INQ304

Retain the Bushfires Council as a Ministerial advisory body.

Clarify and streamline the allocation of powers to Bushfires NT staff and volunteers involved in bushfire management operations, using a system of delegation through a chain of command similar to the arrangements described in the NT Fire and Emergency Act.

Clarify and streamline the allocation of powers to Bushfires NT staff and volunteers involved in bushfire management operations, using a system of delegation through a chain of command similar to the arrangements described in the NT Fire and Emergency Act.

Define formal bushfire management regimes for areas with different bushfire management requirements and define bushfire management responsibilities in those areas.

Establish a capacity to prescribe bushfire management arrangements for individual properties based on bushfire risk assessment.

Amend the Act title to ‘Bushfires Management Act’. 

Amend the object to provide for ‘The mitigation, management, and suppression of bushfires’. Definitions of these terms should be included in the Act, and should include clarification that bushfire suppression can include emergency response activities in certain circumstances

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.

Enshrine the broader fire management principles, including coordination, strategic planning, mitigation, monitoring and control within the Act.

Include a detailed description of the role, responsibility and accountability of
- key stakeholders groups as described in this section;
- key host agency and Bushfires NT staff;
- Volunteer Bushfires Brigades; and
- key personnel within those organisations.

Retain the Regional Bushfires Committees as regional planning and consultative bodies tasked with monitoring, reviewing and making recommendations on fire management in a Fire Control Region.

Discontinue the automatic allocation of Fire Warden powers to Council and Committee members and substitute an option for members to be appointed as Fire Wardens.

Introduce clear Terms of Reference for the Bushfires Council and Regional Bushfires Committees, and introduce a requirement for the Minister to consider advice and recommendations from the Council.

Formalise and clearly define the powers and duties of Bushfires NT personnel, including volunteers, thereby clarifying Bushfires NT’s role in bushfire management in the Northern Territory.

Authorise Bushfires NT to establish volunteer bushfire brigades and to give authority to volunteer firefighters to take part in fire suppression and mitigation operations.

Create new seasonal paid positions to coordinate and support groups of volunteer brigades.

Maintain independence of volunteer brigades as community-based organisations and clarify the status and role of volunteers within the chain of command.

Authorise the Director of Bushfires NT to intervene in volunteer brigade affairs where necessary to maintain an effective fire management capacity in a brigade area.