Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (10:00): I move:
That this house:
(1) notes that:
(a) the Allan Labor government has refused to release Victoria’s full bushfire risk management report, 2024–25;
(b) localised fuel-driven bushfire risk information for the 2025–26 season has been withheld;
(c) these actions raise significant concerns regarding the government’s transparency and Victoria’s bushfire preparedness;
(d) Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic) withdrew up to 290 G-Wagons and 59 Unimogs prior to the 2025–26 bushfire season, reducing rapid-response capacity;
(2) in accordance with standing order 10.01, requires the Leader of the Government to table in the Council, within 10 weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution, all documents held by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), FFMVic or the responsible ministers relating to Victoria’s bushfire management, including but not limited to:
(a) Victoria’s complete bushfire risk management report, 2024–25;
(b) all summer bushfire outlook reports prepared by FFMVic, DEECA or ministerial offices for the current 2025–26 bushfire season;
(c) correspondence and briefings between DEECA, FFMVic and relevant ministers and their offices relating to the 2025–26 bushfire season, including fuel-driven bushfire risks at the state, regional and district levels; and
(d) documents and briefings between DEECA, FFMVic and relevant ministers and their offices relating to the withdrawal of the G-Wagon and Unimog vehicles due to structural and safety defects, including repair timelines and operational impacts.
This is a short-form documents motion, and it relates to Victoria’s full bushfire risk management report for 2024–25, localised fuel-driven bushfire risk information for the 2025–26 season and information about the government’s Forest Fire Management Victoria fleet that was grounded at the end of last year – 290 G-Wagons and 59 Unimogs. This year we have seen a most significant bushfire once again. We have seen 1590 buildings, dwellings, outbuildings, sheds – included in that are 340 homes where people lived and loved their families – gone in these bushfires. We have seen 23,000 stock killed, incinerated in the bushfires, and we have seen almost half a million hectares of land burnt. What we have not seen from this government – and this is not asking for anything unusual whatsoever – is the Allan government releasing its full bushfire risk management report for 2024–25.
This document sets out Victoria’s bushfire risk profile, and it is fundamental to understanding how the state is prepared. Instead the government has just provided a snapshot, and a snapshot is not good enough. If this government has nothing to hide, then the normal procedure should have been followed. The snapshot relies heavily on aggregated statewide figures, not the local on-the-ground data and detail that communities need. Communities like Natimuk, Harcourt, Longwood – I could go on – Yarck, Alexandra and Walwa up into the north-east could have benefited from this information. When we see this information, then we can have an understanding. Without it experts cannot properly scrutinise the data, communities cannot understand their true level of risk and Parliament cannot hold this government to account.
Normally the report is released at the beginning of the fire season. That is all. It is a procedure, and it was not done. Delaying is withholding information, and that is completely unacceptable. The fuel-driven risk information has been withheld. This is a really important one for those who very much need to understand this. The government has released information at a regional level, so it puts it out for a blanket region but it does not drill down into the district level. The government has got their Safer Together policy – 70 per cent residual risk. I could go on for hours, but I do not have that time. They have given it at a blanket regional level. People want to understand it for their locations, their districts. The government has not produced that as yet for the fire season, and it is just absolutely, completely unacceptable.
Let me give you an example. The Gippsland region is vast and diverse, as we know. It encompasses coastal and agricultural areas, forests and major industrial hubs. For the average regional area there appears to be a moderate bushfire risk per the government’s status at the moment. In the past we have seen that the Latrobe Valley has had a particularly high residual bushfire risk, but that is not clear for this year. The government is not being transparent about this. We have got the Thomson Dam, which provides 50 per cent of Melbourne’s water, while Moondarra supports the Latrobe Valley and surrounding industry and is a major part of the food processing operations, and we have seen a lot of industry there. People cannot see what their residual risk is. Does it matter? Not to some, but to others it is incredibly important to understand where districts sit and what those risks are. This government needs to produce what it should normally produce. I had the opportunity of meeting Minister Dimopoulos the other day. I had a list and said to him, ‘These things should just be normal procedure, which the government is not addressing.’ Not only has he heard from me; he is hearing from this Parliament in a normal documents motion that that should be put out into the community.
Then we have the Unimogs and the information around the Unimogs and G-Wagons. These are front fire line vehicles. Again, the whole response about purchasing them back in 2017–18, their inclusion, their loading up of extra requirements and the cracking of the chassis – when did the government know about this? How did the government know about this? It took them offline and begged South Australia for other vehicles at the start of the fire season to come through. This house, my communities and our regional communities deserve to know what their status is. It actually got to the point where 300 vehicles were moved out of service. We deserve to see these things. Community deserves to see these things. As a normal practice, I ask this house to support the documents motion.