John Brumby has come out and said that banning building in fire-prone areas is not feasible. Hooray for someone seeing the light of day. The only problem is that I think this may be all politician speak and nothing more.
The Shire of Murrindindi which was one of the hardest hit areas is predominantly a Working Class area – Which although the seat of McEwan is currently held by the Liberal Party,The last election was very close and saw the seat contested for 7 votes.
John Brumby is quoted as saying "If you say in Victoria that you can't build in any area that's heavily forested you'd be removing close to a million Victorians from their homes - that's the reality.'' [1]
Where do 1,000,000 people go? 90% of them would be unable to afford to move, as I discussed here Black Saturday - Royal Commission Experts The fact that John Brumby is not only referring to the area of Marysville, but state wide, from Bendigo to Ballarat, shows that someone has seen the light.
I can’t make political comment on areas that I don’t know and to tell you honest truth, can’t be bothered checking out. (Yeah I know lazy) – I don’t get paid for this – unless you want to donate!!!!!!!!!
John Brumby is also quoted as saying "This is all about, I think, living with the risk of fire and we are a dry continent, we're also a very beautiful continent, our eucalypt forests are stunning places and they're beautiful places to live.”
Which is 100% correct, since the day that Australia was settled; there has been a battle for water, some years are good, some years better and some years very poor. At other times there is so much water, we are literally swimming in it, while standing on what was previously dry land!
John Brumby is also quoted as saying "So this is about making places as safe as possible while recognising the beautiful amenity that we've got in so many treed areas across the state."
So, let’s make the state safe, if that is the case, get off your backside and nominate the areas deemed to safe, places that the population can evacuate to if they choose to. Not leave these people and communities hanging around waiting for you to make a decision.
It’s been 12 months since the fires of Black Saturday, and most fire-prone areas still remain without ‘safer places’
Drop the fancy terminology also, either we are in danger or we are not. The old fires index signs, run and operated by the CFA – clearly showed at 100kph what the state of the area was you were entering – now we are presented with a tiny little sign that shows NOTHING. CFA signage
The Government needs to stop talking the talk that people think they want to hear and start actioning some of these so-called good ideas. Kick the bureaucracy in the backside and start doing SOMETHING.
The sooner the government stops meddling and bringing false hope and starts actually doing something and bringing real hope, will be the day that people and townships start pulling and putting themselves together again.
[1] The Australian February 16th 2010
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