Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to bring to the attention of the House the issue of extreme bushfire risk in my electorate of Forrest, in the south-west of Western Australia. This is the headline in our local paper: ‘Disaster Looms: extreme conditions spark fears of horror fire season’. That is very true in my south-west. We have had a very dry winter and, in fact, our irrigation farmers in the south-west will be receiving only 34 per cent of their water allocation. According to the Western Australian Fire and Emergency Service, the current summer presents serious risks of fire. FESA has said in local media:

“Each year we look at a number of indicators to help predict the outlook for the coming season and this year the conditions are the worst we could expect …

The season is ahead by six weeks and we have already seen some burn offs get quickly out of control because it is so dry out there.

The widespread drought in the west means both soil and vegetation moisture levels are low, making fire both more likely to start and spread faster. The risk has been made immediately apparent by a recent fire in Nannup, which was in fact a controlled burn by state authorities which jumped containment lines. A combination of strong winds, dry conditions and heavy fuel loads saw these fires burn out of control for some time. These conditions will be prevalent throughout the south-west land division this summer. I urge all of my constituents to be prepared.