The Inspector-General Emergency Management recommends entities with responsibilities for land and fire management consider the establishment of roles for Traditional Owner and First Nations representatives in incident management structures for significant bushfire or disaster events including those that may impact on cultural heritage in Queensland’s World Heritage sites.

The Inspector-General Emergency Management recommends the Queensland State Disaster Management Plan and the Queensland Bushfire Plan be reviewed to enhance appropriate arrangements for the management of bushfire and disaster events where a threat is posed to significant environmental and cultural heritage sites.

The Inspector-General Emergency Management recommends that the Queensland Government works with the Commonwealth Government to review the Project Agreement for World Heritage Management to ensure Queensland and Australia continue to meet their obligations under the World Heritage Convention to protect, conserve and present our World Heritage properties.

The Inspector-General Emergency Management recommends a set of guiding principles that reflect a unified response to World Heritage listed sites in Queensland be included in the Queensland State Disaster Management Plan and reflected in the Queensland Bushfire Plan.

Australian, state, territory and local governments should explore further opportunities to leverage Indigenous land and fire management insights, in the development, planning and execution of public land management activities. 

Australian, state, territory and local governments should engage further with Traditional Owners to explore the relationship between Indigenous land and fire management and natural disaster resilience. 

WHoG desktop exercise should be conducted to test and support relocation and evacuation planning.

That Government adopt the principle that cultural burning is one component of a broader practice of traditional Aboriginal land management and is an important cultural practice, not simply another technique of hazard reduction burning.

That, in order to ensure Aboriginal people can access appropriate support during evacuation, Resilience NSW work with Local Emergency Management Committees and Aboriginal Affairs to ensure:
a) local Aboriginal communities are included in emergency planning and preparation
b) all staff involved in evacuation centres and support services are culturally competent.

That, in order to increase the respectful, collaborative and effective use of Aboriginal land management practices in planning and preparing for bush fire, Government commit to pursuing greater application of Aboriginal land management, including cultural burning, through a program to be coordinated by Aboriginal Affairs and Department of Planning, Industry and Environment working in partnership with Aboriginal communities. This should be accompanied by a program of evaluation alongside the scaled-up application of these techniques.

Further define the principle of landholder responsibility for fire management and strengthen its fundamental place in the Act. This should include a clear requirement for landholders to prevent fire on their land from spreading to neighbouring properties.

Infringement of the regulations by either party should be followed by a summary form of justice, instituted before two Magistrates.

Where safety-lamps are necessary - gas being present for (say) one month after being found in dangerous quantity - they should be securely locked by a man duly appointed, and tampering with them must be punishable by a simple and inexpensive process of law. 

The Government introduce an amendment to the Country Fire Authority Act 1958 or other instruments which imposes significant penalties and strengthens enforcement, including via infringement notices, for offences against Total Fire Ban requirements before the 2017‑2018 fire season.

The Government should:
(a) provide additional support to the Gippsland Arson Prevention Program; and
(b) support the establishment of arson prevention programs of this type in other bushfire‑prone regions within Victoria, and involve both community and government agencies.

That heightened awareness and action is needed by communities when BoM issues flood watches and related warnings. Councils and SES need to facilitate this.

That the State Emergency Service together with the Local Government Association and Country Fire Service establish a plan for coordinated provision of sandbags to the public, including options for what is provided, where and when, and the process for effective communication of availability to the public.

I recommend that the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council develop a mechanism to ensure that all information on criminal history (including bail) that is relevant to the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences is readily accessible to police and prosecutors across all Australian jurisdictions.

Farm Management Deposits
The Farm Management Deposit Scheme appears to be a well-structured framework for
building rural resilience, however its uptake is low. Recent Commonwealth Government
announcements regarding this scheme should be applauded, but more work appears to be
needed to understand why the scheme is not more widely used, and to promote its use as a
means of building enterprise resilience.

That NPWS and the RFS consider developing a land management policy that requires active engagement with property owners adjoining the Park to ensure that hazard reduction and asset protection is encouraged and undertaken before the bush fire season commences

That the legislation and enforcement arrangements are reviewed to ensure there are suitable offences and penalties, investigation and enforcement capabilities, and a rigorous approach is taken to breaches of the law.

That on all land where fuel load creates a fire risk, the owner shall be responsible for the construction and maintenance of effective firebreaks. Failure to provide effective and accessible firebreaks will result in the cost of firebreak construction to control a wildfire on this land being debited to the land owner

Individuals without a mobile phone who are concerned about access to Triple Zero during a prolonged telecommunications outage could consider purchasing a low cost mobile phone with a charger to keep at home for use during such outages. Since mobile phones do not require SIM cards to make emergency calls (‘000’ and ‘112’), there will be no ongoing costs.

