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Government called to act on fires reportThe Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, has called on the State Government to implement the findings of the bushfires inquiry to minimise Gippsland’s exposure to fire risk in the coming summer. By Kevin Balshaw - 12th September 2008 - Back to News The Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, has called on the State Government to implement the findings of the bushfires inquiry to minimise Gippsland’s exposure to fire risk in the coming summer.
In Parliament, Mr Davis said the report of the parliamentary inquiry into the bushfires of 2003 and 2006–07 established the inadequacy of public land management had contributed to the impact of the fires.
He said the current prescribed burning program, with a target of 130,000 hectares a year, fell far short of what was needed to mitigate the risk and impact of bushfires.
The inquiry recommended the area of protective forest burns be increased threefold to 385,000 hectares a year.
"In ordinary circumstances, the Government would have six months from the handing down of the inquiry’s report in June to provide a substantive response to the report," Mr Davis said.
"But the deadline will take us into the summer, and the situation – as the committee’s findings underlined – demands urgent action.
"We have seen 2.25 million hectares of the state devastated in major fires in a period of just three years, and the risk remains with us while the present public land management practices remain in place."
Mr Davis said the current 100–year rotation of fuel reduction burning on public land was clearly inadequate to provide proper management and the most effective protection against wildfire.
"The head of the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Peter Harris, has acknowledged shortcomings with current management practice," he said.
"The department is in the process of holding meetings to outline its burning program and seek public input, but we now have a comprehensive report setting out what needs to be done to mitigate the fire risk and it is time for action.
"The committee has done an excellent job in defining the salient lessons to be learnt from the Victorian fires – that the answer is regular controlled burning, and more of it than is the current practice."
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: kevin.balshaw@parliament.vic.gov.au
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