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Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Deputy Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh has hit out at John Brumby for continuing to ignore overwhelming evidence that prescribed burning needs to be increased in Victoria.
Mr Walsh said recommendations made to the Bushfires Royal Commission that prescribed burning be dramatically increased confirmed the Brumby Government was acting recklessly.
“Counsel Assisting the Bushfires Royal Commission has proposed the government set an annual prescribed burning target of between five per cent and 10 per cent of the available public land estate,” Mr Walsh said.
“This equates to a minimum of 385,000 hectares of public land, a figure which is supported by the Volunteer Fire Brigades Association and the Victorian Association of Forest Industries.”
Mr Walsh said given the outcome of last summer’s bushfires, he found it staggering the Brumby Government refused to consider the target. In a submission to the Bushfires Royal Commission the government stated:
‘… the State does not support a recommendation that nominates a minimum annual rate of 385,000 hectares of planned burning’ (Source: Submission on planned burning on behalf of the State of Victoria, p.2).
Mr Walsh said the recommendation before the Commission to increase prescribed burning bore a striking resemblance to those made to John Brumby months before Black Saturday.
“In June 2008, the Environment and Natural Resources Committee recommended the government triple prescribed burning to the levels now being proposed by Counsel Assisting,” Mr Walsh said.
“These recommendations, along with repeated warnings from other bodies, fell on deaf ears.
Labor refused to adopt the committee’s recommendation and in the following year set a target of just 130,000 hectares.”
Mr Walsh said Counsel Assisting had also backed the committee in its findings that staffing in the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) was inadequate
“Evidence before the Commission shows the number of full-time staff employed within the DSE to perform duties including planned burning has fallen from about 1,400 in the late 1980s to just 237,” Mr Walsh said.
“Of the 237 full-time staff employed, only about 180 are field staff who perform tasks on the ground.
“Despite repeated warnings, John Brumby has failed to address inadequate burning levels and staffing problems. This time he must adopt any recommendations put forward by the Bushfires Royal Commission,” Mr Walsh said.