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Victoria Takes Action To Prepare For Bushfires

04 May 2010

Australia — Victorians will be supported to prepare for future bushfire seasons with $136.6 million in the 2010 State Budget to back emergency services and boost the fire preparation effort.

The Premier, John Brumby, said the Victorian Government would continue to get on with the job of delivering vital services and infrastructure for Victorias emergency services and working with communities to make the State as fire-safe and fire-ready as possible.

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission will hand down its final report at the end of July. Mr Brumby said the Victorian Government would continue to take action on reforms to preparedness arising from the Commissions Interim Report, before considering the Commissions final recommendations.

Our Government is determined to work with the community to learn the lessons of the terrible Black Saturday and Gippsland fires and to take new actions to make our bushfire-threatened communities safer, Mr Brumby said.

Thankfully, through a combination of favourable weather conditions, the largest-ever fire-fighting effort and community vigilance, the last fire season passed without major incident. But we are not complacent and our agencies are already working to prepare for the next fire season.

We live in one of the worlds most fire-prone areas and this $136.6 million investment makes the right community safety investments to protect Victorians from the threat of future bushfires.

The $136.6 million boost to fire preparation and emergency response in the 2010 State Budget includes:

$35.4 million over four years for personnel training at Incident Control Centres across the State;
$28.5 million over four years to upgrade and improve bushfire warnings and upgrade intelligence gathering, analysis and alerting capability by fire and emergency agencies, including funding for the Bushfire Information Line and the Emergency Alert;
a further $3.1 million for the Bushfire Information Line to provide additional surge capacity;
$41.8 million over two years for the Country Fire Authority (CFA) to help communities and householders to better prepare themselves for the bushfire season, including key projects such as Community Fire Guard, the Self Assessment Tool, reviewing Neighbourhood Safer Places and for local government to maintain and review Fire Risk Registers and Township Protection Plans;
$9.2 million over four years to employ 18 additional CFA personnel to train local brigades to support and advise private land owners, local councils and government agencies on vegetation management;
$41 million to increase the bushfire resistance of school buildings in higher risk areas;
$500,000 to support local government to develop Neighbourhood Safer Places;
$11.6 million over four years for VICSES to purchase rescue vehicles, road accident rescue kits and additional pagers; and
$6.5 million to maintain a professional ambulance service in Kinglake and upgrade services at the Whittlesea branch additional resources committed after the 2009 bushfires.

The Treasurer, John Lenders, said the investment in bushfire prevention and response announced today was in addition to the almost $1 billion for fighting the Black Saturday bushfires, responding to the emergency and rebuilding the fire-affected communities, as well as action taken to implement the findings of the Bushfires Royal Commission interim report.

Mr Lenders said one of his proudest achievements was being able to finance a quick and comprehensive response to the devastating February 2009 bushfires and achieve a budget surplus despite the ongoing impact of the Global Financial Crisis.

Thanks to our disciplined financial management we been able to make our State more fire-safe and fire-ready and will be able to go even further when we respond to the final recommendations of the 2009 Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission, Mr Lenders said.

Victoria has the strongest finances of any State which is why we can invest strongly to keep our State safer from the ongoing threat of bushfires.

Mr Lenders said the Brumby Labor Government in conjunction with communities, emergency service agencies, local government and the Commonwealth had taken a series of actions to better prepare the State for the threat of bushfires, including:

Leading Victorias first ever Fire Action Week in October, to encourage Victorians to take action around their properties;
Working with other jurisdictions to establish a new national six-tiered fire danger rating system which outlines clear advice for Victorians about what actions to take before the fire threat;
Leading development of a new national telephony based warning system, Emergency Alert, to alert Australians in the event of a lift-threatening emergency. Stage one of the system was completed in December. Emergency Alert has been used to warn communities on 32 occasions in four States including Victoria, with over 110,000 warning messages issued;
Establishing new protocols for the limited broadcast of the Standard Emergency Warning Signal when appropriate;
A new behind-the-scenes single portal website, One Source One Message, able to create standardised information alerts and emergency warnings;
Overhauling Command, Control and Co-ordination arrangements following a review by the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police;
Revised guidelines so that the CFA and DSE Incident Controllers assess if relocation should occur and recommend relocation when warranted;
Procedures to ensure the most experienced, qualified and competent person is appointed as an Incident Controller for each fire, regardless of where the fire has started;
Amendments to the CFA Act to ensure the CFA Chief Officer has responsibility to issue warnings and provide information to the community concerning the risk of bushfires; and
Completion of Township Protection Plans in 52 towns identified as being at high risk this fire season, including the identification of Neighbourhood Safer Places in those towns where geographically possible.

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin