Royal commission to probe bushfires

17 Feb 2009, 2:12 pm   -   Source: AAP
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The three-member royal commission into Victoria's catastrophic bushfires hopes to have recommendations in place in time for the next fire season.

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The three-member royal commission into Victoria's catastrophic bushfires hopes to have recommendations in place in time for the next fire season.

Commission head, former Supreme Court judge Bernard Teague, says he wants to start meeting with fire victims and fire authorities within the next two weeks.

He says the commission, armed with a $40 million budget, will stage informal round-table discussions as well as open and closed hearings.

"We want to do that as soon as possible - probably not next week but starting to have these discussions the week after," Justice Teague told reporters on Tuesday.

He will be assisted by fellow royal commissioners Ron McLeod, who led the inquiry after the 2003 ACT bushfires, and Susan Pascoe, who is commissioner of the Victorian State Services Authority.

"In the early stages we want to get out and talk to members of the public to the maximum extent possible and at the end of six months make recommendations for changes in respect to those matters we perceive to be urgent and important," Justice Teague said.

He said the commission would spend another 18 months considering less urgent changes that should be made.

He said urgent matters included establishing the cause of the fires, ways to help victims and improving communications to give people enough warning of danger.

"We would aim to go out into the field and to listen and question as much as possible," Justice Teague said.

"Where appropriate we would have round-table discussions, so it won't be in a formal hearing context, and not only in Melbourne but in those fire-affected areas."

A man has been charged with starting the Churchill bushfire in the east of Victoria that killed 10 people, destroyed 200 homes and burnt out more than 30,000 hectares.

The official death toll for the bushfires currently stands at 200.

A class action has been brought against power utility SP AusNet blaming it for negligently starting a bushfire through defective or faulty power lines.

The claim will centre on a fallen power line suspected to have ignited the blaze that devastated Kinglake, Steels Creek and St Andrews, killing more than 100 people and destroying about 1,000 homes.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the federal and Victorian governments would respond quickly to the royal commission's report.

People were looking for assurances that governments would make changes to try to avoid similar disasters in the future.

"Everybody who has lived through this experience in Victoria and around the nation has asked the question: 'Why? What can we do better?'."

No one wanted to see the report "as a book on a shelf gathering dust", she said.

 

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