The Greens welcome the AFAC review into last summer’s bushfires. The Liberals must act on the recommendations of this review, as well as past reviews, to ensure the Tasmania is prepared next fire season.
Last summer’s bushfires burnt more than 100,000 hectares of Tasmania’s precious environment, and had significant effects on the Tasmanian people and the economy. The damage to and losses of King Billy, Huon and Pencil Pines were devastating.
We thank the fire crews from TFS, PWS and Forestry Tasmania, as well as interstate, for their tireless work to protect communities and the environment during summer’s bushfire.
This review is the third into bushfire events since the Liberals have been in government. Whilst this review makes additional recommendations which should be implemented, it also highlights outstanding recommendations from past reviews, which the Liberals haven’t acted on. The Liberal Government simply haven’t been doing enough to prevent or prepare for bushfires.
The review highlights the need for increased firefighting capability to protect Tasmanian from bushfires. The use of specialist crews and remote area firefighters should be expanded, with funding and resources to match.
An important recommendation of this and previous reviews is ensuring winch-capable aircraft are available during bushfires. With the state losing helicopter capacity from the ‘call when needed’ list as a result of the new aero medical contract, the Liberals must ensure much-needed additional winch capacity is invested in.
Increased mapping of natural and cultural values across the state has been a recommendation in each of the reviews. The Liberals must ensure that NRE has the capacity to do this urgently.
The review rightfully points to climate change as a driver of increasing wildfires across Tasmania. With the instances of serious bushfires more than doubling in the past two decades, this should be a wakeup call for the Liberals to reduce emissions.
Tasmanian has suffered a number of devastating fires in recent years. The recommendations from reviews on those fires have been clear. It’s time the Liberals acted with the urgency needed to protect the Tasmanian people and environment from bushfires, and implement recommendations from this and previous reviews.
