Page 1607 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 May 2017

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Bushfire abatement zone

MRS JONES (Murrumbidgee) (5.25): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes that:

(a) Mr Ron McLeod’s 2003 report, “Inquiry into the Operational Response to the January 2003 Bushfires in the ACT”, made the following recommendations:

(i) “A bushfire-abatement zone (BAZ) should be defined between the north-west and western perimeter of Canberra and the Murrumbidgee River and the foothills of the Brindabella Range.”;

(ii) “A set of Bushfire Protection Planning Principles in relation to fire mitigation and suppression should be adopted and applied to future developments in the designated abatement zone.”; and

(iii) “The abatement zone should be declared a bushfire-prone area, and the requirements of the Building Code of Australia—in particular, its standards for bushfire-prone areas—should be applied to all future developments in the zone.”;

(b) following the recommendations of Mr Ron McLeod, and Coroner Maria Doogan, the Emergencies Act 2004 was enacted and provided:

(i) a Bushfire Abatement Zone for planning and operational purposes;

(ii) for the BAZ to include “City Areas” (“built-up areas”); and

(iii) the Response Arrangements at that time (see NI2004-499) included that: “If, in the opinion of the ACT Fire and Rescue, the fire poses a risk to life or property in the Built-up Area, then the ACT Fire and Rescue will assume incident control.” This remained in place in the 2006 iteration (NI2006-221);

(d) over the last 12 months there have been articles in the media and concerns raised by the United Firefighters Union ACT and members of the public about the 2011 changes. These are reasonable concerns given the history of bushfire risk in the Australian Capital Territory; and

(2) calls on the Minister to report to the Assembly by 1 August 2017 on:

(a) the rationale behind the 2011 changes and to explain, for the benefit of the community, how the BAZ is controlled both in regards to fuel-reduction burning and in the event of a fire being within metres or kilometres of built-up areas;

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