More cash call to tackle fire safety

By CASEY NEILL
HILLS residents are calling for more Federal Government funding to increase bushfire safety.
On the Ranges Trader Mail Facebook page, Dandenong Ranges Community Bushfire Group’s Jo Hirst said local and State governments needed more cash to implement the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (VBRC) recommendations.
“Safe communities (are) viable and sustainable communities,” she said.
Janine Rigby agreed: “We need to implement the Bushfires Royal Commission recommendations now, before more lives are lost.”
Amanda Mortel said hills roads needed improvement as part of the bushfire response.
“Particularly the dirt roads that could be used to exit the mountain and free up Mt Dandenong Tourist Road in the case of an emergency,” she said.
She gave The Basin-Olinda and Olinda Creek roads as examples and said upgrading such roads “should form part of our bushfire planning”.
But a spokesperson for Attorney-General and Emergency Management Minister Nicola Roxon said the government had provided funding to help Victoria implement the VBRC’s recommendations.
This included $26.3 million to establish the emergency alert telephone warning system, $15 million over three years from 2010/11 for the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) to specifically to address issues identified in the VBRC, and about $1 million to review Australia’s fire danger rating arrangements.
She said the government also contributed $2 million to the 2009 Victoria Bushfire Appeal Fund, and under the National Partnership Agreement on Natural Disaster Resilience provides Victoria with just over $4 million each year to allocate to disaster resilience and mitigation projects.
“In addition, the Australian Government has provided $220 million in advance to Victoria under the Natural Disaster Recovery and Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA),” she said.
“Further NDRRA funding is being made available as long-term recovery continues.”