Inquiry Search
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC321-4212 | 34 - Local knowledge | We recommend that DELWP increases its collaboration with Victorian Traditional Owner groups to facilitate the reintroduction of cultural burning and ensure effective support for these practices across all of its regions. |
REC321-4207 | 25 - Inquiry, audit, lessons management and after action review | We recommend that DELWP reviews its target for the number of fuel hazard assessments conducted and ensures that this measure is evidence based, accurately reflects regional performance, and that the department monitors and reports on each region’s performance against it. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC275-1174 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | IGEM recommends that fire agencies consider an earlier classification of Level 3 incident for fires that present significant complexity such as was evident in the Wye River – Jamieson Track event. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC228-1614 | 25 - Inquiry, audit, lessons management and after action review | The Emergency Services Agency, in consultation with the ACT Bushfire Council, should conduct a review of the ACT Bushfire Council against its recently developed terms of reference (July 2013) within two years. |
REC228-1628 | 8 - Communications and warnings | The Emergency Services Agency should develop and test administrative procedures for the communications systems used for the distribution of public warning and emergency alerts. |
REC228-1607 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Justice and Community Safety Directorate, in managing future amendments to the Emergencies Act 2004, should propose amendments which require the Emergency Services Agency to maintain information on privately-owned assets of public interest that are vulnerable to bushfire without the need to include this information in the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan. |
REC228-1613 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Emergency Services Agency should continue to work with National Land managers and develop a National Land bushfire management framework to address bushfire risks on National Land. |
REC228-1623 | 15 - Inter-service cooperation | The Emergency Services Agency and the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate should develop and routinely review a strategic bushfire capability for the ACT. The contribution of ACT Fire and Rescue (including the Community Fire Units) and the ACT Rural Fire Service (including Parks Brigade) should be explicitly stated. |
REC228-1606 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Emergency Services Agency should comply with the Emergencies Act 2004 requirements for the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan by including in this Plan an explicit statement of all resources needed to meet the objectives of the Plan. |
REC228-1612 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Emergency Services Agency should develop a strategy for monitoring the development and implementation of all Government land managers’ operational plans. |
REC228-1622 | 15 - Inter-service cooperation | The Emergency Services Agency and the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate should continue to improve working arrangements between the ACT Rural Fire Service Parks Brigade and the ACT Rural Fire Service headquarters, by: |
REC228-1611 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Emergency Services Agency should specify preparation and approval requirements for bushfire operational plans, particularly those for lands in the Bushfire Abatement Zone. |
REC228-1621 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Emergency Services Agency should improve its management of the Community Fire Unit Program by: |
REC228-1609 | 25 - Inquiry, audit, lessons management and after action review | The Emergency Services Agency should undertake audits to meet the requirements in the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan for the preparation, sharing and publication of annual progress reports. Annual progress reports should be made available to the ACT Bushfire Council. |
REC228-1620 | 25 - Inquiry, audit, lessons management and after action review | The Emergency Services Agency, in consultation with the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate, should review the Farm FireWise Program, including: |
REC228-1608 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Emergency Services Agency should review the operations of the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan Implementation Working Group to determine if it is the most appropriate mechanism for ‘monitoring the scope and effectiveness’ of the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan. If it is retained, ways to improve its effectiveness should be identified and implemented. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC181-0161 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The State consider amending the Emergency Management Act 1986 and the Emergency Management Manual Victoria in order to achieve the following: ■ remove the title of Coordinator in Chief of Emergency Management from the Minister for Police and Emergency Services; ■ clarify the function and powers of the Minister; ■ designate the Chief Commissioner of Police as Coordinator in Chief of Emergency Management, who would have primary responsibility for keeping the Minister informed during an emergency. |
REC181-0216 | 25 - Inquiry, audit, lessons management and after action review | The State appoint an independent monitor or the Victorian Auditor-General to assess progress with implementing the Commission’s recommendations and report to the Parliament and the people of Victoria by 31 July 2012. |
