GREEN TAPE PREVENTS VOLUNTEERS RURAL FIREFIGHTERS FROM
REDUCING BUSHFIRE RISK
The Volunteer Firefighters Association (VFFA), the body
representing the Voice of Volunteer Rural Firefighters in NSW refutes the claim
by green alarmists that climate change is the cause of the recent bushfires in
New South Wales.
It’s ridiculous to blame climate change when we know there
has been far worse bushfires stretching back to the earliest
days of European settlement in Australia including the Black Saturday Victoria
2009, NSW Bushfires 1994, Ash Wednesday Victoria 1983, Blue Mountains NSW 1968,
Black Tuesday Hobart 1967 and Black Friday Victoria 1939, said Peter Cannon,
President of the VFFA.
The
VFFA is angered by comments from the green lobby groups that tackling climate
change was more important than prescribed burning of forest fuels to reduce
bushfire risk. The real blame rests with
the greens and their ideology as they continue to oppose and undermine our
efforts to conduct hazard reduction in the
cooler months and to prevent private landowners from clearing their lands to
reduce bushfire risk.
Hazard reduction is the only proven management tool rural
firefighters have to reduce the intensity and spread of bushfires and this has
been recognised in numerous bushfire enquires since the Stretton enquiry into
the 1939 Victorian Bushfires.
The amount of ‘green tape’ we have to go through to get
a burn approved is beyond frustrating; says Peter Cannon. The VFFA is calling on the NSW State
Government to reduce the amount of green tape involved in planning and conducting hazard reductions, so that our Volunteer
Firefighters can get on with the job of conducting fire prevention works in the
cooler months to prevent the inevitable summer bushfire disasters that are now
becoming a more regular feature.
The NSW State Government must also provide sufficient
funding for bushfire hazard reduction works on a planned and sustained basis,
including the creation of asset protection zones and upgrades of all fire
trails in high bushfire risk areas.
Remember
that it’s far more cost effective, say around 66 to 100 times more cost
efficient, to prevent wild fires through hazard reduction than it is to have
reactionary fire response, which is what we have at the moment. With the great number
of lost homes and decreasing property values through these wild fires, what then
will the total fiscal amount be…….when it could have all been prevented by
effective Hazard reduction!
To
increase the area treated by prescribed burning on bushfire prone lands from
the current level of less than 1% per annum to a minimum of 5% per annum, as
recommended by the Victorian Royal Commission and many leading bushfire
experts.
30-9-2013
VFFA……..Keeping Volunteers Informed