Housing should ensure it has sound systems, processes and controls in place that minimise the opportunity for fraud and gives it the best chance of detecting it by:
- conducting structured fraud risk analysis to identify areas of its maintenance processes or systems where the risk of fraud is highest
- putting in place a fraud policy to assist staff to detect fraud and respond appropriately to instances of suspected fraud
- making greater use of its maintenance information to identify patterns of activity that may indicate fraud.

Councils should consider making available to business owners locality specific information that would assist them to develop evacuation plans for commercial premises, for example, any evacuation sub-plan created under Emergency Management Queensland’s disaster evacuation guidelines.

Councils should support and encourage business owners to develop private flood evacuation plans by providing the following to business owners in areas known to be affected by flood: • information about the benefits of evacuation plans • contact details of relevant council and emergency service personnel for inclusion in evacuation plans.

Councils and distributor-retailers should agree to protocols for the exchange of information about suspected illegal connections, the steps being taken to investigate them or the basis for concluding that no investigation is required, and the results of any investigations or enforcement actions.

If the Queensland Development Code is amended to include provisions requiring homeowners to install sewage reflux valves, the Queensland Government should develop and make available to homeowners appropriate guidance material to assist them in meeting their responsibilities to maintain reflux valves.

Spreading the message of enforcement of landholder’s obligations and responsibilities through active consultation and ultimately the issuing of infringement notices be adopted as a planned strategic intervention to promote the importance of compliance with the Bushfires Act.

Increase the emphasis on the issuing of infringement notices to reinforce the responsibilities of landholder’s in the management of bushfires in the Territory.

Local residents must take a degree of shared responsibility to prepare their properties by reducing the risk of bushfire around their properties and planning for a bushfire emergency.

DEWHA should participate in training programs and exercises relevant to an oil spill in the marine environment.

That the Department of the Attorney General, in consultation with FESA and Western Australia Police (WAPOL), consider options for legislative amendments to extend criminal liability to all damage, injury or death directly caused by arson.

That legislation be prepared by the Criminal Law Review Division of the Attorney General’s Department allowing designated officers of the Rural Fire Service to apply for a warrant in certain circumstances.

That the Attorney General’s Department’s Crime Prevention Division consider the causes of, and any solution to, the high number of juveniles involved in causing bushfires.

The prescribed penalty notice penalty amount for section 66(7) of the Rural Fires Act 1997 be increased to $1,100.

The prescribed penalty notice penalty amount for section 99(6) of the Rural Fires Act 1997 be increased to $1,100.

The prescribed penalty notice penalty amount for section 100(2) of the Rural Fires Act 1997 be increased to $1,100.

A working group be established to consider methods of preventing criminal firestarting.

All Victorians should:
• make sure that they have a plan for severe storms which includes:
- an emergency kit (batteries, torch, radio with batteries, spare medication etc)
- actions to protect their family, property and pets
• ensure that vegetation surrounding power lines on private property is appropriately managed
• know where and how to access emergency information and advice.

Expiation fees be reviewed so as to be consistent with the seriousness of the offences.

NOPSA should use encouragement as the primary tool of enforcing compliance provided willingness to improve is exhibited by the players.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, in consultation with Indigenous Australians and other coastal stakeholders, commission work to provide a national repository identifying Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural heritage sites in vulnerable coastal areas.

The risk of abuse of internal passenger emergency door releases should be further reduced by introducing significant penalties for any improper use of such an emergency facility. It should be a criminal offence for anyone to use or tamper improperly with an emergency escape facility in a train.

RailCorp should continue its system of voluntary self-identification and rehabilitation of employees with alcohol or drug related problems.

That after each fire season, measures of the effectiveness of aerial firefighting be collated, analysed and used for the assessment of the State Aircraft Fleet composition and the adequacy of Training and Accreditation programs.

Local authorities prosecute in all cases of deliberate breaches of the provisions of the Bush Fires Act and thay failing this the Bush Fires Board take appropriate action to initiate such prosecutions.

To prohibit persons throwing lighted cigarettes, cigars and tobacco among any straw, stubble, grass or herbage during the months of September to March in any Bush Fire area, under a penalty not exceeding $10.

To prohibit persons taking into a harvest field or through any grass or bush lands any motor, tractor, harvester, &c., which is not supplied with an approved fire extinguisher or without the exhaust being properly fitted and protected, under a penalty not exceeding $50.

That a by-law be made forbidding, under a heavy penalty, any persons travelling in such trains to throw lighted tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, pipe ashes, matches, or other inflammable matter on the railway line or right-of-way, or in any part of a railway carriage except the receptacles duly provided for the purpose.