REC181-0167 | 14 - Incident Mgt Teams | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment establish before the 2010–11 fire season: ■ a uniform, objective and transparent process based on the current DSE approach for the accreditation of level 3 Incident Controllers; ■ a performance review system for level 3 Incident Controllers; ■ a traineeship program for progression from level 2 to level 3 incident management team positions. |
REC181-0151 | 11 - Evacuation and shelters | The State revise its bushfire safety policy. While adopting the national Prepare. Act. Survive. framework in Victoria, the policy should do the following: ■ enhance the role of warnings—including providing for timely and informative advice about the predicted passage of a fire and the actions to be taken by people in areas potentially in its path; ■ emphasise that all fires are different in ways that require an awareness of fire conditions, local circumstances and personal capacity; ■ recognise that the heightened risk on the worst days demands a different response; ■ retain those elements of the existing bushfire policy that have proved effective; ■ strengthen the range of options available in the face of fire, including community refuges, bushfire shelters and evacuation; ■ ensure that local solutions are tailored and known to communities through local bushfire planning; ■ improve advice on the nature of fire and house defendability, taking account of broader landscape risks. |
REC181-0160 | 20 - Role of police | The State clarify whether, during major fires, Victoria Police should discharge its coordination functions from the State Emergency Response Coordination Centre or from the State Control Centre. |
REC181-0213 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The State enact legislation designed to achieve two specific ends: ■ appoint a Fire Commissioner as an independent statutory officer responsible to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services and as the senior operational firefighter in Victoria; ■ make the Chief Fire Officer of the Department of Sustainability and Environment a statutory appointment. The Fire Commissioner should have responsibility for the following: ■ promoting and directing reform aimed at increasing the operational capability, interoperability and resilience of Victoria’s fire services; ■ developing and building operational capacity to prepare for the days of highest bushfire risk and exercising control over level 3 fires as the permanent State Controller; ■ providing to government periodic advice on the metropolitan fire district boundary on the basis of triggers, frequency and criteria approved by government; ■ representing Victorian interests on operational matters in national committees. |
REC181-0165 | 14 - Incident Mgt Teams | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment: ■ amend their procedures to require that an incident action plan summary be completed within the first four hours of an incident being reported and be provided to the State Control Centre and, where established, to the relevant Area of Operations Control Centre; ■ adopt DSE’s incident action plan summary as the template to be used by all incident management teams and ensure that the template is included in the online IMT Tool Box; ■ provide regular training to IMT staff, highlighting the importance of information and reinforcing the support available from specialists within the State Control Centre. |
REC181-0173 | 7 - Inter-agency communication | The Country Fire Authority review and improve its communications strategy as a matter of priority and develop a program for identifying and responding to black spots in radio coverage. |
REC181-0159 | 14 - Incident Mgt Teams | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment prescribe and audit the minimum number and nature of level 3 joint training exercises in which incident management team staff (including volunteers) are required to participate. |
REC181-0209 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Department of Sustainability and Environment amend the Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land in order to achieve the following: ■ provide a clear statement of objectives, expressed as measurable outcomes; ■ include an explicit risk-analysis model for more objective and transparent resolution of competing objectives, where human life is the highest priority; ■ specify the characteristics of fire management zones—including burn size, percentage area burnt within the prescribed burn, and residual fuel loading; ■ adopt the use of the term ‘bushfire’ rather than ‘wildfire’. |
REC181-0164 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Victorian fire agencies amend the AIIMS framework before the 2010–11 fire season in order to do the following: ■ designate the Information Unit as a separate section reporting directly to the Incident Controller and require that the Information Unit contain a dedicated Public Information Officer whenever a full incident management team is required; ■ specify a set of functions in relation to which the Deputy Incident Controller for a level 3 incident will have oversight, which may be adjustable for a particular incident by agreement between the Incident Controller and the Deputy Incident Controller; ■ ensure that an individual with local knowledge is incorporated in an incident management team |
REC181-0172 | 15 - Inter-service cooperation | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment standardise their operating systems and information and communications technologies with the aim of achieving greater efficiency and interoperability between agencies. |
