Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
1654 COUNCIL Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Leader of the Government, representing the Premier, to
table the documents by 12 noon on Tuesday, 14 June
2011, which is two weeks from now. It will definitely
bring us past three months since the documents were
first asked for. I am not anticipating that
Mr O’Donohue, who usually assists the government
with these motions and in these matters, is going to
stand up and say there has not been enough time.
In my motion I am requiring the Leader of the
Government in the Council to table the documents by
14 June. I think that is reasonable, given that by then it
will have been three months since the staging of the
grand prix.
Mr O’DONOHUE (Eastern Victoria) — The
government does not oppose the motion moved by
Ms Pennicuik. Ms Pennicuik has given an accurate
summary of the dates and issues associated with the
production of these documents, namely, that the
original motion was moved at about the time of the
Australian Formula One Grand Prix, and she has
referred to the most recent response from the
Attorney-General dated 24 May 2011. I note in that
letter the Attorney-General says, ‘The government will
endeavour to respond shortly’.
Mr LEANE (Eastern Metropolitan) — The
opposition supports Ms Pennicuik’s repeated call for
these documents and supports the stated reasons she
requires them.
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — I
want to point out that this is a bit of a step up from
requesting that the documents be presented; it is
requiring them to be presented. I thank the other
speakers for their support. I neglected to say that the
Attorney-General has written to the Clerk on at least
two occasions to keep us up to date on progress, even
though the documents have not been forthcoming,
which did not happen in the last Parliament.
Motion agreed to.
ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING
LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Membership
Hon. W. A. LOVELL (Minister for Housing) —
By leave, I move:
That Mrs Petrovich be a participating member of the
Environment and Planning Legislation Committee.
Motion agreed to.
STATEMENTS ON REPORTS AND PAPERS
Implementing the Government’s Response to the
2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission —
May 2011
Mr P. DAVIS (Eastern Victoria) — I wish to make
a statement on the report Implementing the
Government’s Response to the 2009 Victorian
Bushfires Royal Commission — May 2011.
Mr Lenders interjected.
Mr P. DAVIS — I heard an interjection from the
Leader of the Opposition that I was going to talk about
firewood. I am not; I am going to talk about fire and
wood that burns, of course. I am delighted to have the
opportunity to make some brief comments — and they
will be brief — in relation to the report before the
house.
The government response to the 2009 Victorian
Bushfires Royal Commission is emphatic in that it
supports all the royal commission’s recommendations
contained in the final report and is committed to
implementing each of them. It is quite clear that the
government is making a substantial investment in
achieving that response. The government has provided
$900 million in response to the final report.
Importantly, there are aspects of the implementation of
the recommendations that are relevant, and the
implementation plan is the foundation of the
government’s strategy to deliver a state that is better
prepared for catastrophic fires.
I speak with some passion on this subject, as I have
spoken many times before. Coming from East
Gippsland, there is a well-defined and well-understood
threat to the community as a consequence of
catastrophic fire, but there are many actions which the
community, and government in particular, can take to
mitigate some of those risks. In terms of the
government response, at the top of that list is the need
to commit to reducing the fuel load on public land
while monitoring and carefully managing the ecological
consequences of any such activity.
We have had debates in this place in recent times about
that issue, including debate around the issue of whether
or not one mitigation tool might be the grazing activity
of cattle in the Alpine region. I am sure that debate will
continue, but it is only one tool in the kit of fuel load
minimisation. The major action that can be taken by
government is to increase investment in fuel reduction
burning, and there has been a significant attempt over
this past autumn to step up that investment. I