Bushfires: hazard reduction plan ignores Black Saturday inquiry targets

Hazard reduction burns in Victoria over the past three years did not reach the level recommended for a single year by the Black Saturday royal commission.

Federal Natural Disaster and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud. Picture: AAP

Hazard reduction burns conduct­ed in Victoria over the past three years combined did not reach the level recommended for a single year by the Black Saturday royal commission.

An analysis of annual reports from the state Department of Environ­ment, Land, Water and Planning found planned burns had returned to pre-Black Saturday levels of just 130,000ha a year — only one-third of the 5 per cent or 385,000ha recommended by the royal commission in 2010.

The information comes amid a horror fire season in which 25 people have been killed and thousands of homes have been destroyed in southeastern Australia, with at least two to three months of hot, dry conditions still to go.

Last week, the Morrison govern­ment announced a parliamentary inquiry into vegetation management, amid calls from bushfire ­experts, farmers, the forest­ry industry and forestry union for fuel loads in national parks to be aggressively managed through hazard ­reduction.

In the 10 years to 2009, when the Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people in Victoria, an ­average of 130,000ha a year was burnt as part of controlled burns — equalling the 130,000ha burnt in 2018-19.

Over the most recent decade, fuel reduction burns peaked in 2012-13 at 255,227ha, with just 74,728ha burnt in 2017-18, 82,022ha in 2013-14 and 125,052ha in 2016-17.

The 2017-18 figure constitutes just 19.4 per cent of the Black Saturday recommendation while the 2012-13 figure is only 66 per cent of the recommended 385,000ha.

Former CSIRO bushfire expert­ Phil Cheney condemned DELWP’s 2015 move from hectare­ targets for fuel reduction to what the department calls “risk reduction” targets.

“It’s a confusion of the terminology, which I believe has been used to reduce the area recommended for prescribed burning by the royal commission after the 2009 fires,” Mr Cheney said. “The threat of a bushfire, when it occurs, is primarily dependent on the fuel.

“That operates at all levels down to an individual’s home and property. If you want to minimise the threat, you have to minimise the fuel around you.”

Mr Cheney said state government environment departments had taken too much notice of ecological scientists with “very little practical experience of bushfires”.

 

“For one of these scientists to stand up and tell me that there’s no evidence that prescribed burning works, only tells me that they have absolutely no idea about fire behaviou­r and, perhaps worse than that, they have not experienced fire in the raw themselves, studied and measured the fires close up, and they have not fought fires on the ground.”

Federal Natural Disaster and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said vegetation management was primar­ily the responsibility of the states but the Morrison government had started a House of Representatives inquiry into vege­tation management and its efficacy in relation to hazard reduction and bushfires.

“The terms of reference include the roles of different jurisdictions and an examination of indigenous practices,” Mr Littleproud said.

Forest Fire Management Victoria­ chief Chris Hardman said Victoria had chosen a “risk-based” approach rather than a hectare-based target.

“This approach was endorsed by an expert reference panel and it was adopted because it represented a more effective ­approach to reducing­ risk for life and property than a hectare-based target,” he said.

“A risk-based target focuses our efforts on burning where we achieve the most successful outcomes­ instead of how many ­hectares are burned.”