REC181-0158 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment amend their procedures to require the following: ■ that at locations that attract preparedness levels A or B there be a full incident management team under the leadership of an accredited level 3 Incident Controller in position by 10.00 am on days of code red fire danger and a core incident management team (eight personnel) under the leadership of an accredited level 3 Incident Controller in position by 10.00 am on days of extreme fire danger; ■ that at locations that attract preparedness levels A or B there be a full incident management team under the leadership of an accredited level 3 Incident Controller in position by 10.00 am on days of code red fire danger and a core incident management team (eight personnel) under the leadership of an accredited level 3 Incident Controller in position by 10.00 am on days of extreme fire danger. |
REC181-0204 | 2 - Emergency powers | The State amend the Country Fire Authority Act 1958 to enable the Chief Officer to delegate the power to issue fire prevention notices. |
REC181-0163 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The State consider amending the Emergency Management Act 1986 to introduce a graded scale of emergency declarations short of a state of disaster. |
REC181-0169 | 18 - Access to fire ground | The Country Fire Authority provide to all CFA volunteers an identification card or similar to facilitate their passage through roadblocks established in accordance with the 2009 Guidelines for the Operation of Traffic Management Points during Wildfires. |
REC181-0155 | 11 - Evacuation and shelters | The State introduce a comprehensive approach to evacuation, so that this option is planned, considered and implemented when it is likely to offer a higher level of protection than other contingency options. The approach should: ■ encourage individuals—especially vulnerable people—to relocate early; ■ include consideration of plans for assisted evacuation of vulnerable people; ■ include consideration of plans for assisted evacuation of vulnerable people. |
REC181-0185 | 20 - Role of police | Victoria Police continue to pursue a coordinated statewide approach to arson prevention and regularly review its approach to ensure that it contains the following elements: ■ high-level commitment from senior police; ■ a research program aimed at refining arson prevention and detection strategies; ■ centralised coordination that includes comprehensive training, periodic evaluation of arson prevention strategies and programs, and promotion of best-practice prevention approaches; ■ a requirement that all fire-prone police service areas have arson prevention plans and programs, according to their level of risk. |
REC181-0162 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The State consider either amending the Emergency Management Act 1986 or adopting a standing practice to require the Minister for Police and Emergency Services or the Chief Commissioner of Police to consult the Premier about the possibility of declaring a state of disaster for all of or any part of Victoria whenever the Minister or the Chief Commissioner of Police becomes aware of circumstances that make it a reasonable possibility that the criteria for making such a declaration will be satisfied. |
REC181-0217 | 25 - Inquiry, audit, lessons management and after action review | The State consider the development of legislation for the conduct of inquiries in Victoria —in particular, the conduct of royal commissions. |
REC181-0168 | 14 - Incident Mgt Teams | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment amend their procedures to require that a suitably experienced, qualified and competent person be appointed as Incident Controller, regardless of the control agency for the fire. |
REC181-0154 | 11 - Evacuation and shelters | The State introduce a comprehensive approach to shelter options that includes the following: ■ developing standards for community refuges as a matter of priority and replacing the 2005 Fire Refuges in Victoria: Policy and Practice; ■ designating community refuges—particularly in areas of very high risk—where other bushfire safety options are limited; ■ working with municipal councils to ensure that appropriate criteria are used for bushfire shelters, so that people are not discouraged from using a bushfire shelter if there is no better option available; ■ acknowledging personal shelters around their homes as a fallback option for individuals. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC169-2996 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Department of Premier and Cabinet should provide clear guidance on terms such as ‘audit’, ‘auditor’ and ‘adequacy of the exercise’ to assist departments, Victoria Police and industry to implement requirements more reliably. |
REC169-2988 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Department of Premier and Cabinet should establish clear oversight and coordination of the arrangements for both Part 6 of the Terrorism (Community Protection) Act 2003 and the CIP framework by an appropriate body, such as the Government Security and Continuity Network Coordination Group with expanded responsibilities. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC016_3953 | 15 - Inter-service cooperation | It is therefore recommended that the State Electricity Commission should be advised by someone whose profession it is to consider and devise methods of forest fire protection and suppression; that he should collaborate with others to devise a general scheme of organized protection of the undertaking and township of Yallourn; and that above all, he should have direct access to the Commissioners themselves, lest his advice should lose something of its strength and reality in its journey through the “proper channels” of the Commission’s organization. |
REC016_3947 | 15 - Inter-service cooperation | It is recommended that the services of this body [Air Raids Precautions Body] be used in future if to do so be thought desirable. |