EXCLUSIVE: THE Victorian Government has failed to build any new community fire refuges since coming to power.
It has also left half the state's 52 high-risk communities without Neighbourhood Safer Places.
In the lead-up to last November's state election, the Coalition attacked the former Labor premier John Brumby for "dragging his heels" on establishing bushfire refuges and NSPs.
But as the state prepares for another fire season under the Coalition Government, the CFA website shows the Woods Point refuge established by the Labor Government is still the state's only community refuge.
Meanwhile towns such as Cockatoo, Upper Beaconsfield, Mount Dandenong and Mount Macedon have no refuge or NSP.
Yarra Ranges Councillor Samantha Dunn said the Dandenong Ranges' 30,000 residents lived in one of the highest bushfire-risk areas in the world.
"We desperately need neighbourhood refuges as it would take eight hours to evacuate down these narrow roads," Cr Dunn said.
Bushfire Response Minister Peter Ryan said the Government was revising its policy on refuges, which should be finalised this month.
Yet last October Mr Ryan issued a press release declaring: "In the interests of those residents in high-fire-risk areas, the Brumby Government needs to make every effort to speed up the implementation of NSPs and refuges."
At the time, Mr Ryan said: "Only one fire refuge exists in Victoria and no new refuges have been identified because (Premier) John Brumby won't replace the 2005 Fire Refuges in Victoria: Policy and Practice policy, let alone designate new community refuges."
Opposition bushfire response spokeswoman Jacinta Allan said Mr Ryan's pre-election claim had come back to condemn him.
"In his haste to use fear of bushfire risk as a political weapon, he ignored the realities of the challenges to establish and maintain fire refuges and NSPs,"
Ms Allan said.
A scientist warns Australia faces a catastrophic bushfire risk, similar to a summer of the mid-1970s when 15 per cent of the continent went up in flames.
Ahead of this summer, fires have already scorched wide outback regions.
Outback fires in South Australia are now under control or out, but fires are still burning in the Northern Territory.
Retired CSIRO scientist David Packham says a repeat of the summer of 1974-75 is a strong possibility.
"We are in for one big season in these more dry and arid regions, going from sort of the Mallee-type areas of Victoria-South Australia and New South Wales, right up into and around the Alice Springs and further north," he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-06/bushfires-summer-csiro-warning/3317630
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu shelves Black Saturday report
October 01, 2011
A REPORT investigating the cost of recommendations of the Black Saturday Royal Commission is secret.
The final report of the government-appointed Powerline Bushfire Safety Taskforce was expected on Friday, but the Government admitted it will not publicly release or respond to the report until it is ready.
The report's findings are likely to heap pressure on Premier Ted Baillieu to reconsider his pledge to fulfil each of the 67 recommendations made by the taskforce, regardless of cost.
A confidential interim report by the commission - revealed by the Sunday Herald Sun in June - estimated the cost of fire-proofing powerlines in only one of the recommendations would top
$20 billion
.
The report found the cost of the Premier's commitment to replace and bury powerlines could see bills rise by as much as $740 every year
for the next 10 years
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/baillieu-shelves-black-saturday-repo...
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