Ms BADGER – The Pine Forest Moore Hut burnt down in the devastating summer’s fires, and I do want to congratulate Parks for the good work that they did do in that instance. I’m wondering if we could seek some clarity please about whether it’s been determined as to how the hut burnt down, whether it was from the main fire front or indeed, a back‑burning mission that perhaps did not go as planned, to put it politely. In this case, whose insurance covers the loss of that hut? Is it the Tasmanian Walking Company, or does that come from Parks or NRE?
Mr DUIGAN – In terms of the cause of that, I think I will refer to the department.
Mr JACOBI ‑ Through you, minister. I haven’t got the specifics on the particular fire, but I am not of the understanding, and neither is Sophie, that the loss of the hut was caused by any particular action of our firefighters on that site. You know, we were defending the natural values of the estate, but also defending and trying to protect that asset. We do that all the time with built assets in the World Heritage Area or any reserve that we’re responsible for. So, I don’t think we can point to the hut having been burnt, or it’s loss, being attributed to any action by the department.
Typically, though, the replacement of those assets, if they are lost by fire, are the responsibility of the lessee. So, in this particular case, I think the Tasmanian Walking Company have taken it upon themselves to rebuild and rebuilt at their cost. We are doing whatever we can to support them to do that in the right way and as quickly as possible, so they can get back up into operating.
