Fire

Kaniva fire brigade group crews were busy battling a number of fires over the weekend. On Friday lightning started a fire on Coastview at approximately 11.38pm. Broughton, Dinyarrak, Telopea and Sandsmere tankers were in attendance. A second fire occurred on Blue Hills Telopea at approximately 12.06am...

In my adjournment matter, I encouraged the Minister for Emergency Services to delve more deeply into Dr Tolhurst’s life’s work and consider his recommendation that bushfire management should have a greater focus on fuel load reduction. Dr Tolhurst repeatedly pointed out the folly in prioritising expensive and difficult suppression of fire, instead of fuel load management ... He powerfully argued against an influential Climate Council factsheet, which had concluded “no amount of hazard reduction will protect human lives, animals and properties from catastrophic fires” – pointing out that analysing the extent of burned areas, rather than the severity of the fire, is misleading.

Primary producers significantly affected by bushfires in Queensland will soon be able to access emergency fodder. The recently established Bushfire Fodder Taskforce has contracted Rural Aid to provide five road trains of fodder to affected areas.

Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA) says it cannot support the government's proposed Tasmanian Fire and Emergency Services fire levy funding models in their present form ... TFGA President, Ian Sauer said, “While we support the move toward a fairer, more efficient funding system with a single source of funding, in some instances we’re seeing farmers' contributions increase under one proposed model by a staggering 1000 per cent, and under the other model by at least 230 per cent in contributions, which is  unacceptable and certainly not equitable.”