Transcript - radio interview - ABC Radio National - Breakfast

HAMISH MACDONALD (HOST): This is RN breakfast. The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared in El Nino is underway as parts of the south east of Australia experience near record temperatures this week for spring. Dozens of schools were closed yesterday on the south coast of New South Wales, an area that of course suffered some of the worst of the Black Summer bushfires four years ago. And although we've only just tipped into spring, much of Sydney has been blanketed by smoke from hazard reduction burning in recent weeks. And today, Tasmania's east coast has already seen fires threatening homes. Kristy McBain was the Bega Valley Shire Council Mayor during the fires in 2019 and 20, and also previously when there were fires in Tathra. She's now the Federal Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories. She's my guest this morning. Good morning to you, Kristy McBain.

KRISTY MCBAIN (MINISTER): Good morning, Hamish.

MACDONALD: Is there any sense of surprise in your community that we're so early in spring and yet schools are closed in your area and people being told to brace for the worst?

MCBAIN: I don't think a sense of surprise. We've had a lack of rain, especially in the south east corner of NSW for a very long period of time and we knew that we were headed towards a drought really early on. I don't think a sense of surprise. If anything, the feeling is a little bit of déjà vu. In 2019-20, we were aware of fires happening further up the coast and obviously it didn't hit us until around December. This is just an earlier incarnation and people are getting prepared for their own fire plans and making sure that friends and family are doing the same.

MACDONALD: I do need to ask you about preparedness, though. In NSW, the RFS Commissioner said only 24 per cent of the 280,000 hectare hazard reduction burn target was completed last financial year. Clearly, things are a bit behind schedule again this year. How much hazard reduction burning has actually taken place in your area?

MCBAIN: We've seen hazard reduction burns taking place in our area and I want to give a massive shout out to our largely volunteer RFS workforce who do that as much as they can when the weather permits. There is a feeling that we haven't progressed land management substantially since the Black Summer bushfires and that that will be a concern to a number of people.

MACDONALD: Is that your view, Minister? Because I do hear that that nothing's really changed. What's your position on that?

MCBAIN: It's incredibly hard for people who would like to see more work taking place. I know from a Federal Government perspective, we've taken into account a number of the recommendations of the Bush Fire Royal Commission and we have a new aerial firefighting centre, we've got a National Emergency Operations Centre. We've combined our agencies to create NEMA. We've been working with the states and territories, including advancing $1.8 billion in recovery funds to the states and territories in preparation so that money can flow more quickly to communities.

MACDONALD: Sure, that is all noteworthy, but this is really a question about how much has been done to manage this ahead of the summer. Do you share that frustration that does exist within your communities about the lack of it?

MCBAIN: I think the frustration stems not with our local RFS, who are a largely volunteer group who are doing as much work as they possibly can when weather permits. I think it's perhaps a lack of investment in paid workforces to make sure that land management is a priority and that's across national parks, state forests, then obviously with RFS as well. I think that would be the frustration that land management is still not a priority.

MACDONALD: Have you had conversations with the NSW and Victorian Government particularly about that? Obviously your area stretches to the Victorian border and the fires spread across both jurisdictions. Have you spoken to the relevant Ministers about the lack of land management that's been taking place?

MCBAIN: I speak regularly with Murray Watt, the Federal Minister for Emergency Management. He's had Emergency Management Ministers from across the country meeting in preparation for the upcoming season. The work that they're doing in trying to coordinate responses is welcome. Making sure that we all have the same Bushfire ratings is really positive, working on making sure that communications across agencies is really welcome. But this is a long term issue in terms of taking workforces out of our regional areas and not focusing on land management. That's a decade coming and a lot of communities will want to see more of that taking place. We do see more communities now making sure that they are prepared with their own fire plans, which I think is also a very positive thing.

MACDONALD: Is there enough time to get things into a better position before this summer, given where we're at now and we're just into September?

