SA bushfires: former Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty to review fire crisis

The former chief of the AFP and the current chief investigator of the Murray-Darling Basin has just been given a new job — reviewing South Australia’s bushfire disaster.

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One of Australia’s most experienced former police officers will lead a landmark inquiry into the state’s catastrophic summer of bushfires.

Former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty will investigate official planning and responses to the unprecedented crisis.

As revealed by The Advertiser earlier this month, the $300,000 inquiry will review the state’s preparedness for dealing with significant bushfires and what can be done to prevent future devastation.

Mr Keelty, the nation’s water watchdog, will present a report to the State Government mid-year before Cabinet approves any recommendations and a new bushfire plan is developed.

Major bushfires left a trail of destruction across the Adelaide Hills, Kangaroo Island and the South-East, killing two people, leaving thousands of animals and wildlife dead, razing at least 140 homes and destroying thousands of hectares of land.

“A combination of drought conditions, catastrophic fire danger weather over several days … extended periods of severe and extreme fire danger periods as well as ignitions in remote and inaccessible areas all combined to create fire behaviour and conditions that made fires unstoppable, and in many circumstances, homes and assets undefendable,” a review summary said.

Amid fears the disaster will hit the state’s economy and budget, Mr Keelty will scrutinise planning and fire prevention strategies such as land clearing, native-vegetation removal, winter backburning, electricity infrastructure as well as tackling arsonists.

The community and official response, training, resourcing, climate change as well as emergency recovery measures such as payments, Defence involvement and insurance will also be reviewed.

Officials from agencies involved in tackling the blazes will be interviewed, including from the country and metropolitan fire services, SA Police and State Emergency Service.

Authorities said the review, launched yesterday before public consultation starts next week, would start before the bushfire season ended.

This would allow any recommendations, or possible law changes, to be introduced before the start of next year’s fire season and comes before a planned royal commission into fatal fires across NSW and Victoria.

Mr Keelty, the Murray Darling Basin Authority interim inspector-general who has reviewed fire responses across the country, told The Advertiser he was able to help.

“Whilst my original background is in policing, the work I did as part of reviewing significant bushfires in Queensland, Western Australia and … NSW has given me extensive experience in looking at all matters related to fire and emergency services,” the AFP Commissioner of eight years until 2009 said last night.

“The fires across southern and eastern Australia this bushfire season have already had a devastating impact on communities such as Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills. I look forward to conducting the independent review of all of the information that is collated from the CFS, other emergency services and those communities that have been impacted.”

Premier Steven Marshall, who announced the review yesterday with Emergency Services Minister Corey Wingard, the SA Fire and Emergency Services Commission chief executive officer Dom Lane and CFS chief officer Mark Jones, said: “We will be doing everything we can to help get those communities back up on their feet and do everything we can to ensure that we don’t suffer a massive economic blow because of these bushfires.”