INQ321

We recommend that DELWP in partnership with Country Fire Authority and Fire Rescue Victoria develops, implements and publicly reports on a holistic suite of performance metrics to demonstrate: - the impact that planned burning has on public and private land on bushfire risk - the impact that plan

We recommend that DELWP investigates incentives and advises government on options to accelerate burying and insulating the remaining high-voltage bare-wire powerlines in the 33 highest risk areas.

We recommend that DELWP provides advice to government, in consultation with Country Fire Authority, Fire Rescue Victoria and councils, on options to improve owner and occupier awareness of and accountability for bushfire management overlay planning controls (see Section 4.3).

We recommend that DEWLP and CFA (in consultation with FRV) in partnership with councils, provide advice to government in line with the Safer Together: A new approach to reducing the risk of bushfire in Victoria policy on options to better resource the assessment of risk on private land, its treat

We recommend that DELWP in partnership with Parks Victoria, Country Fire Authority, Fire Rescue Victoria and councils as appropriate, collect empirical evidence after bushfire events to assess the effectiveness of different fuel management treatments, including planned burning, mulching, slashing

We recommend that DELWP conducts more effective ecosystem resilience monitoring by: - setting a target for regions on the quantity of ecosystem resilience monitoring assessments that they should complete annually - setting an outcomes-level target that defines desirable values for key ecosystem r

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.

We recommend that DEWLP and CFA (in consultation with FRV) develops financial reporting to monitor fuel management costs and estimate future costs.

We recommend that DEWLP and CFA (in consultation with FRV) systemically documents and publicly reports reasons why it does not complete planned burns.

We recommend that CFA (in consultation with FRV) improves its values checks by providing ongoing state-wide support to regional vegetation management officers and leveraging any relevant systems or capabilities from DELWP to conduct values checks through guidance, training and ongoing funding.

We recommend that CFA (in consultation with FRV) improves planning on private land to ensure risk assessments and plans are conducted consistently across public and private land to address state-wide bushfire risk based on where and how they can most effectively reduce risk.

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.

We recommend that DELWP improves the effectiveness, consistency and transparency of its environmental and cultural values checks by: - finalising its review of operational values checking processes and committing to an implementation plan - clarifying and formalising principles and procedures, ma

We recommend that DELWP determines which elements of different regional planning approaches are the most effective and implements these across the state.

We recommend that DELWP develops more holistic bushfire-management planning that focuses on the best mix of risk treatments rather than planned burning alone.

We recommend that DELWP enhances bushfire modelling by: - exploring multiple bushfire modelling tools to lower the uncertainty and limitations associated with using a single modelling tool - applying more detailed fire-severity data - validating and updating fuel accumulation curves - establishin

We recommend that DELWP improves the Powerline Bushfire Safety Program's transparency by publicly reporting on activities, costs and risk-reduction outcomes.