INQ181
Recommendations for this Inquiry
INQ-ref | REC-UID | CODE | SubCode | SrcNUM | Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
INQ181 | REC181-0151 | C - Response | 11 - Evacuation and shelters | Recommendation 1 | The State revise its bushfire safety policy. While adopting the national Prepare. Act. Survive. |
INQ181 | REC181-0152 | A - Responsibility | 9 - Community education | Recommendation 2 | The State revise the approach to community bushfire safety education in order to: ■ ensure that its publications and educational materials reflect the revised bushfire safety policy; ■ equip all fire agency personnel with the information needed to effectively communicate the policy to the public |
INQ181 | REC181-0153 | A - Responsibility | 22 - Role of local Gvt | Recommendation 3 | The State establish mechanisms for helping municipal councils to undertake local planning that tailors bushfire safety options to the needs of individual communities. |
INQ181 | REC181-0154 | C - Response | 11 - Evacuation and shelters | Recommendation 4 | 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 hig |
INQ181 | REC181-0155 | C - Response | 11 - Evacuation and shelters | Recommendation 5 | 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. |
INQ181 | REC181-0156 | A - Responsibility | 9 - Community education | Recommendation 6 | Victoria lead an initiative of the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs to ensure that the national curriculum incorporates the history of bushfire in Australia and that existing curriculum areas such as geography, science and environmental studies incl |
INQ181 | REC181-0157 | A - Responsibility | 9 - Community education | Recommendation 7 | The Commonwealth lead an initiative through the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management, facilitated by Emergency Management Australia, to develop a national bushfire awareness campaign. |
INQ181 | REC181-0158 | E - Agency Organisation | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | Recommendation 8 | 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 i |
INQ181 | REC181-0159 | C - Response | 14 - Incident Mgt Teams | Recommendation 9 | 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. |
INQ181 | REC181-0160 | C - Response | 20 - Role of police | Recommendation 10 | 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. |
INQ181 | REC181-0161 | E - Agency Organisation | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | Recommendation 11 | 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 o |
INQ181 | REC181-0162 | E - Agency Organisation | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | Recommendation 12 | 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 o |
INQ181 | REC181-0163 | E - Agency Organisation | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | Recommendation 13 | The State consider amending the Emergency Management Act 1986 to introduce a graded scale of emergency declarations short of a state of disaster. |
INQ181 | REC181-0164 | E - Agency Organisation | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | Recommendation 14 | 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 Offi |
INQ181 | REC181-0165 | C - Response | 14 - Incident Mgt Teams | Recommendation 15 | 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 t |
INQ181 | REC181-0166 | F - Research and technology | 13 - Mapping and data quality | Recommendation 16 | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment improve mapping support in the following ways: ■ DSE providing mapping data free of charge to emergency response agencies; ■ greatly increasing the CFA’s ‘write’ access to FireMap for incident management team staff; ■ |
INQ181 | REC181-0167 | C - Response | 14 - Incident Mgt Teams | Recommendation 17 | 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 |
INQ181 | REC181-0168 | C - Response | 14 - Incident Mgt Teams | Recommendation 18 | 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. |
INQ181 | REC181-0169 | C - Response | 18 - Access to fire ground | Recommendation 19 | 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. |
INQ181 | REC181-0170 | F - Research and technology | 17 - Assets and technology | Recommendation 20 | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment amend their policies on aerial preparedness and standby arrangements, their dispatch protocols and the management of aircraft in order to do the following: ■ require that at locations that attract the risk assessment |
INQ181 | REC181-0171 | F - Research and technology | 17 - Assets and technology | Recommendation 21 | The State, in conjunction with Emergency Management Australia and the Department of Defence, develop an agreement that allows Commonwealth aerial resources that are suitable for firefighting and support activities to be incorporated in preparedness plans and used on days of high fire risk. |
