On the 25th June the Victorian Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner (OESC) issued a media release advising that the Fire Refuges Discussion paper was released and inviting community submissions by the 30 July.
One media outlet picked up the story – Ballarat Regional ABC Radio. Three weeks later the CFA Connect site advised the CFA community about the opportunity.
Other than that, the OESC has made no effort to promote, advise or inform the community of this paper or that it is seeking input from them about this issue, which is so close to the heart of community bushfire safety. The OESC explains that this is because of the tight timelines imposed by the Royal Commission.
But I would argue that a tight time frame is all the more reason to ensure that as much of the community know about and have the opportunity to contribute to the process as a possible. They allowed five weeks for community input but it took three weeks for there to be anything more than one mention on a regional radio station. It is incumbent on the OESC to monitor if the issue is promoted by the media and take other steps if it isn’t.
The discussion paper lists the stakeholders the OESC has worked with to develop the policy. Apart from the Municipal Association of Victoria, they have all been state government departments, and the MAV represents another arm of government. No community groups have been invited to the table to contribute, discuss or represent the views of community. This may be difficult because there is no umbrella group at the moment, but there are some groups who could be invited or at the very least notified. (The lack of such a group representative of community views is in itself an issue the Office of Emergency Services Commissioner might set about addressing.)
It all smacks of government talking about and deciding for community, not with community. It is this type of government decision making which encourages us to wait for someone in authority to tell us what to do when a fire is bearing down upon us, afterall they have made all the decisions for us so far.
Presumably the OESC had umpteen weeks before they released the paper, to plan how they were going to ensure as many people as possible were informed. They could have targeted the well-known at-risk communities. They could have explained that there were tight timelines, so the consultation isn’t as wide as they would like, but can communities spread the word? They could have done en email campaign, or targeted community groups in high-risk areas.
Any of these efforts would have at least given the notion that there is a commitment to the much-lauded concept of community/government partnership around bushfire risk. Such effort, or lack of it, goes to other issues like respect, trust and collaboration.
Changes to the Victorian Fire Refuges policy is arguably one of the most significant changes to Victoria’s bushfire policy, in a time of great change. Fire refuges are so deeply embedded in community response and need, that every effort must be made to engage, consult and inform the community and truly listen to what they have to contribute.
And how important consultation and engagement are for community preparedness, response, and recovery from bushfires, is a topic for another post.
It is true that the likelihood is that the government has a preferred position and it will tailor the consultation process to reach that outcome. I am not so sure that the government, either the Emergency Services Commissioner or anyone else, has had the report for a lenghty time. Unless the release date has been put back, it would be received at most a matter of a few weeks from the release date and either is consistent with what govt spin will be, is so wildy impossible for govt to control the debate that they will try to let it exhaust itself while hoping they take minimal damage or they will want to tailor their response and try to put the release back after all. Royal Commissioners are not so easy to shift as the usual govt appointed committee, though…