Submission to The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission

Summary

The Institute of Foresters of Australia (IFA) is an independent, national body representing forest scientists, technicians and managers with professional and practical expertise. Bushfires are a day-to-day preoccupation of many of the Institute's members either through their practical work in the forest, or through involvement in research or the administration of forest management agencies or companies. Most foresters have had personal responsibility for bushfire mitigation and suppression at some stage during their career.

The IFA regards the current bushfire situation in Victoria as deeply unsatisfactory and believe this is reflected by the damage, devastation and cost of forest fires since 2003. We have for some time felt that the situation would not improve until there was a major stock-take of the current approach which has become skewed firmly in favour of ‘emergency bushfire response’ at the expense of traditional fire prevention activities. We sincerely hope that this Royal Commission will be the vehicle for a sensible revision of this approach.

The IFA has long advocated the need for a national policy on bushfire mitigation and suppression in order for Australia to more satisfactorily manage bushfire risk². This would cover bushfire prevention and fire management which then flows on into state jurisdictions. This approach should be directed at minimising the cost of bushfires in terms of human life and valuable assets (including environmental assets), must be based on science, experience and facts, and should allow for cooperation and coordination across states and across land tenures. In our view a primary objective should be to place responsibility for bushfire management in the hands of land managers, both public and private, not emergency services. A critical ingredient which is lacking is political leadership.

We have observed major changes in forest management policies across Australia in recent years, and this has been magnified in Victoria where for at least the past decade there has been a political focus on expanding national parks and conservation reserves. The fact that 52% of Victoria's public lands are now contained in these tenures has led to a profound change in management focus away from active treatment to meet more passive conservation aims. With respect to bushfire management, this has led to a loss of fire management expertise, greater restrictions to public access due to track closures and declining levels of maintenance, and a demonstrable reduction in the broadscale use of prescribed fire as a management tool to mitigate the impact of summer bushfires.

This combination of factors has allowed forest fuels to accumulate to an extent that has raised the intensity of summer bushfires and increasingly forced a greater reliance on emergency fire-fighting. This has occurred at a time when there has been an increasing development of housing in bushfire-prone areas, both making the use of prescribed burning more difficult on adjacent public lands and further entrenching the need for emergency capability to preserve life and property at the public-private land interface when it is inevitably threatened by fire.

The IFA sees a requirement to develop building codes for homes in fire-prone areas along with providing adequate separation between homes and bushland fuels (both public and private) and to maintain gardens and surrounds in a condition of low flammability. Properly prepared homeowners can do much to reduce bushfire damage and we believe they should be given legislated rights to do what is required to best protect their own property in the event of fire.

This submission reviews the background to the bushfire situation in Victoria and responds to the Royal Commission's terms of reference. In total, we have made 44 recommendations in responding to the terms of reference (TOR). These are contained in sections which separately address each TOR. In addition we offer nine over-arching recommendations.

This submission is accompanied by copies of the Institute of Foresters of Australia's national policies on bushfire management and the ecological role of fire in Australian forests and woodlands (Appendices 1 and 2).