INQ181 | REC181-0172 | C - Response | 15 - Inter-service cooperation | Recommendation 22 | 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. |
INQ181 | REC181-0173 | C - Response | 7 - Inter-agency communication | Recommendation 23 | 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. |
INQ181 | REC181-0174 | E - Agency Organisation | 29 - Operational Health and Safety | Recommendation 24 | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment amend their procedures for investigating safety incidents and ‘near-misses’ to ensure that all dangerous incidents, including back-burns, are fully investigated and that all relevant people are consulted and informed |
INQ181 | REC181-0175 | E - Agency Organisation | 16 - Training and behaviour | Recommendation 25 | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment require without exception that all relevant staff be trained in the need for Incident Controller approval to be obtained before a back-burn is lit. |
INQ181 | REC181-0176 | E - Agency Organisation | 29 - Operational Health and Safety | Recommendation 26 | The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment adopt the title ‘safety officer’ (as opposed to ‘safety adviser’) and require without exception that a safety officer be appointed to every level 3 incident management team. |
INQ181 | REC181-0177 | B - Preparedness | 10 - Infrastructure | Recommendation 27 | The State amend the Regulations under Victoria’s Electricity Safety Act 1998 and otherwise take such steps as may be required to give effect to the following: ■ the progressive replacement of all SWER (single-wire earth return) power lines in Victoria with aerial bundled cable, underground cablin |
INQ181 | REC181-0178 | B - Preparedness | 10 - Infrastructure | Recommendation 28 | The State (through Energy Safe Victoria) require distribution businesses to change their asset inspection standards and procedures to require that all SWER lines and all 22-kilovolt feeders in areas of high bushfire risk are inspected at least every three years. |
INQ181 | REC181-0179 | B - Preparedness | 10 - Infrastructure | Recommendation 29 | The State (through Energy Safe Victoria) require distribution businesses to review and modify their current practices, standards and procedures for the training and auditing of asset inspectors to ensure that registered training organisations provide adequate theoretical and practical training fo |
INQ181 | REC181-0180 | B - Preparedness | 10 - Infrastructure | Recommendation 30 | The State amend the regulatory framework for electricity safety to require that distribution businesses adopt, as part of their management plans, measures to reduce the risks posed by hazard trees—that is, trees that are outside the clearance zone but that could come into contact with an electric |
INQ181 | REC181-0181 | A - Responsibility | 22 - Role of local Gvt | Recommendation 31 | Municipal councils include in their municipal fire prevention plans for areas of high bushfire risk provision for the identification of hazard trees and for notifying the responsible entities with a view to having the situation redressed. |
INQ181 | REC181-0182 | B - Preparedness | 10 - Infrastructure | Recommendation 32 | The State (through Energy Safe Victoria) require distribution businesses to do the following: ■ disable the reclose function on the automatic circuit reclosers on all SWER lines for the six weeks of greatest risk in every fire season; ■ adjust the reclose function on the automatic circuit reclose |
INQ181 | REC181-0183 | B - Preparedness | 10 - Infrastructure | Recommendation 33 | The State (through Energy Safe Victoria) require distribution businesses to do the following: ■ fit spreaders to any lines with a history of clashing or the potential to do so; ■ fit or retrofit all spans that are more than 300 metres long with vibration dampers as soon as is reasonably practicab |
INQ181 | REC181-0184 | B - Preparedness | 10 - Infrastructure | Recommendation 34 | The State amend the regulatory framework for electricity safety to strengthen Energy Safe Victoria’s mandate in relation to the prevention and mitigation of electricity-caused bushfires and to require it to fulfil that mandate. |
INQ181 | REC181-0185 | C - Response | 20 - Role of police | Recommendation 35 | 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 |
INQ181 | REC181-0186 | A - Responsibility | 21 - Role of Commonwealth Government | Recommendation 36 | The Commonwealth, states and territories continue to pursue the National Action Plan to Reduce Bushfire Arson in Australia, giving priority to producing a nationally consistent framework for data collection and evaluating current and proposed programs in order to identify and share best-practice |
