VIC Independent Bushfire Inquiry

ELCA members are united in their views on the effects of climate change on bushfires and natural disasters based on scientific evidence, emerging knowledge, and long term observations. This submission reflects a general consensus of ELCA members on some other matters pertaining to fire management and may not fully represent individual / expert views on particular issues.

Recommendations

1. The Inquiry Report should clearly acknowledge and explain that the 2019/20 Victorian bushfires were driven by unprecedented extreme weather and fire danger indices on multiple days, by cascading events including drought, heatwaves, dry thunderstorms, and an unprecedented number of pyroconvective events. The Report should clearly acknowledge and explain for the historical record that it is irrefutable that climate change was the main driver of the unprecedented 2019/20 bushfire season.
2. The Inquiry Report should explain how climate change has resulted in the Victorian bushfire season lengthening, and overlapping with other states and territories, limiting the ability of Australian firefighting agencies to assist each other. Increasing overlap of fire seasons between the northern and southern hemispheres is limiting the availability of large firefighting aircraft, particularly between August and November each year.
3. Strong climate mitigation and adaptation policies are required from all levels of government including the Victorian State Government, to start to address the escalating bushfire and natural disaster risks driven by climate change, the root cause of worsening extreme weather. Victoria must accelerate and increase measures to tackle climate change. More substantial action is required to reduce Australia’s emissions, including accelerating the transition to renewables and storage technologies, non-polluting transport, infrastructure, food production and the phase out of fossil fuel projects. The Victorian Government must continue to step up to strengthen its climate policies and local government must continue to meet and beat emission reduction goals and renewable energy targets. Some of these climate impacts are already locked in, and all levels of government will play a critical role in building community preparedness and resilience.
4. The Victorian Government should demand that the Federal Government maintain funding and support for an ongoing research capability given the imminent cessation of funding in 2021 for the Bushfire & Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre. Research is crucial to understanding and tracking escalating natural disaster risks and enabling fire and emergency services to plan and prepare for worsening conditions. An evidence-based ability to track and predict escalating risks driven by climate change must underpin the development of national and state resilience, adaptation and mitigation strategies, funding needs for community education and engagement, and enhanced resourcing of emergency services.
5. The Victorian Government should demand that the Federal Government ensure critical government research agencies have funding restored. This includes agencies such as the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and ABC Local Radio as the national emergency broadcaster. These agencies must be sufficiently resourced to improve predictive capabilities, understand effects of climate change on natural disasters now and into the future, and be able to warn and alert communities and emergency services in a timely, comprehensive manner.
6. The Inquiry should find that fuel reduction is one of the only ways to reduce fire intensity and therefore must be a major part of any mitigation strategy. It should recommend that research underpin the development of new policies that recognise the need for better asset protection strategies, shrinking windows available for controlled burning due to a warming climate, the need to fund and research cultural burning practices, and the need to ensure that risks on both public and private lands are monitored and managed.
7. The Inquiry should find that due to the escalating impacts of climate change, existing hazard reduction approaches could become less effective at mitigating and controlling fires during extreme weather events that result in long distance spotting, intense and sustained ember attack, and pyroconvective fires. As a result, fuel reduction approaches will need to be better integrated with overall mitigation strategies including fire detection and suppression, community education, hardening of infrastructure, warnings, evacuation, and other measures.
8. The Inquiry should recognise that if more prescribed burning is to be required, then additional resources will be required by land management agencies and fire services expected to carry out this work. Benchmarks should be developed to ensure that agencies are properly resourced to manage lands under their control, and that they have sufficient resources to participate in prescribed burning operations on a regular, planned basis.
9. The Inquiry should note the decision to progressively reduce the amount of logging of native forests in Victoria from 2024-5, and that this provides an opportunity to harness existing knowledge and resources to increase fuel management across Victoria through a reallocation of human and other resources.
10. A range of new rapid fire-detection technologies should be trialed. Together with rapid detection, new fast-attack strategies for new outbreaks, particularly remote fires caused by lightning, need to be introduced with clear objectives, e.g. putting fires out within 24 hours and before they exceed ten hectares. Fast attack should involve rapid dispatch of a suitable number of water bombing aircraft to achieve rapid turnaround and constant direct attack on fire fronts, complemented, as soon as possible by aerial insertion (where practicable) or ground insertion of remote area fire teams to complete extinguishment.
11. The Victorian Government should conduct a trial, in consultation with AFAC and NAFC, of amphibious water-scooping aircraft in a first attack / direct attack firefighting role (CL415). Australian fire services at present use small and large fixed wing water bombers, but not medium sized. Given the success of 3,200 litre single engine air tankers (SEAT), a twin engined purpose-built aircraft with significantly greater air speed, range, flexibility and twice the payload may prove to be a useful addition to current arrangements. They are used extensively and successfully throughout the world in other fire-prone countries.
12. In the wake of the devastating 2019/20 fires, and recognising that climate change continues to drive an increase in Australia’s bushfire threat, it is critical that building and planning regulations and standards be reviewed, particularly Australian Standard 3959.
13. Roof design and strength is a critical factor in future bushfire design of homes and other buildings. Requirements need to be increased to reflect increasing wind velocities fueled by climate change, and fire storms and fire tornadoes caused by pyroconvective events that damage and remove roofs. If a roof is damaged or destroyed survivability of the structure and its ability to act as a refuge are greatly reduced.
14. With varying legislation and building codes across states and territories a more integrated approach to planning for fire risk, which better connects planners with emergency management, will be critical. As fire danger indices and fire paths from 2019/20 are analysed, locations might be identified where rebuilding should not occur due to excessive levels of fire and life risk.
15. Consideration should be given in remote communities or communities deemed to be at extreme risk with limited egress, to providing dual-purpose community buildings capable of providing all community members with refuge in an extreme bushfire situation.
16. The Victorian Government should request that the Federal Government conduct a fundamental review of longstanding Defence Assistance to the Civil Community (DACC) arrangements in view of heightened and worsening natural disaster risk driven by climate change. The arrangements can be cumbersome and slow, and levels of understanding between the ADF and emergency services about respective capabilities, needs, and arrangements must be improved. The ADF should focus on utilisation of existing capabilities for civil defence roles under the control of emergency services and state and territory governments, rather than developing new capabilities that might serve to duplicate state and territory capabilities and ultimately cause confusion and inefficiencies.