Inquiry into the 2026 summer fires across Victoria

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) would like to thank the Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee for the opportunity to provide this submission to the Inquiry into the 2026 summer fires across Victoria.

ELCA submits that any Inquiry into the disastrous fires would be incomplete without acknowledging the fundamental role played by climate change, which is adversely impacting fire weather, fuels, and fire behaviour. Climate pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas has changed the Victorian climate and is driving increasingly dangerous fire weather in Victoria. Declining winter rainfall, rising temperatures, and more frequent and intense heatwaves and droughts create the conditions for more frequent, more damaging bushfires. Since Ash Wednesday in 1983, the gap between major Victorian fire seasons has reduced, with fewer years between devastating events. This trend will worsen without rapid, deep cuts to climate pollution. Strong action now can help slow down and limit escalating bushfire risk.

A worsening fire-prone climate, alongside growing numbers of Victorians living in places with heightened fire risks will place more pressure on the state’s fire and emergency services in the years to come.

The following submission identifies that climate change is fuelling worsening bushfires in Victoria, influencing the severity of the 2026 fire season. Greater government investment to build household and community resilience and firefighting capacity is required to meet the escalating challenge. The submission addresses the following Terms of Reference:

• The impacts of climate change on the natural environment, which has resulted in more frequent and intense bushfires occurring in Victoria (ToR 8)
• The causes and circumstances of the bushfires, including climate change and the adequacy of the Government’s climate policies and actions, forecasts, warnings and public education on bushfire threats (ToR 2)
• The impact on the community, business and agriculture and efforts to aid in recovery (ToR 6)
• Funding, equipment and appliances for the Country Fire Authority (CFA), Fire Rescue Victoria and Forest Fire Management Victoria, and recruitment and retention of CFA volunteers (ToR 3)
• The preparation and planning by government, emergency services agencies and the community ahead of the fire season, including management of public and private land and roadsides (ToR 1)
• The interjurisdictional support into and out of Victoria leading into and during the fire season, including interstate and international deployments, Commonwealth support and relief efforts (ToR 10)
• The prevalence and impact of misinformation leading into and during the fire season (ToR 9)

Key Recommendations

For the Environment and Planning Committee’s reference, ELCA has recommended that the Victorian Government, working with state fire and emergency services:

1. should prepare for plausible, worst case bushfire scenarios possible under global warming of 2°C or more this century, and develop detailed action plans to increase capabilities and harden infrastructure, while maximising opportunities for hazard reduction burning and community resilience.
2. seek co-funding from the Federal Government to pilot a household resilience program for bushfire risk. This should include targeted measures to support disadvantaged households in at-risk locations.
3. increase funding for research into better attraction and retention strategies for both Country Fire Authority (CFA) and Victorian State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers as an urgent priority, including incentives and protections.
4. ensure that fire truck fleets are managed according to whole of life total asset management plans that include optimal disposal age and that agency capital budgets are resourced to a level that rapidly reduces fleet age profiles until they are under control. Replacement of fire trucks with external crew seating must be a high priority, as they are unsafe.
5. support the Victorian Auditor-General to fast-track its review of emergency asset maintenance alongside other relevant reviews including the follow up to the 2020 Reducing bushfire risks report and a planned review of emergency management public information and warnings.
6. maintain risk-based approaches to hazard reduction, but invest more heavily in the protection of homes and infrastructure assets.
7. continue to work with federal, state and territory counterparts and the peak council for Fire and Emergency Services, AFAC, to ensure domestic firefighting capacity is sufficient to respond to major events occurring simultaneously in multiple jurisdictions.
8. review the complicated emergency management structures in place and consider using Section 44 of the NSW Rural Fires Act (1997) as a model to simplify overly complicated command and control provisions that put multiple agencies in charge of different parts of a single fire.
9. consider how the critical capabilities of Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) are best retained following the phase out of as native logging in Victoria, including access to specialised plant and equipment. Also consider options to merge FFMV with the CFA under a single command structure.
10. The Victorian Government should increase their investment in public education on how fire risks are managed around sources of renewable energy generation and transmission in the lead up to the next bushfire season.