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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-14 Daily Xml
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NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: BUSHFIRE INQUIRY

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (11:55): I move:

That the 58th report of the committee, entitled Bushfire Inquiry, be noted.

This is the final report of the committee's inquiry into bushfires in South Australia. I am pleased to be able to say that, since the committee's interim report tabled on 20 November 2009, South Australia has not seen any major bushfires. Since the interim report, there have been a number of significant developments.

For example, July 2010 saw the royal commission into the Victoria bushfires completed. The royal commission came up with a number of recommendations broadly relevant to South Australia. However, a number of witnesses emphasised that it was important to acknowledge the differences and not expect that all Victorian responses to the Black Saturday fires would be appropriate for South Australia. For example, committee members heard that South Australia has better building standards, different topography and that the Adelaide Hills fire risk situation is actually closer to the Canberra situation rather than the Victorian situation. This means that the lessons from the Canberra fires, our witnesses believe, would be much more relevant to us.

Members of this house would be aware that, in the recent budget, the Treasurer (Hon. Jack Snelling) announced $23 million of funding to help protect South Australians from the impact of fires. These funds will improve the bushfire readiness and response capabilities of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, including 56 firefighters, purchasing new equipment, and providing additional resources and accreditation courses to the CFS and the state emergency volunteers. Members of the Natural Resources Committee strongly support this allocation of additional funds towards managing bushfires.

In finalising this report, the Natural Resources Committee sought additional evidence on natural disasters and followed up on issues outlined in the interim report, including verge parking in the Mitcham hills. In our interim report we suggested allowing verge parking, which is presently illegal under the national road rules, in preference to kerb parking. Members felt that verge parking was a common-sense approach to reducing road congestion and facilitating access for fire units and emergency services during the fire danger season. Two years later, verge parking is still not allowed, but thankfully remains generally unenforced if done in a sensible way.

A matter the committee members were pleased to hear was that the Mitcham council had implemented a trial involving painting a solid yellow line to indicate 'no parking' down one side of narrow roads identified by the CFS as likely to present fire unit access problems in the event of a bushfire. The committee applauds Mitcham council and the CFS for implementing this simple, common-sense and potentially life-saving measure, and looks forward to seeing it rolled out for other high-risk roads in the Mitcham hills in the lead-up to fire danger season. Committee members understand that, presently, only 15 streets out of a potential 47 streets identified by the CFS have been marked up. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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