State Labor leader Mark McGowan has pledged to hold a Bushfire Mitigation Summit if elected to parliament in March.
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The summit will be aimed at guiding future strategies on preventing catastrophic bushfires in WA.
Mr McGowan said the summit was necessary since the current government had not learnt from the numerous concerns raised in previous major incident reviews.
“WA Labor will act decisively to review current fire management processes by holding a summit to achieve continuous improvement, including in the area of prescribed burning,” he said.
“We will examine aspects such as the targeting of prescribed burning and whether they directly correlate to the fuel loads and the amount of burning set each year as a target. We will also look into whether staffing levels are at appropriate levels.”
The Summit will bring together stakeholders and the community and will provide the opportunity for public submissions.
“With the recent spate of catastrophic bushfires in WA, residents have a heightened level of awareness and growing community concern about the level of bush management and preparedness,” Mr McGowan said.
“The Waroona Yarloop Fire destroyed 181 properties, including 162 homes and prime farming land in the Harvey region. It claimed two lives which is both tragic and unacceptable.
“The Summit will allow us to examine each aspect of bushfire mitigation in WA, with the aim of developing an overall strategy. We support prescribed burning but we want to be more robust and rigorous in our approach.
“We need to do all we can to mitigate the risk of catastrophic bushfires occurring in WA.”
The pledge comes as the Association of Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades WA (AVBFB) has continued to push its members to voice their opinion with their vote.
“The emergency services sector, and bush fire management in particular, will undergo some form of major reform after the state election,” AVBFB president Dave Gossage said.
“It is unlikely that governments in the foreseeable future will want to revisit this matter again once the current reform process is finished.
“Hence this period offers a rare opportunity for volunteers to influence major reform that will affect you and your communities.”
