Fires burning in Qld’s Arcadia Valley. Soure: Rowan Peart

Queensland farmers are calling for a full and in-depth review by a State Parliamentary inquiry to ensure the mistakes of the 2023/24 bushfire season are not repeated in future.

AgForce Queensland says only a State Parliamentary Inquiry can apply the rigour required to properly review of the consequences of this past summer’s bushfire season.

“We need to listen and learn from those who fought the fires on the ground so that we can prevent bushfires where possible, and otherwise be more successful in managing them,” an AgForce media statement said.

“Preserving Queensland’s landscapes is crucial to managing the biodiversity of our environment and human and animal welfare.

“It’s this rich and diverse ecosystem that ensures food security for all Queenslanders in a way not possible in most of the world.  It’s worth protecting.

“And when fires burn out of control in the way that some did during this past summer, that undermines the ability of ecosystems to function and recover.”

AgForce highlighted the example of the massive bushfire that swept through Carnarvon Gorge – see Beef Central’s earlier coverage here – where local Rural Fire Brigades battled fires alongside National Parks and paid QFES and QRFS staff.

“Carnarvon should not have burnt with the intensity it did, and the State Government must recognise the need to increase resourcing of our national parks to prevent these fires, and better manage pests and weeds.

“The national park itself will suffer for a couple of years as a tourist attraction because of the severity and extent of that fire.

“Reflections on this and other ferocious fires through the Southern Downs provide a rich learning opportunity, and AgForce is urging the Queensland government to not let it pass.”

AgForce also warned against secrecy and protectionism being allowed to hamper constructive changes that need to be made.

“There’s a real chance for improvement if we are prepared to genuinely and formally take part in a comprehensive review, and then properly reflect on those learnings with reinvigorated policy.”

The Rural Fire Brigade Association of Queensland says it fully supports AgForce’s call for a Parliamentary Bushfire Inquiry, saying it will allow for landholders, brigades, stakeholders and government departments to make submissions that will be visible to all.

“The same major failings are repeated each large bushfire season and the subsequent inquiries, (that are run by government departments inquiring into other government departments) repeatedly fail to come up with the most glaring needs, that which is empowering local people, to use local knowledge and be the decision makers in defending their communities,” an RFBAQ statement to media said.

The RFBAQ submission to the 2018 Bushfire Review outlined many of the challenges faced and the need for landholder responsibility for fuel load and risk, empowering placed-based decision making and amending the Vegetation Management Act.

Yet none of these key needs were in the final report, the RFBAQ said.

It said draft amendments to the Fire Service Act 1990 the Queensland Government is planning to introduce (more detail here) states that an incident controller in the future can only come from people with expertise in large scale structural fires and bushfires, specialist and technical rescue, response to disasters and hazmat.

“This means that going forward all incident controllers can only come from Fire and Rescue; not Rural Fire, where most large incidents happen.

“This one section completely disempowers landholders and brigade members who understand how fire moves through the environment.”

The RFBAQ also drew attention to an announcement that the soon to be formed Fire Department will move to a new massive centralised headquarters in Brisbane.

This was despite Rural Fire Brigades, that defend 93 percent of Queensland, having no new trucks, no training packages, no promised Rural Fire Board and no control over Rural Fire finances.

The situation showed “how far from the initial intent that this monster department has travelled”, the RFBAQ said.

This was despite previous assurances ruling out such an outcome.

“In 1990 when Rural Fire Brigades were shanghaied into coming under the control of the Fire and Rescue Service the then Minister Terry Mackenroth told Parliament:

“One of the arguments already raised concerns the myth that these actions will create some kind of huge, all-powerful centralised bureaucracy which will leave any area outside Brisbane without a voice and impotent in the area of fire services. In fact, quite the opposite is true. With the establishment of these regions, there will actually be fewer people working out of the Brisbane headquarters. There will be no concentration of power in the city. The whole strategy is based around the autonomy of the new regions, which will operate in much the same way as the police regions do now. (Hansard, 20th March 1990)”