The Tasmanian Government has rejected a number of key recommendations put forward by a senate committee investigating last year’s bushfires in the state’s remote wilderness.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The inquiry was established to look at the response to, and lessons learned from, the two months of fires which took out 11,000 hectares of wilderness.
It has rejected a recommendation to report to the World Heritage Committee annually on conservation in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA), saying it was happy with the arrangement whereby the committee requests information when it had serious concerns about the area.
And for a number of other recommendations, including a recognition that climate change has increased the risk to the World Heritage Area's natural and cultural values, the government said it would await analysis of recommendations of an independent report it commissioned on the issue.
Both the state and federal governments remained satisfied with the level of funding provided to the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service for conservation management, despite the committee recommending that it be increased.
And both rejected the committee's recommendation that the governments develop stronger provisions to protect the wilderness area from bushfire risk, saying they were satisfied that World Heritage Convention obligations were being met.
Meanwhile, Tasmanian Liberal Senators have jointly rejected a recommendation that the federal government, with its state counterparts, investigate the possibility of establishing a national remaote area firefighting body.
The Tasmanian Government said it would work with the Australiasian Fire Authorities Council to ensure resource-sharing arrangements were up to date.
“This issue was considered by the TWWHA Bushfire and Climate Change Research Project, which found that increased bushfire risk will place pressure on Tasmania's firefighting capability in coming years,” it said.
“Further, the research project's final report provides that the Tasmanian Government should develop a statewide program of investment in facilities and equipment to enhance fire management capabilities in the TWWHA.”
Greens parks’ spokeswoman Andrea Dawkins said the government had acted “irresponsibly” in their response to the recommendations. “No government that took their World Heritage obligations seriously would respond in this manner,” she said.
