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Bushfires inquiry upholds Gippsland concerns

A state parliamentary inquiry’s finding that more controlled burning would reduce the impact of bushfires has justified long-held country community and Opposition concerns at the failure of public land management in Victoria.

By Kevin Balshaw - 26th June 2008 - Back to News

A state parliamentary inquiry’s finding that more controlled burning would reduce the impact of bushfires has justified long-held country community and Opposition concerns at the failure of public land management in Victoria.

The Environment and Natural Resources Committee, on which Labor Government members hold a majority, has recommended the area of controlled burning be increased more than threefold to 385,000 hectares.

The Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, said the committee’s report, tabled this morning [June 26], attributed much of the devastation of the 2003 and 2006–07 summer alpine bushfires to an inadequate level of prescribed burning on public land.

He said the committee also confirmed a belief widely held in Gippsland that damage from the Gippsland floods late last June was considerably aggravated as a result of the bushfires having removed much of the high country vegetation.

"Now that the verdict is in," Mr Davis said, "the challenge is for Premier Brumby and the Government to accept it and act on it.

"The report reflects the concerns and interests of the Gippsland and high country communities and I see no reason for the Government to stand in defiance of its findings."

Mr Davis said the report mirrored longstanding Liberal Party policy on public land management, in which he had played a major hand.

He said Liberal policy supported more extensive controlled burning of forested areas to mitigate the risk and impact of bushfires, high country cattle grazing, the maintenance of vehicle tracks to ensure access to remote areas, and a cost sharing arrangement for the replacement of farm fences adjoining public land.

"The committee has found positively on all counts and I welcome its report as a major contribution towards better public land management and the mitigation of the kind of natural disasters that have caused such devastation in Gippsland in the past 18 months," Mr Davis said.

"I am sure the Gippsland community will be heartened at the tenor of the report and there will be a strong expectation that the Government will accept and act on its findings.

"The level of public interest in the issues covered by the inquiry is evident in that the committee received close to 1000 submissions representing an extensive range of community interests."

The committee’s report has recommended:

-- A significant increase in the level of subscribed burning to mitigate the risks associated with future bushfires and managing the risks to biodiversity and other natural assets – from the present target of 130,000 hectares to 385,000 hectares a year;

-- Sustaining the network of vehicle access tracks used in fire suppression;

-- In certain circumstances grazing can be used as a tool to complement other fuel reduction strategies on public land;

-- Improved community and stakeholder engagement by the Department of Sustainability and Environment and its partner agencies to ensure greater transparency and an exchange of information between the department and stakeholders;

-- Development of an ongoing bushfire fencing policy to establish a shared arrangement for meeting the cost of replacing or repairing fencing on the boundary between public and private land that is destroyed or damaged by a fire emerging from public land; and

-- Improved public land management practices.

The committee was initially given terms of reference to inquire into the bushfires that destroyed more than a million hectares over the summer of 2006–07. At the instigation of Mr Davis the reference was extended to incorporate the impact of the bushfires on the Gippsland floods in June last year.

In respect of the floods, the committee found the scale and intensity of the Gippsland floods and their environmental impacts were clearly exacerbated by the preceding bushfires and a lack of prescribed burning.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: kevin.balshaw@parliament.vic.gov.au



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