Oh buzz, you are selecting text that suits YOUR agenda - never mind the fact that My Brumby seemed to think he knows better than the recommendations made by The Bushfire Commission.
Former premier John Brumby rejected the commission's buyout recommendation, saying it could actually increase fire risk by leaving some homes surrounded by empty overgrown properties and it would be too costly.
His government also made an extreme estimate, based on every home in 52 at-risk towns, that the scheme would cost $20 billion.
During the election campaign, the coalition promised to commit $50 million to kick-start the other recommendation to replace overhead power lines with underground cables.
The former Brumby government had baulked at this proposal, after its consultants estimated it would cost up to $20 billion.
But Department of Primary Industry figures presented to the commission put the cost of placing 28,000km of SWER (single wire earth return) lines underground at a more modest $4.7 billion.
University of New South Wales associate professor of electrical engineering, Trevor Blackburn, said while placing power lines underground had its challenges, it would reduce the risk of bushfires.
Prof Blackburn said underground cables were relatively problem-free in urban areas but started to run into transmission problems when laid over longer distances, such as in regional or rural areas.
But he said the challenges were not insurmountable, just more expensive."I think if you want to prevent those sorts of situations that happened in the bushfires in Victoria ... you've got to pay a bit more money and make the system less prone to these sorts of problems and one way of doing that is just to put them underground."
Prof Blackburn said if faults occurred in underground cables it could be trickier to locate the problem and fix it.
However, he said the underground cables were less likely to experience the same volume of problems plaguing overhead wires, which are affected by wind, breakage, falling objects and lightening strikes.The commission's final report recommended progressively replacing the SWER and 22,000 volt power lines with underground cables or other technology, prioritising those in high-risk areas in the first decade.The report's "retreat and resettlement" proposal suggests a voluntary buyout scheme for existing developments in unacceptably high bushfire risk areas.
The outgoing Brumby government had rejected the recommendations to put power lines underground and buyout properties in the riskiest bushfire areas.
But Mr Baillieu has always maintained a coalition government would tackle both these proposals, a position he reiterated today.
In relation to the buyout, Mr Baillieu explained a coalition government would look to the bushfire reconstruction authority and local councils to identify areas that would qualify for the scheme.
He said the state had a history of similar "buybacks" which had taken up to 20 years to complete.
"This is a program of identifying land and mutually agreeing that it's in everybody's interests for a buyback to take place," Mr Baillieu told reporters.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/baillieus-costly-bushfire-promise/story-e6frfku0-1225963404934#ixzz1AJjViiDy
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