In recent times I have sat with former loggers, CFA volunteers and farmers who openly shed tears at the state of our bush and the lessons not learned.
The greatest threat to Victoria’s forests is not people managing them. It is governments failing to manage them.
Hazardous fuel loads have accumulated forests have become denser and bushfires more destructive. The lesson is clear: healthy forests require active management.
Active management is deeply rooted in our history. Areas now occupied by thick forest were historically open woodlands maintained through Aboriginal burning. After settlement generations, foresters, mountain cattlemen and local communities helped maintain and care for these landscapes. The evidence suggests our forests evolved through active management, not abandonment.
For 21 of the past 25 years, Labor’s public land policy has been shaped more by ideology than evidence, with a ‘lock it up and leave it’ approach that has allowed fuel loads and risks to dramatically accumulate.
Departmental fuel reduction has fallen. Fuel loads have grown. Sixteen years after the Bushfires Royal Commission called for a five per cent annual fuel reduction target, Victoria now treats less than one per cent of public land annually.
Victorians have endured repeated major bushfires too many to list, culminating in the devastating fires of 2026. Yet despite inquiry after inquiry, the lessons around prevention remain unlearned.
The solution is a return to practical, hands-on management of Victoria’s public land.
That means reducing hazardous fuel loads, maintaining strategic firebreaks, attacking invasive pests and weeds, supporting cultural burning in partnership with Indigenous Victorians. Bushfire preparedness is not a seasonal activity. It is a year-round commitment.
The Liberals and Nationals will restore active management as the foundation of public land policy. We will double planned burning and work towards the Bushfires Royal Commission’s recommendation of treating 5 per cent of treatable public land annually. We will rebuild strategic fuel breaks, in collaboration, expand cultural burning and put more people back on the ground managing the land.
Labor’s decision to shut down Victoria’s native timber industry devastated our timber communities and saw valuable skills and experience lost or move interstate.
In 2026, the choice isn’t between logging and lock-up. It’s between stewardship and neglect.
Under our plan, 5,000ha of degraded public forest will be actively restored each year through targeted thinning and fuel reduction to improve forest health, resilience and bushfire preparedness.
Strategic fuel breaks will be maintained and expanded across the landscape to strengthen Victoria’s bushfire defences.
Timber and fibre recovered through forest restoration and firebreak works will be processed locally and put to their highest-value use, supporting Victorian jobs and regional manufacturing.
From sawlogs and fence posts to firewood, biochar and mulch, the resource will be fully utilised in Victoria.
This program will deliver healthier forests, reduce bushfire risk, support regional jobs and strengthen Victoria’s timber and manufacturing sectors.
Revenue generated through these activities will be reinvested.
Victoria can have healthier forests, lower fuel loads, regional jobs and productive use of forest resources.
These are not competing priorities.
Melina Bath MP
The Nationals’ Member for Eastern Victoria
Shadow Minister for Public Land Management