Emergency Services Minister Fails Western Victoria
The Victorian Minister for Emergency Services has failed to provide Western Victorians with any assurance about the future of a pivotal fire tower.
With a potentially catastrophic fire season ahead, Minister Lisa Neville was unable to tell the Victorian Parliament this week of any plans to save the Mt Gellibrand Fire tower.
The decision to shut down the tower was revealed last week and has alarmed locals in the Colac-Otways region.
The Liberal Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, used an Adjournment Debate in Parliament to condemn the Minister’s preference for drones to replace the tower’s fire-spotting capacity.
“Does the Minister seriously believe that a fleet of drones is capable of covering this entire area 24/7 during the fire season?” Mrs McArthur questioned in Parliament.
“This madness is no match for local knowledge and eyes in a tower.
“Clearly this is all about getting rid of volunteers.
“The DWELP-manned towers in the Otways are no substitute for Mt Gellibrand due to mist and other vision-obscuring factors,” she said.
The Mt Gellibrand tower was built over 40 years ago by volunteers and has been continually manned by local volunteers. The tower has been saving lives and damage to property ever since.
It is a critical link in the tower system in Western Victoria – providing early fire detection and information to fire services on the ground.
The Victorian Government has failed to act on an engineer’s report for the past three years that has identified structural deficiencies with the tower.
“This report indicated that the tower had ‘reached the end of its service life. Yet it is only now - on the eve of the fire season, that the community is made aware of this Government’s complete incompetence.
“Like the Government’s coronavirus failings – this tower debacle could cost lives.
“For $300,000 this tower problem could be fixed. Clearly after billions of dollars in a massive spending spree – the money is there if the Government wants it to be.”
The Government increased the Fire Levy to every Victorian household in last year’s Budget by 10 per cent generating $738 million in 2020-21.
In 2021-22 the Levy will generate $756 million and $776 million the year after – a tax increase of $38 million over just three years. This tax should be used for vital infrastructure like the Mt Gellibrand fire tower.
Mrs McArthur has called on Minister Neville to guarantee that the Mt Gellibrand tower will be operative before this year’s fire season commences while also securing the future of all vital fire towers in Western Victoria including Mt Anakie, Creswick, Mt Porndon, Mt Buninyong, Peters Hill, Mt Crowley and Lavers Hill. They all need to be made fit for purpose for the upcoming fire season.”
25 November 2020