An audit of the ways the State’s emergency and other agencies work together to deal with bushfires has found that while they cooperated with a strong commitment, there was insufficient information to say it was effective.
In his report, Reducing Bushfire Risks, Auditor-General Andrew Greaves said it was important that the State’s strategies to reduce and manage bushfire risks were well-designed, efficiently deployed and continuously monitored and improved.
His Audit examined the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), Parks Victoria, the Country Fire Authority (CFA), Emergency Management Victoria, the City of Whittlesea, East Gippsland Shire Council, Murrindindi Shire Council and Energy Safe Victoria.
“The audited Agencies, particularly DELWP and CFA, are collaborating to reduce the risks that bushfires pose to life, property and the environment, and do so with strong commitment,” Mr Greaves said.
“However, there is insufficient information available to understand the effectiveness and impacts of their risk-reduction activities,” he said.
Mr Greaves said current modelling limitations and a lack of reporting on non-burn and private land-based risk reduction activities inhibited continuous improvement; limited community understanding of performance in reducing risk; and constrained DELWP and the Government’s ability to make better informed decisions to further reduce risk.
“Reducing risk across the State also requires a stronger focus on, and allocation of resources to, treating private land, to complement that applied to public land,” Mr Greaves said.
He said he made 17 recommendations – 14 to DELWP and the CFA on the management of fuel for the fire and three to DELWP, one on land-use planning and two aimed at improving the Powerline Bushfire Safety Program.
The Auditor-General’s 149-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