MCBAIN: I think that there has been. I can only speak for my area, which I live in and see work happening. There's been a lot of work around townships, which has been great from the RFS in regards to that backburning operations. I'm not sure whether the weather will allow us to do much more than what has currently been done, given how hot it already is so early on. And as you said, with 20 schools closing on the South Coast yesterday in a catastrophic category of Bushfire warning, that's, I think, an example of what's to come.

MACDONALD: Minister, I understand you're possibly trying to be a bit diplomatic here, but what is your message to state governments about the level of staffing and resources in the regions that are going to be affected, particularly over this summer, in terms of getting staff back in and getting this land managed effectively so that lives are not at risk?

MCBAIN: It’s incumbent upon every state and territory government around the country to make sure that we are managing our land use effectively and properly, and protecting communities across the place. We had a NSW Bushfire inquiry that took place after 2019-2020, and there should have been more work to make sure that we were dealing with those recommendations. And that doesn't come down to the last couple of months, that's the last three years that we should have been preparing.

MACDONALD: Next week, Murray Watt is hosting the first national Bushfire Preparedness Summit. You've been involved in working towards that with him. Is there a need to bang some heads together here on these matters?

MCBAIN: Every state and territory will need to make sure that they are prepared in the best way they can be. What Minister Watt has done is bring everyone together and say this is an absolute priority and we all need to be focused on it. From our government's perspective, we're already creating that National Emergency Management stockpile so that in times of disaster, we do have items and things ready to go into communities like generators, like food and water. We need to make sure that we are best prepared to help people. One of the best things we can do in that respect is to make sure that we are spending more money in mitigation and resilience measures. It's been pleasing to see every state and territory co invest with the Federal Government through the Disaster Ready Fund to start dealing with that mitigation and resilience that we want to see in our communities.

MACDONALD: I know how strongly people in your communities feel about these issues. Obviously there's been this declaration of an El Nino system by the Bureau of Meteorology. Are you able to confidently tell your community that you're ready for whatever comes this season?

MCBAIN: No one can guarantee what's going to happen. The weather is unpredictable and the 2019-2020 fires were even more unpredictable because they created their own weather patterns. Fire behavioralists were unable to predict with certainty about a whole range of factors, so we can't ever guarantee it. But one thing I do know about communities following that Black Summer Bushfire is that there has been so much work done in communities preparing for if this eventuates again. Making sure that we've got evacuation centres ready to go, making sure that there are community Bushfire plans as well as individual Bushfire plans. Working with local RFS to understand where your neighbourhood safer places are, working with a number of those providers, schools, preschools, childcare centres, aged care centres about what the procedure would be if they were to be evacuated. That has really brought to the fore everyone's preparedness plans in the case that evacuations are required. Now more than ever, people understand the importance of listening to our emergency service agencies, RFS, fire and rescue, NSW Police and NSW ambulance during an emergency. That's really pleasing and so many communities are prepared to make sure that they are ready for this fire season.

MACDONALD: You're listening to RN breakfast. It's a quarter to eight. I'm talking to Kristy McBain. I'm getting a lot of texts in on these matters and actually some from within your region. One text says, my property burnt, it borders state forest. There has been not anything done about the thick extensive regrowth in the Bega Valley. And another text says, I live in Eden and little-to-no land management has been undertaken by the authorities to mitigate fire events since the fires of 2019-20. I am scared. Do you hear that from your constituents?

MCBAIN: Anyone that lived through the 2019-2020 bushfires will rightly have, in many ways, PTSD about what that situation was. I know that many community members reached out to me after all of the media coverage of the Maui fires, expressing concern that they didn't want to have to go through that again. Here we are very early in the season and there's already concerns. I know Bondi's Forest in Bombala yesterday and Aslings Beach in Eden. There are a lot of people that are rightly concerned and they lived through a quite traumatic experience and we know that in our part of the world there were lives lost during those bushfires which our community still grieve for. Absolutely, there will be people that are scared and worried and I guess the message is let's make sure that we are as best prepared as we can be individually, as a community and continue to put pressure on that land management section. We want our national parks, we want our state forests, we want our crown land to be managed effectively so that we're not in a situation that we don't need to be in.

MACDONALD: Kristy McBain thank you very much.

MCBAIN: Thank you very much.