INQ181 | REC181-0187 | F - Research and technology | 13 - Mapping and data quality | Recommendation 37 | The State identify a central point of responsibility for and expertise in mapping bushfire risk to: ■ review urgently the mapping criteria at present used by the Country Fire Authority to map the Wildfire Management Overlay, to ensure that the mapping used to determine building and planning contr |
INQ181 | REC181-0188 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 38 | The State implement a regional settlement policy that: ■ takes account of the management of bushfire risk, including that associated with small, undeveloped rural lots; ■ includes a process for responding to bushfire risk at the planning stage for new urban developments in regional cities, the pr |
INQ181 | REC181-0189 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 39 | The State amend the Victoria Planning Provisions relating to bushfire to ensure that the provisions give priority to the protection of human life, adopt a clear objective of substantially restricting development in the areas of highest bushfire risk—giving due consideration to biodiversity conser |
INQ181 | REC181-0190 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 40 | The Country Fire Authority amend its guidelines for assessing permit applications for dwellings, nondwellings and subdivisions in the Bushfire-prone Overlay in order to accommodate the amendments to the Wildfire Management Overlay that are implemented as a result of recommendation 39 and make the |
INQ181 | REC181-0191 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 41 | The State: ■ amend the Victoria Planning Provisions to require that, when assessing a permit to remove native vegetation around an existing dwelling, the responsible authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment, as referral authority, take into account fire hazard and give weigh |
INQ181 | REC181-0192 | B - Preparedness | 4 - Fire season preparation | Recommendation 42 | The Department of Sustainability and Environment develop and administer a collective offset solution for individual landholders who are permitted to remove native vegetation for the purpose of fire protection. |
INQ181 | REC181-0193 | F - Research and technology | 13 - Mapping and data quality | Recommendation 43 | The Department of Sustainability and Environment conduct biodiversity mapping identifying flora, fauna and any threatened species throughout Victoria and make the results publicly available. The format used should be compatible with that used for Bushfire-prone Area mapping. |
INQ181 | REC181-0194 | A - Responsibility | 9 - Community education | Recommendation 44 | The Country Fire Authority produce for community guidance material on fire-resistant landscape and garden design, including a list of fire-resistant species. |
INQ181 | REC181-0195 | A - Responsibility | 22 - Role of local Gvt | Recommendation 45 | The State press municipal councils—in particular, Murrindindi Shire Council—to urgently adopt a bushfire policy in their Local Planning Policy Framework and incorporate bushfire risk management in their planning policies and strategies for rebuilding communities such as Marysville, Kinglake and o |
INQ181 | REC181-0196 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 46 | The State develop and implement a retreat and resettlement strategy for existing developments in areas of unacceptably high bushfire risk, including a scheme for non-compulsory acquisition by the State of land in these areas. |
INQ181 | REC181-0197 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 47 | Standards Australia do the following: ■ amend the objective of AS 3959-2009, Construction of Buildings in Bushfire-prone Areas, to ensure that it incorporates reducing the risk of ignition from ember attack; ■ review, and amend as appropriate, the testing methods prescribed in its standards for T |
INQ181 | REC181-0198 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 48 | The Australian Building Codes Board do the following: ■ amend the performance requirements in the Building Code of Australia to ensure that they incorporate reducing the risk of ignition from ember attack; ■ work with Standards Australia to effect expeditious continuing review and development of |
INQ181 | REC181-0199 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 49 | The State modify its adoption of the Building Code of Australia for the following purposes: ■ to remove deemed-to-satisfy provisions for the construction of buildings in BAL-FZ (the Flame Zone); ■ to apply bushfire construction provisions to non-residential buildings that will be occupied by peop |
INQ181 | REC181-0200 | B - Preparedness | 1 - Land-use and building regs | Recommendation 50 | Standards Australia move expeditiously to develop a standard for bushfire sprinklers and sprayers. |