The Inspector-General for Emergency Management recommends that the State support the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (or the single entity referenced in Recommendation 4) and its partners to expand the Safer Together program to:
a) increase program uptake and adoption by legislated fuel management organisations including local government, the Department of Transport and VicTrack
b) implement a consistent risk-based approach to fuel management program planning from strategic through to operational and tactical levels supported by appropriate risk assessment tools, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting mechanisms
c) develop common spatial datasets for use by all road managers, standardising road and roadside fuel maintenance levels based on bushfire risk and sharing resources to maintain continuous roadsides managed by multiple parties.
DELWP will review the fuel management Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Framework and the annual Fuel Management Report to identify changes required to more fully incorporate private land and roadsides. The review will be complete by July 2021.
DELWP engaged a consultant to undertake reviews of the fuel management Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Framework, and the annual Fuel Management Report.
DELWP provided IGEM with copies of the consultant’s reports in July 2021. IGEM notes that the reports contain findings and recommendations about the changes required to incorporate private land and roadsides more fully.