Page 174 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2006
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strategic bushfire management plan (SBMP) provides much more comprehensive evacuation and fire management plans for individual suburban risk areas.
This government is simply not prepared for the bushfire threat. Whilst they have put in much more effort in mowing than we have seen in recent years—including what happened under the previous government, and I take that on board—they simply have not done enough in respect of the post-spring rain bushfire fuel. You have got to get off those mowers. You need to have more people slashing in areas that cannot be reached by mowers.
So what is the solution? What the opposition is saying is this: I believe that there is a need for a minimum standard of 40-metre firebreaks on residential fence lines on vulnerable approaches, and by “vulnerable approaches” I mean the traditional south-west, west-north-west, and perhaps even southerly approaches as well. I must say that Val Jeffery of the Tharwa Rural Fire Service supports that view. I have spoken to him and the minister may speak to him if he wishes to confirm that. I believe this is something that must be done and can be done, provided this government implements an effective strategy and targeted program backed up by sufficient resources providing for these activities to be undertaken instead of what I believe to be a haphazard approach to date. McLeod recommendation No 1 states:
The ACT Bushfire Fuel Management Plan should be reviewed in the light of changed circumstances since the January 2003 fires. Increased emphasis should be given to controlled burning as a fuel-reduction strategy.
Phil Cheney, arguably Australia’s leading expert on bushfire prevention, states:
Prescribed burning for fuel reduction is conducted during the autumn and winter months, it’s not something you do the day before the fire or even the year before. There has to be a program and culture that addresses a planned and systematic approach to fuel reduction.
As he says, it is not something you do the day before or the year before. So why do we see late bushfire fuel reduction activities in the summer? I know that during the spring rains a lot of plans might have been thrown out of order. Perhaps there should have been more mowing and slashing during the summer period if it was not safe to burn.
In January this year I contacted the Chief Minister and the emergency services minister regarding the concerns I had with fire hazards. I detailed vulnerable areas that needed urgent attention to reduce the risks that were present. While some action was taken, I am not satisfied with the lukewarm response to the concerns raised. Many areas were cut well after 4 January but some areas, including some of those that I have photographed, have not been touched.
As part of the solution to this problem, it is therefore of vital importance that the government takes immediate action to, firstly, rectify the existing neglected areas and ensure that the firebreak along the residential edge in all suburbs with vulnerable bushfire approaches is a minimum of 40 metres wide, including vulnerable inner suburbs. Secondly, the government needs to ensure that additional firebreaks are prepared in Canberra nature parks in areas close to the urban edge on vulnerable approaches. Thirdly, we call on the government to strengthen the strategic bushfire
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