Farmers happy with fire findings: VFF

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VICTORIA'S farmers say the bushfires royal commission final report has dealt with their major concerns and have called for urgent action by the state government in these areas.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Andrew Broad said the report had addressed three main areas of concern to farmers - insurance, native vegetation and fuel reduction burning.

“The Black Saturday bushfires were the worst disaster in our State’s history,” Mr Broad said.

“Lives were lost, properties were burnt and over 400,000 hectares of land was scarred by flames that changed the lives of thousands of Victorian farmers.”

Mr Broad said the report addressed many important areas which must be considered by the state government and acted upon before the next fire season.

“Of particular relevance to farmers, the Commission has recommended the current fire funding model, the Fire Services Levy be scrapped and replaced with a property based charge with consideration for a charge on motor vehicles.

“The Commission has discredited the Victorian Government’s argument that retaining the levy is the most appropriate way to build fire risk factors into insurance costs.”

“This recommendation is the most recent in a long line of inquiries and reports that have come to the same conclusion. The Fire Service Levy must go. There is no reason to delay the eradication of this failed funding model any longer.”

Mr Broad said the Commission had also found that prescribed burning was an effective and necessary bushfire management tool and the current Victorian target of 130,000ha inadequate. 

“The Commission recommends a substantial increase in the prescribed burning target, and this recommendation is supported by Victorian farmers,” he said.

“Native vegetation, especially the management of roadsides and clearances around dwellings, is conflicted by the competing priorities of biodiversity and fire protection.”

Other recommendations for assessment of fire hazards to be included in permit applications for the removal of native vegetation and greater guidance for local government in managing native vegetation were “sensible and important” and had been raised previously by the VFF.

The Commission had also recommended that single wire earth return, or SWER, and 22 kilovolt electricity networks be placed underground or replaced with aerial bundled cables, Mr Broad said.

“While this is an admirable aspiration it would come at a massive cost to taxpayers, and it is difficult to see how this recommendation could be implemented,” he said.

Mr Broad said the VFF would continue to assess the full detail of the report in the coming days and looked forward to working with the government throughout the ongoing consultation process.