Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The devastating Victorian bushfires of February 2009 have been described as Australia’s worst natural disaster, and it certainly was in terms of the catastrophic loss of life and the extreme damage to property. The impact of the bushfires will continue to be felt as the recovery and rebuilding process continues, and the thoughts of all members of this parliament continue to remain with the communities that have been so terribly affected.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the work of my colleagues the Minister for Families, Housing and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Parliamentary Secretary for Bushfire Reconstruction, who continue to work with the Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, the Victorian government, the Red Cross Appeal Fund Advisory Panel and affected communities in the rebuilding process.

From the outset, the Commonwealth has worked cooperatively with Victoria to provide every necessary support to communities in responding to and recovering from the bushfires. This has involved the hard work of several Commonwealth government agencies. Commonwealth assets were made available under the Commonwealth disaster plan, including, for example, Australian Defence Force personnel and equipment and Centrelink workers to assist bushfire victims in accessing financial assistance measures. To date, the Rudd government has committed nearly $400 million in response, recovery and reconstruction measures following the devastating Victorian bushfires and will continue to provide support and assistance as schools, homes, businesses and communities are rebuilt.

In the aftermath of the bushfires the Victorian government established a royal commission to investigate the causes of, preparation for, responses to and the impact of the fires. In August 2009, the commission released its interim report with recommendations focusing on the protection of human life and reforms that can be implemented prior to the coming bushfire season as a matter of priority. In that context it is appropriate that I outline for the House the federal government’s response to the recommendations made by the commission with primary relevance to the Commonwealth. But the Commonwealth’s response will also go into matters where we believe we can provide particular assistance to Victoria. Our formal response was tabled with the commission on 31 August this year.

A key initiative referred to by the royal commission is the development of a national telephone based emergency warning system. The Commonwealth is already assisting the states and territories to develop a national telephone based emergency warning system and to conduct research to improve the technology. The Rudd government has invested $15 million to assist the states and territories to establish the National Emergency Warning System  to deliver emergency warnings to landline and mobile telephones based on billing address. The tender process is being managed by Victoria on behalf of all states and territories.

The Rudd government has also invested over $10 million to create a Location Based Number Store (LBNS) to provide secure access for state and territory warning systems to telephone numbers based on their billing address. The National Emergency Warning System is being developed to be operational by the next bushfire season in line with the recommendations of the interim report and, I would suggest, community expectations. It is important to remember, however, that the development of a national telephone based warning system is designed to complement and augment existing measures such as radio alerts and warning signals as no one method of warning can or should ever be relied on in its entirety in the event of a disaster or emergency.

In addition, the royal commission has asked the Australian government, the Victorian government and the Council of Australian Governments to consider whether it is technically possible to implement a national warning system that can reach mobile phones based on their physical location as opposed merely to the owner’s billing address. The royal commission asked these parties to determine whether it is technically possible to implement these measures for the 2009-10 bushfire season. The government recognises the importance of tailoring the delivery of emergency warnings based on the actual location of a mobile handset which is why we support the intent of the royal commission’s recommendations and will do everything that we reasonably can to advance it.

The Commonwealth has already taken action to implement the royal commission’s recommendations insofar as we are able. In April the Commonwealth committed, through the Council of Australian Governments, to fund further research into a capability to deliver warnings based on the location of a mobile telephone. At the meeting, it was agreed that:

• the Commonwealth will fund the research to establish the feasibility of developing a national location based mobile telephone warning capability;
• the work will be coordinated through a working group with the states;
• following an evaluation of the feasibility of the capability and further scoping of the likely costs, consideration of possible funding will also be required.
• To implement this agreement:
• the Commonwealth has committed $1.35 million to Victoria as the jurisdiction with responsibility for managing this stage of the program to identify a technical solution that will work across all carrier networks.
• Victoria has made a formal request for information (RFI) from industry on the capability to send warning messages to mobile telephones based on handset location on behalf of all states and territories. The RFI closes on 28 October 2009.

In addition to the Council of Australian Government agreement, the Commonwealth will also:

• consult with Victoria on the feasibility of deploying an interim solution to deliver warnings to mobile telephones on the basis of the location of the handset for the 2009-2010 bushfire season;
• by December 2009 participate with the states and territories in the evaluation of responses to the RFI; and
• assist in the development of any proposals for the extension of the emergency warning system to deliver location based warnings to mobile phones for consideration by the Council of Australian Governments in early 2010.

We are ultimately, however, restricted by the state of technological advances with respect to that particular recommendation.

The interim report of the commission also recommends that briefings be provided by the Commonwealth at least once per year regarding arrangements available to support states and territories during disasters and emergencies, including bushfires. My department has organised a national preseason briefing to be held in Canberra on 25 September 2009. The briefing will focus on bushfires and other hazards and will involve key Commonwealth, state and territory agencies and representatives. The Commonwealth will ensure that these preseason briefings are held annually for all jurisdictions.

