Fuel reduction burns halved, as fire services tax doubled
Victoria's fuel reduction burns have halved, as the Allan Government collects an extra $540 million in fire services tax.
Years’ of neglect have left Victorians at risk, in what is shaping up to be one of the worst fire seasons in more than a decade.
A lack of resources has meant a steady decline in fuel reduction burns, which state government records show have slumped from about 200,000ha annually, when Labor came to power in late 2014, to about 100,000ha in recent years.
That decline comes despite the Allan government raking in an extra $540m in fire services tax this financial year.
Howitt Society president Peter Flinn said fuel reduction burns now amounted to little more than 1 per cent of Victoria’s public land each year, “just one fifth of the minimum recommended per annum by the royal commission into the horrendous 2009 Black Saturday fires, which claimed 173 lives”.
“We are frequently told by FFMV (Forest Fire Management Victoria) they would like to do more in terms of fuel management, but are constrained by a shortage of funds and/or manpower, objections from some sections of the community, and that climate change is “narrowing the windows” for suitable weather conditions,” he said.
The government has admitted FFMV funding has fallen from $441.3m 2024-25 to $400.6m this financial year, but stated it was the result of specific project funding for emergency management reforms coming to an end.
However Mr Flinn said the lack of resources meant fuel reduction burns that FFMVic promised to undertake in the Southern Grampians this spring had not occurred, as thousands of tonnes of fuel built up in the canopy and the forest floor.
Further east FFMVic has cleared windblown trees from 1100ha of the 44,700ha Wombat-Lerderderg Forest, but has admitted there are large areas where thousands of logs remain lying on the forest floor from 2021 storms.
Bush User Groups United representative Stephen Smitham said the situation could get a lot
worse, once the government locked up 75,000ha of the forest in new parks and reserves, under legislation before Parliament’s Upper House this week.
“I’d already be worried about going into the forest if I was a CFA volunteer,” Mr Smitham said. “But if they lock it up, ban firewood collection and tracks aren’t maintained it will get worse.”
A 2024 University of Melbourne study, titled Throwing fuel on the fire, found hard hit windblown sites in the Wombat Forest had 300 tonnes per hectare of coarse fuels – fallen branches and logs - compared to 20t/ha in undamaged forest, which would result in “a 17-fold increase in total heat output”.
FFMVic acting chief Scott Turner said: “The most recent seasonal outlook showed drying conditions for the west and southwest of the state, including the Grampians region and Wombat State Forest.
“When a bushfire starts, we are ready to respond through aggressive first attack to keep fires small.”
Bureau of Meteorology maps show East Gippsland soil moisture down to a depth of 1m is very much below average, a fact that CFA South East region deputy chief officer Trevor Owen said was “not being appreciated”.
Agronomist and Bindi farmer Eddy Mauger said Gippsland’s fuel loads were “atrocious because there has been no backburning done this year.
“There is serious, serious scope for a bushfire season up here. If it gets into that regrowth from the 2019-20 fires on the road between Ensay and Bruthen it would go off like a nuclear bomb.”
As FFMVic struggles to reduce fuel loads the Allan government has almost doubled fire service taxes on Victorian households and businesses, from $839m in 2023-24 to $1.54bn this financial year, with another hike to $1.8bn in 2026-27.
Premier Jacinta Allan and her Treasurer Jaclyn Symes have repeatedly stated “every dollar” of the emergency services volunteer tax would be used to fund emergency services, but have repeatedly refused to detail how much extra is going to FFMVic and the CFA in 2025-26.
When asked to provide details of the CFA’s 2025-26 budget, Treasurer Symes office simply stated details would be released in the agency’s annual report, which is unlikely to be released until after next year’s November 28 state election.
Meanwhile, Victorians have been left in the dark on just how much fuel has built up in forests that cover a third of the state.
In 2020 the government stopped publishing fuel load maps for fear they could be used by arsonists, an argument the nation’s leading bushfire scientists branded “ludicrous” and “a load of rubbish”.
Since then the government has simply reported on statewide and regional fuel-driven bushfire risk reduction targets.
The government has set at a statewide target that equates to reducing the loss of life and property to 70 per cent of what would have occurred if no planned burning or major fires had occurred (100 per cent).
But even then access to the latest 2024-25 risk report has been delayed until December.
The most recent publicly available report for 2023-24 showed the bushfire risk at a regional level had reached 92 per cent in Melbourne’s foothills, the Dandenongs and Mornington Peninsula, worse than in the lead-up to the 2009 Black Saturday fires.
When asked to supply the 2024-25 risk reports FFMVic stated they would not be released until December.
