Bushfire “backlist” must be released

Today’s revelations by former Chief Fire Officer John Gledhill of a secret “blacklist” of indefensible suburbs in the case of buhfire is extremely disturbing.

Minister Jim Cox must immediately reveal whether he knew about the existence of this list, if he has seen it, and if so, for how long he has known of its existence.

Now that the existience of this secret blacklist is known, Mr Cox must also cause it to be immediately publicly released.

Tasmanians deserve to know if their suburb and property is regarded as indefensible by the Tasmanian Fire Service so that they can take the appropriate prevenative fire action before it is too late.

We know from the Royal Commission into this year’s Black Saturday fires in Victoria that people’s reactions under pressure are critical to their survival – in these circumstances, clearly they need to know if there is no chance of a fire truck coming to their aid because they’re on a secret “blacklist”.

It is also a telling indictment on 11 years of Labor Government that such a list is in existence, despite numerous bushfires in the past decade, including the devastating east coast fires of 2006, and suggests that sufficient preventative action, including adequate fuel-reduction burning, hasn’t been undertaken by this Government.
Rene Hidding MP Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services