Page 49 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 February 2007
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Second, what were the reasons, apart from budgetary, for the loss of an independent ESA, and why does the government believe that Canberra will be better served by the new/old model?
Third, have the budget cuts inflicted last year, which delivered swingeing cuts to land management agencies, including the loss of much valuable knowledge and experience among park rangers and forest managers, impeded our ability to retain the experience gained from the 2003 fire?
Fourth, will the greenhouse strategy, which is so long overdue, address the understanding that the conditions for fires will be increased in a drier and more erratic climate predicted for our region, and will it offer resources and measures to prevent and mitigate them?
Fifth, is there a need to increase the federal government’s role in protecting its bush capital, rather than having to wait until the little jurisdiction of the ACT has exhausted its capabilities, or asked for the piecemeal provision of resources? Should regional cooperation be more clearly articulated so that resources can be more freely moved around, in the understanding that fire in any part of this region is the whole region’s problem?
Finally, is our population better prepared to know how to react, how to ensure that no-one is left behind because they are frail, because they have not got a car or because they need help making their house and garden fire resistant, whether and when to leave, or stay and protect their homes?
In relation to this last question, we all—government and community leaders—have the responsibility to build trust between our communities and the services set up to protect them. McBeth mentions a project that was tried and abandoned called neighbourhood firewatch, which he deems may have failed due to inappropriate scoping and assessment of the project and its purpose, intent, intended goals and desired outcomes prior to being implemented.
I could find no other reference to it but I read of a similar sounding initiative in Victoria called community fireguard, a community development approach which is aimed at reducing the vulnerability of residents by empowering them to accept some responsibility for their own safety. It is based on theories of adult education and participation, a bottom-up process of the Country Fire Authority assisting people to develop their own strategies, rather than a top-down approach of telling them what to do. Communities are assisted by nine area-based paid facilitators servicing 400 groups of neighbours helping each other to reduce hazards in homes and gardens and to develop an emergency plan which ensures that no-one is left to cope on their own when they need help.
In the ACT, a regional approach to fire preparedness might work best, with the fire and community services combining forces to place facilitators in Belconnen, Weston Creek, Gungahlin and Tuggeranong, for a start. Our experience with fires on Black Mountain, Mount Ainslie and in Curtin indicates that there might be sense in
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