In addition to the annual briefings, the commission recommends that the Commonwealth facilitates discussions between its agencies—that is, Commonwealth agencies—and state and territory fire services, to identify ways in which Commonwealth assets can be applied more rapidly and effectively during extremely dangerous bushfires.

The Commonwealth, through Emergency Management in Australia in my department, has already commenced these discussions and will continue them on an ongoing basis.

The commission in its interim report also made recommendations concerning fire danger descriptions and called for the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) and the Bureau of Meteorology to collaborate with researchers in exploring additional and more sophisticated fire ratings and descriptions.

These recommendations will be implemented by the next bushfire season.

A national bushfire warnings task force has already been established to finalise a national fire-warning model by 1 October 2009. The Bureau of Meteorology will also incorporate a new scale of fire danger ratings into its weather and warning services and will also include fire danger index values on its website, which will be a particularly valuable resource.

By 2009-10, this coming bushfire season, Victorian weather forecasts and warnings will include the new fire index values, descriptions and also action statements.

In addition to recommendations that directly affect the Commonwealth, the government is also taking action in areas addressed by other key recommendations of the report that affect, in particular, Victoria.

The commission makes a number of recommendations with respect to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency triple zero call services processes, involving the initial call referral from Telstra to the state and territory emergency service organisations and the subsequent handling by those organisations.

In May, I invited state and territory emergency management ministers to consider measures to improve aspects of the triple zero system, including arrangements for managing a surge in calls during a major disaster, at the meeting of the ministerial council. This issue will also be discussed at our upcoming meeting in September, in preparation for that subsequent meeting.

This work is being conducted in cooperation with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which has operational oversight of triple zero, and the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE). As well, I commend Telstra on their constructive approach to the discussions.

As stated in the Australian Institute of Criminology report titled Using crime prevention to reduce deliberate bushfires in Australia, approximately half of all vegetation fires, some 20,000 to 30,000 each year, are deliberately lit, and arson in all forms across the Australian community costs the Australian community in the order of $1.6 billion annually—but I suspect that figure has gone up dramatically as a consequence of the Victorian bushfires.

The Commonwealth has initiated a number of measures to tackle arson within our community.

In March, a national forum on the reduction of deliberate bushfires in Australia was convened, bringing together for the first time key agencies and experts across jurisdictions to identify areas for action and to ensure better coordination between police, fire and emergency services to engage in targeted prevention programs and share information in investigating crime and working with the broader community, including schools and other organisations.

As a result of this, I will be presenting a draft National Bushfire Arson Strategy to the September meeting of the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management (MCPEM) ministers, with a view to finalisation in November.

My department has also drafted new model penalties for bushfire arson, which impose penalties of up to 25 years for lighting a fire which leads to death and 15 years for lighting a fire which leads to serious injury.

These offences were presented to the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) in April, and we hope that states will respond favourably to the recommendations.

The department is also helping to facilitate the development of better education and training tools with relevant organisations such as the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) and also the National Institute of Forensic Science and in turn of course liaising with state and territory educational authorities.

A strong theme in the royal commission’s interim report is the complexity of current disaster arrangements across Australia and the need for greater clarity in responsibilities and procedures. As such, a coordinated response to risk assessment, prevention, preparedness, response and recovery is required—indeed is essential—at all levels.

To this end, the November meeting of the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management (MCPEM) will consider a National Catastrophic Natural Disaster Plan, which will aim to provide clarity on the coordination of arrangements across jurisdictions for managing the consequences of natural disasters. The meeting will also consider a disaster resilience framework, which will provide strategic direction to guide national policy in a range of sectors including the emergency management sector.

Through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), the Commonwealth is also working with state, territory and local governments to ensure that jurisdictions take full advantage of the lessons learned from the tragedy of the Victorian bushfires to maintain an efficient and responsive disaster response and recovery framework for the future, which, unfortunately, all indications are will become more in demand as a result of the impacts of climate change.

The royal commission is to be commended for its work to date.

We are actively working to implement relevant recommendations of the commission’s interim report.

The Commonwealth will continue to assist Victoria to ensure measures are in place, to the best extent possible, to help communities protect themselves in future bushfire seasons.

The government also remains committed to cooperating with and assisting the royal commission to the greatest extent we possibly can in anticipation of their final report in July next year.

I thank the House for its attention.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Farrer to speak for 15½ minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Ms Ley speaking for a period not exceeding 15½ minutes.

Question agreed to.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the ministerial statement on the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Interim Report and present the coalition’s response. We should never forget what happened on 7 February this year, we should never forget the unfathomable human tragedy and we should never forget the communities that were devastated by the worst natural disaster to have ever touched this nation—173 people died in the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria on 7 February. Now, seven months on, the wounds are still raw. The physical threat may have passed but the emotional trauma will continue to haunt us all. The misery that this fire left behind is difficult to comprehend and the communities affected will continue to grieve—as we all will—for those who have lost their loved ones, their homes and for whom life will never be the same again. As with every crisis, particularly natural disasters, the important thing for us to do is to learn from what happened and to make sure that we do everything we can to prevent it from happening again.

