefighters and new community bushfire warnings, Premier John Brumby announced today.In its final response to the royal commission report, the Government has accepted in full or in part 66 of the report's 67 recommendations, based on a combination of expert advice and feedback received from communities, Mr Brumby said.
He said the only recommendation not under consideration is one on retreat and resettlement.
On fuel reduction burns, he said he fully accepted the recommendation to achieve a target of five per cent of all public land.
"We'll build up to this progressively over a four-year period,'' he said, to reach 385,000 hectares.
"This is a huge commitment.''
Mr Brumby also said that instead of a fire services levy the government would move to a property-based arrangement.
He said the new property-based levy, starting in 2012, was "revenue-neutral'' and would have a built-in pensioner concession worth 50 per cent, as recommended by the commission.
The Victorian Farmers Federation praised the move, saying a decade-long VFF campaign to have the levy scrapped had delivered dividends for Victorian farmers.
“Farmers are extremely pleased with this commitment," Mr Broad said.
"This is a win for farmers and a win for all rural Victorians. The VFF has been at the forefront of a sustained and hard fought campaign to ditch this unfair tax and today we have been vindicated."
On powerlines, Mr Brumby said the government supported in part recommendations to upgrade and replace all powerlines, but not in full.
"The reality is the cost of doing that would be huge for Victoria,'' he said.
Mr Brumby committed $2 million to explore technologies to reduce fire risk and will identify most at-risk powerlines across the state.
"It's not possible to accept the whole of the commission's recommendation,'' he added.
Key features of the government's response include:
- hundreds more firefighters and a doubling, then tripling of fuel reduction burns
- more support for volunteer firefighters
- new fire mapping technology for faster and more accurate community warnings
- more funding to accelerate the roll-out of more Neighbourhood Safer Places
- a tougher maintenance regime for electricity businesses and high visibility arson operations
- agreement to replace the Fire Services Levy with a progressive property-based levy and improvements to planning controls in bushfire-prone areas
- a boost to community education and information about preparing for bushfires, including the introduction of bushfire education in the school curriculum.
Mr Brumby said new measures now announced by the government to address the threat of bushfires since the Black Saturday and Gippsland fires totalled $1.4 billion.
The Victorian Government’s $867.3 million package involves the following investments:
- Victoria’s Bushfire safety policy: $105.5 million to reform and further enhance Victoria’s warning systems, support for local councils in high bushfire risk areas to plan and prepare, new equipment grants for volunteer emergency services organisations, a new bushfire education curriculum in Victorian schools, more community education and information and support for vulnerable people in communities.
- Incident Management and Response: $120.9 million to drive further improvements in emergency and incident management including a new significant expansion of fire information systems using Australian-first fire mapping technology, more training for incident controllers, further upgrades to incident control centres, more joint fire agency training and a package of volunteer support initiatives including a new identification card.
- Fireground Response: $197.5 million for 342 new career CFA firefighters and 100 additional MFB firefighters, a new program to standardise the radio connections between the CFA and DSE to deliver quicker information to incident control centres, a new CFA program to identify and remediate communications black spots and improved aircraft despatch. This is in addition to 170 additional permanent DSE firefighters funded under the Land and Fuel Management package.
- Electricity Caused Fire: Implementation of new legislation to strengthen maintenance obligations of electricity businesses, new incentives to minimise fire starts caused by electricity distribution assets and enforce greater accountability for organisations operating powerlines with $2 million to be invested in a new Powerline Bushfire Safety Taskforce.
- Deliberately Lit Fires: A new high-visibility arson operation on high bushfire risk days will be deployed through Victoria Police’s new Operational Response Unit, with a further $2 million to Crimestoppers and to Victoria Police to gather information from the public about possible arsonists to further target police activity.
- Planning and Building: $28.5 million to better integrate building and planning in bushfire-risk areas, including new local policy solutions and changes to the requirements of vendors selling a home in a bushfire-risk area, an enhanced focus on vegetation management and an extension of the Government’s 10/30 rule for landowners.
- Land and Fuel Management: $403.8 million to meet a large-scale fuel reduction increase of 275,000 hectares of all public land over the next four years, rising to the 385,000-hectare target over the following two years, 170 new permanent DSE firefighting staff and 231 seasonal firefighters improve vegetation management as well as monitoring of the impacts of fires and fuel burning on the State’s biodiversity.
- Organisational Structure: $6.1 million to reform the organisational structure of Victoria’s firefighting agencies through the establishment of a new Fire Services Commissioner to sit over the top of the state’s three firefighting agencies as the most senior operational firefighter.
Mr Brumby said the government would prepare a full implementation plan for these reforms in coming weeks and be guided by emergency services agencies and departments about what steps could practically be taken ahead of the next bushfire season.
"The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission report is a catalyst for change that provides key recommendations to make our State safer from the threat of bushfires," Mr Brumby said.
"I am determined that this Royal Commission report is never allowed to gather dust. It is crucial that we grasp the opportunity now to make our State safer.
"Our Government will act swiftly and decisively. We are determined that the actions we take, in partnership with emergency services agencies, local government, businesses and communities, unite Victorians in one commitment to do all we can to protect human lives from bushfires."
Mr Brumby said the Government would also invest $1.1 million to appoint a monitor to oversee progress of government agencies and departments in implementing Royal Commission recommendations.
He also released the Government’s report bringing together all of the feedback received from the Victorian community in the weeks after the release of the Royal Commission report.
"I said when I established the Royal Commission that I wanted to leave no stone unturned in the examination of why the terrible events of Black Saturday and the Gippsland fires occurred, and why 173 people tragically died," Mr Brumby said.
"Since Black Saturday we have delivered significant new measures introduced to improve Victoria’s preparation for and response to future bushfires and funding for our fire and emergency services is triple what it was a decade ago.
"Across the State, there are signs of recovery. Schools and community halls are being rebuilt, sports clubs are getting back on their feet and our parks are sprouting new life again. We’ve made real progress but there is still more work to be done.
"Our Government believes it is vital that we take communities and emergency services with us to support new actions to make our State safer and that’s why we listened to the community before formulating our final response.
"Over 1500 people have attended more than 20 public meetings held across Victoria since the Royal Commission report was released. I thank members of the public who took the time to put forward their views on future directions to make Victoria as fire-safe and fire-ready as possible."
