Mr McADAM - 2001-10-17
The minister will be aware of the bushfires that are occurring in the Barkly and the central region. Can he inform the House what the government has done in relation to this very serious problem?
ANSWER
I thank the member for Barkly for his question. Indeed, it is a very serious matter. I think most people in this Chamber would be aware of the serious levels of bushfires we have had this season. I have taken a very strong personal interest in this. I have probably flown over or driven past and through more bushfires in the last several months than most people in this Chamber would have.
The situation, according to my department and certainly the pastoralists, is essentially that it is a very heavy fire season with about the same number of fires as normal but with a much higher fuel load. Because of this we are getting much more severe fires and much more widespread fires. That is what has made this year particularly different.
Before I go on into what we have actually done about it, I would like to pay tribute to the fantastic work that has been done by emergency services, the Bushfires Council, the pastoralists themselves and Aboriginal communities, in combating these fires. It has been all hands on deck, and there have been some quite heroic things done in terms of combating individual fires, whether they are out on the pastoral properties or whether they are around the urban centres, such as the severe fires we had threatening Alice Springs a few weekends ago.
We have taken a multifaceted action on trying to combat the particular problems we are having now. We cannot change the seasons; we cannot change the climate, although I will claim that I did make it rain in Alice Springs the day after we had the bushfire meeting, and it has rained ever since. So, at least we have some receding of the threat around that area. On 1 October, partly at the instigation of the member for Braitling - and I thank her for that - we called together a meeting of the relevant agencies in Alice Springs: the Bushfires Council; the fire services; the police; and the Cattlemen’s Association. The member for Barkly attended by phone and the member for Braitling attended as an observer at the meeting, although she had a lot to say, which was quite welcome.
The outcomes of that meeting were that we confirmed that we do need a public campaign on the mediation of these bushfires. In fact, for the people who are lighting fires - for example, Aboriginal people who are traditionally burning off country, tourists letting fires get away from them – it is really a matter of public awareness. We have to get the general public, particularly in the towns, to clear up around their properties and be a lot more careful about fire when we have the conditions of high wind and high fuel load and very hot, dry conditions. For the people out bush, Aboriginal people have certainly been approached, community by community, to try and slow down or be a lot more careful about the fire lighting. A lot of the fires have been lit along access roads to communities, so it is the sort of thing that is happening as people are coming to and from town. There needs to be a lot more awareness by all people - whether they are Aboriginal people in remote communities or urban dwellers, particularly around the fringe areas around our main urban centres - that these are particularly bad fire conditions at the moment and we are more than likely to get it again next year if we get another big Wet.
We are looking at continuing a Bushfires Council/CLC-funded video publicity campaign. I will certainly ask my department to extend the screening of those videos so that we are continuing to work on public awareness. The police have visited the pastoral properties that have been most affected by the fires. Alkedra is probably the worst that we have come across so far. There were stock losses and almost a total loss of groundcover over large areas of that pastoral lease. We will be working with the Cattlemen’s Association now to look at whether some relief payments are required for the loss of income, and we will follow up with the pastoralists, generally, on the practical needs they have coming out of this setback they have just had.
To deal with the last category of fire lighting, the fire bugs. There are certainly fire bugs operating around the urban centres. They need to be caught, wherever we can, and they need to be prosecuted. We will make sure that the police get on to that.
We are doing as much as we can. We are certainly very aware that this is a problem that is not going to go away. We are going to have to be as vigilant next season, probably, as we should be this season.
ANSWER
I thank the member for Barkly for his question. Indeed, it is a very serious matter. I think most people in this Chamber would be aware of the serious levels of bushfires we have had this season. I have taken a very strong personal interest in this. I have probably flown over or driven past and through more bushfires in the last several months than most people in this Chamber would have.
The situation, according to my department and certainly the pastoralists, is essentially that it is a very heavy fire season with about the same number of fires as normal but with a much higher fuel load. Because of this we are getting much more severe fires and much more widespread fires. That is what has made this year particularly different.
Before I go on into what we have actually done about it, I would like to pay tribute to the fantastic work that has been done by emergency services, the Bushfires Council, the pastoralists themselves and Aboriginal communities, in combating these fires. It has been all hands on deck, and there have been some quite heroic things done in terms of combating individual fires, whether they are out on the pastoral properties or whether they are around the urban centres, such as the severe fires we had threatening Alice Springs a few weekends ago.
We have taken a multifaceted action on trying to combat the particular problems we are having now. We cannot change the seasons; we cannot change the climate, although I will claim that I did make it rain in Alice Springs the day after we had the bushfire meeting, and it has rained ever since. So, at least we have some receding of the threat around that area. On 1 October, partly at the instigation of the member for Braitling - and I thank her for that - we called together a meeting of the relevant agencies in Alice Springs: the Bushfires Council; the fire services; the police; and the Cattlemen’s Association. The member for Barkly attended by phone and the member for Braitling attended as an observer at the meeting, although she had a lot to say, which was quite welcome.
The outcomes of that meeting were that we confirmed that we do need a public campaign on the mediation of these bushfires. In fact, for the people who are lighting fires - for example, Aboriginal people who are traditionally burning off country, tourists letting fires get away from them – it is really a matter of public awareness. We have to get the general public, particularly in the towns, to clear up around their properties and be a lot more careful about fire when we have the conditions of high wind and high fuel load and very hot, dry conditions. For the people out bush, Aboriginal people have certainly been approached, community by community, to try and slow down or be a lot more careful about the fire lighting. A lot of the fires have been lit along access roads to communities, so it is the sort of thing that is happening as people are coming to and from town. There needs to be a lot more awareness by all people - whether they are Aboriginal people in remote communities or urban dwellers, particularly around the fringe areas around our main urban centres - that these are particularly bad fire conditions at the moment and we are more than likely to get it again next year if we get another big Wet.
We are looking at continuing a Bushfires Council/CLC-funded video publicity campaign. I will certainly ask my department to extend the screening of those videos so that we are continuing to work on public awareness. The police have visited the pastoral properties that have been most affected by the fires. Alkedra is probably the worst that we have come across so far. There were stock losses and almost a total loss of groundcover over large areas of that pastoral lease. We will be working with the Cattlemen’s Association now to look at whether some relief payments are required for the loss of income, and we will follow up with the pastoralists, generally, on the practical needs they have coming out of this setback they have just had.
To deal with the last category of fire lighting, the fire bugs. There are certainly fire bugs operating around the urban centres. They need to be caught, wherever we can, and they need to be prosecuted. We will make sure that the police get on to that.
We are doing as much as we can. We are certainly very aware that this is a problem that is not going to go away. We are going to have to be as vigilant next season, probably, as we should be this season.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016