Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table a statement on the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I have only just seen this report now and had a very quick look through it, but I think it is fair to say that February this year will obviously live long in the memories of all Victorians. Quite clearly, whatever needs to be done to address the risk that was faced by Victorians in February must be done. As honourable senators know, I have lived all my life in Ballarat and represented the federal seat of Ballarat for 11 years. It was one of those days where the state could have burned to the ground. There was an appalling loss of life. There was considerable property damage. I am patron senator for Bendigo and if it were not for about two acres—not bushland but an area that broke the fire up—the outcomes in Bendigo could have been substantially worse.

There had been report after report after report on the threat to Victorians of inactivity in relation to some of those fire prevention measures that the community would have had some expectation of. There was, in my view, an appalling attitude by some in local government in Victoria. There were councillors who had a philosophical view of life which meant that they were making decisions which were not necessarily in the best interests of property owners in minimising the risk of fire impact to those property owners. Indeed, on my understanding, some of those councils require people to have vegetation right up to their homes. It was a council requirement for them to have that—apparently part of some ‘greening of suburbs’ program. But it was a gross abrogation of their responsibility to their council constituents.

The Labor government have been in power now for some 10 years in Victoria. It was quite clear to everyone that they were not doing the sort of back-burning and other clearing that is required for proper fire management. They had been told ad nauseam what the risks were. They had been warned ad nauseam that the fuel build-up in Victoria, particularly in fire prone areas, was quite dramatic. Appropriate resources were not put into fire risk management. Substantial resources should have been put in to minimise the risk to Victorian communities.

I have only glanced very quickly through this report, but clearly what it says is that the Victorian community can ill afford the sort of inactivity that there has been over the last 10 years. In response to those bushfires and the enormity of the suffering that occurred, the Victorian community responded in a manner that, I think, is unprecedented in this country. I have very good friends in the CFA who said they had never seen anything like it in all their lives. The magnitude of the fire that ripped through those communities on that day was completely and utterly unimaginable. The lesson that has to be learned by the Brumby government is that the line has got to be drawn in the sand now in the sorts of measures that are required to protect the Victorian community from a repeat of the events of last February. In doing so, I do not seek to blame the Brumby government for the events that occurred on that day, and I want to make that very clear, but what I am saying is that there but for the grace of God go we and that it is only through the grace of God that this disaster was not even worse.

I will go a step further. There are some in our community who have completely and utterly lost sight of a balance between greenness and safety. It is imperative, in my view, for a fundamental question to be answered before action is or is not taken: what is in the best interests of the Victorian community? I think the debate has been hijacked by some in the environmental movement who have been prepared to put their own philosophical view of life ahead of good fire management. That has been extremely dangerous, in my view. It has been ill advised and it has put the community at great risk.

The Brumby government cannot hide behind a royal commission. The Brumby government has got to acknowledge that its fire management policies over the last 10 years have not worked, that they have been underresourced and that they have put the Victorian community at very serious risk. If out of this commission comes a very clear message that you can’t take away from land owners the right to have some input into appropriate fire management practices, then it is an outcome that will well serve the Victorian community. I suspect this is not just an issue in Victoria. I suspect this is an issue in other fire-prone states such as Tasmania, where those who want to push a green agenda are not prepared to accommodate the rights of their fellow Tasmanians. In my case, they are not prepared to accommodate the rights of fellow Victorians. My view is that this has simply got to stop. It is quite unreasonable for a very small group of people to determine an appropriate fire management agenda. I implore the Brumby government to properly resource appropriate fire management processes and policies. They have been absolutely asleep at the wheel. They have abrogated their responsibilities to the Victorian community. It is time that they started putting resources into ensuring that as far as possible we minimise the risk of a repeat of what occurred in February. I again say I do not hold the Brumby government responsible for those fires. But I do hold the Brumby government and the Bracks government, which was before the government of the current Premier, responsible for completely and utterly throwing their hands up and not accepting any responsibility for the sorts of management practices that should have been adopted a decade ago. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.