Time to start listening
It’s one week on since devastating fires swept across Victoria and currently there are calls for a parliamentary bipartisan Upper House inquiry. There definitely needs to be some sort of inquiry and remedies put in place. However, the major difficulty which I see is that there have been numerous inquires and Royal Commissions in the past and the government is simply not listening.
Fuel loads continue to grow, forest areas receive little or no maintenance since the cessation of logging. (The Logging industry paid for and maintained a lot of access tracks and valuable fire fighting equipment). The recommendations for cool burning 5 per cent of the state are simply ignored.
It is not that people and organisations have not tried to inform the government; Government ministers appear not to be interested in listening. They employ bureaucrats and media representatives that have little or no knowledge and understanding about rural and regional issues. As a past councillor and current President of Protect Our Farms Incorporated, I know that over the years there have been numerous attempts to engage with government and I myself was involved in a few. Emergency management is an extremely complicated and bureaucratic organisation that has little representation and input from actual community representatives. The main stakeholders in emergencies are simply ignored. Many of the current groups highlighting rural and regional issues have been born out of frustration and disenchantment; e.g. CFA Volunteers Group (CFAVG.)
Issues such as a proper CFA fire tanker fleet replacement program have been highlighted for years. Volunteers should not be expected to risk their lives in 30-plus-year-old fire tankers.
Along with declining numbers and ages of CFA volunteers, these issues should have been identified and addressed. The current system is not working.
We have State Government-managed roadsides that are an absolute disgrace. Residents can be fined over $1600 if they ignore a fuel hazard reduction notice, many government departments and agencies set their own standards that are far below what is expected of ordinary people. You have issues such as multiple access and egress points from subdivisions and rural/urban interface problems that are basically ignored in state planning legislation and fire mitigation planning. These are only a few of the problems that need to be addressed.
Hopefully out of this current situation, there will actually be some positive results, but this will require both politicians and bureaucrats to start listening.
Bill Chisholm,
Protect our Farms Inc.
Gifts from a stranger
The spirit of Christmas was truly alive and well on Christmas Eve at Woolies in Kilmore.
A young man with a cap entered the store, purchased a couple of grand worth of gift cards and then preceded to randomly give out $50 gift cards to customers in the store.
All he said was Merry Christmas sir/ma’am and went on his merry way.
At first customers thought it was some sort of a hoax, or stood there like stunned mullets wondering at what just happened, but the front-end lady reassured customers it was all legit.
Wow! What a kind, thoughtful, giving, loving, extremely generous gesture from a total stranger.
As a recipient of one of the gift cards, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
It meant a great deal to me.
I hope you and your family have a safe, happy, healthy 2026.
Tracy Avery,
Kilmore
Focus on power supply
The ‘catastrophic’ fire conditions were a terrifying reminder of our vulnerability, but it wasn’t just the weather that failed us — it was our infrastructure.
In Wallan, many of us lost power four times in a 24-hour period. These weren’t fire-damaged lines; this was a grid failure in a non-fire zone during peak heat. We are told to use the CFA app to stay safe, yet we were left without electricity or reliable internet. How can we make life-saving decisions when our primary source of information is cut off?
This is the direct result of an energy policy that has traded stable, reliable baseload power for a ‘green’ idealistic approach that clearly cannot handle a Victorian summer. The government needs to stop prioritising targets and start prioritising the safety of all Victorians. We deserve a power supply that stays on when we need it most.
Renee Neubauer,
Wallan