By Jordyn Grubisic
Federal Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt visited Whittlesea on Thursday to announce $38 million for bushfire preparedness in Victoria.
Mr Watt was accompanied by Member for McEwen Rob Mitchell at Whittlesea Fire Brigade to discuss Federal Government investment into bushfire preparedness through round one of the Federal Government’s Disaster Ready Fund, DRF.
The DRF makes up to $200 million available each year, over five years, across Australia to reduce risk and improve resilience to natural disasters with states, territories and delivery partners matching this investment where possible.
State governments submitted applications for a range of projects to improve mitigation and resilience in collaboration with councils and community groups.
Mr Watt said the DRF would encourage better preparedness to respond to and recover from devastating natural disasters.
“We will have a national large air tanker on hand to respond quickly where needed. We have also implemented a new Australian Fire Danger Rating System, which better forecasts the risk of a fire and better informs the community of that risk,” he said.
“We have also improved the programs and processes behind the scenes, to ensure that, where possible, resources are getting to those impacted communities as quick as possible.
“One of the things the Albanese Government has really prioritised since coming into office is making sure we’re much better prepared for disasters than we have been in the past by making investments in resilience, in mitigation activities to keep their communities safe and frankly reduce the bill for taxpayers every time we see these big disasters come through.
“It’s been really interesting hearing about the challenges communities like Whittlesea face.
“This is a rapidly growing part of outer Melbourne and that brings different challenges with communities who weren’t here the last time big bushfires went through and making sure people understand their fire risk is really important.”
A total of 11 projects will build bushfire resilience and reduce bushfire risk statewide.
Projects include $4.8 million to modernise the pollen forecasting network to reduce future disaster risk; $3 million for remote bushfire detection; $476,454 to assess future impacts of heatwaves on Victorian’s health; and $1.2 million towards schools in fire country.
Mitchell Shire is also a focus area for the $500,000 investigation of flood-prone transport routes in north central Victoria project.
Member for McEwen Rob Mitchell said the Federal Government was working to get on the front foot and be prepared for natural disasters rather than waiting for the aftermath.
“What we see with the local announcements made is that we’re going to be better prepared. Our emergency services will feel safer but more importantly our communities will know the government is backing them and making sure we’re prepared for the season coming up,” he said.
“What it means for us locally is that we will be getting work done to save our communities with things like emergency preparedness remote bushfire detection.
“It’s also better for our community, particularly for Fire Rescue Victoria, CFA and all our emergency volunteers who have to deal with that. It’s about trying to make their job easier and trying not to make them go those traumatic experiences.”
Country Fire Authority, CFA, district 14 assistant chief fire officer Tim Holland said the commitment to mitigation works was great.
“That’s where we needed the funding commitment and that energy because response is only one part of any emergency that we’ve seen, so preparation, preparedness and trying to reduce our communities risk is so important,” he said.
“Emergency services can only do so much but everybody needs to be a part of it.
“We rely on communities to build their own resilience and work with the emergency services so they’re not only purely reliant on the emergency services like CFA to get in there and do the work. We’ve got to do it together.
“What we see particularly in CFA district 14 is that urban growth corridor, and there are some people that are potentially not aware of the bushfire risks where they’re living.
“People can connect with their local CFA or jump online to the CFA website to find out more information.”