On 17 August we heard from the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission in their interim report that many mistakes were made and more could have been done to prepare Victoria for a natural disaster of this magnitude. I commend Commissioner Teague and his fellow commissioners on their important work over the last seven months. They have acted professionally and with great empathy. They have dedicated themselves to the harrowing task of listening to people’s stories of the horrific events and weighing up the evidence presented so the nation can learn the lessons of Black Saturday.

Regardless of what the report says about what systems may not have worked or could have worked better, the dedication of our emergency service volunteers is something of which we can all be proud. Over 4,000 fire service volunteers and career staff immediately responded to combat more than 300 fires across Victoria on 7 February. Over 10,000 personnel were subsequently involved in the largest co-ordinated emergency response and community response in the state’s history. Despite the scale of these efforts there was an unprecedented loss of life, extreme property damage and large-scale community trauma and displacement. Some of the findings of the interim report about Victoria’s preparedness, warning systems and evacuation policies are disturbing. It is now clear that the systems that were in place failed and we have to do better. Of particular concern is the failure of provision of adequate warnings and information to the public. As the report says, timely and accurate warnings may save lives, and the systems simply could not cope with a disaster of this scale.

The commission also rightly identifies problems with how the stay-or-go policy has been articulated. Priority should always be given to human life over the protection of property and the public needs to be made aware of the very real risk to human life of staying with their homes. Essentially, it is incumbent on governments to ensure that we give our communities the best information in the shortest time possible to enable them to make an informed decision about whether to stay and protect their properties or to leave early.

The member for McEwen, whose electorate was worst affected by the Black Saturday bushfires, has put forward a four-point plan to better protect local communities from the summer fire threat. I commend that plan. It includes a world-best telecommunications platform that includes an early warning system for small communities, a comprehensive fuel reduction program that eliminates the growing backlog of planned burns, construction of safe shelters at schools in fire risk areas and the introduction of better fire prevention and detection methods.

Following on from the member for McEwen’s last point, it was most disappointing that the commission’s interim report contained no recommendations on fuel reduction measures. The commission received 485 submissions where the need for fuel reduction along roadsides, in forests and around homes was raised. As the member for McEwen has pointed out, the submissions have documented rampant frustration in her electorate and others at the obstacles and complacency to reducing fuel loads. These loads are linked to fire intensity. Whilst the interim report devotes some attention to fuel reduction concerns, the commission has yet to address this vital issue and make recommendations. I appreciate that this is an interim report and fuel reduction and land management will be examined subsequently. I take that point but I stress the urgency of that examination.

It is the coalition’s view that a clearly articulated high priority fuel reduction program in fire risk communities would support the commission’s life-before-property recommendations. As the member for McEwen noted in her submission to the commission, each inquiry following previous bushfires—in particular, 1939, 1983 and 2003—has made recommendations to reduce the fuel load. These have been largely ignored. Further in the submission, the member for McEwen notes that, in addition to this lack of will by the state government of the day to enact these recommendations, there has developed a misguided practice by local governments to introduce bylaws that prevent the clearing of trees around private property and along the verges of all local roads in the name of conservation, biodiversity of species and protection.

We appreciate that the fuel reduction window has closed for this season and whilst the commission has done a great job of completing the interim report in a relative short period of time—in order, I know, to get the recommendations out there for the 2009-10 bushfire season—just as important is the next stage. There is no less urgency to complete the inquiry to address the land management and fuel reduction matters.

Parliaments have heard compelling evidence following previous fires and I will name just two. In the A Nation Charred report into the fires in 2003 chaired by Gary Nairn, eight recommendations were listed on fuel reduction and at least as many on land management. I am advised that a committee of the Victorian parliament completed an inquiry shortly before Black Saturday and recommended three times the amount of fuel reduction burning than is currently taking place.

The most fundamental responsibility on any government is the protection of its citizens. All state governments and authorities must look carefully at the findings of the commission and learn from the mistakes as we approach this fire season and beyond. May I acknowledge the hard work in the aftermath of the fires and ongoing of all of the local members involved. I particularly mentioned the member for McEwen, who was and remains absolutely indefatigable in her efforts on preventing a future occurrence and managing bushfire risk in her communities.

I also mention the member for Gippsland, who I know has proposed a national register of arsonists, something that could be made available to the police and fire services at the commencement, say, of a fire season; the member for McMillan; the member for Casey; the member for Bendigo; and the member for Indi. I should also mention the member for Dunkley, who I know gave a speech to parliament expressing concerns about the lack of clarity in fire bunker building regulations.

I ask the government to continue the spirit of bipartisanship shown after the fires and continue to consult with local members in the fire affected areas. We in the coalition pledge our full support to working with this government to bolster our preparedness in emergency response to bushfires around the country.