"Forest fuel load adding to fire threat" says Bath

Fuel loads in forests in West, South and Central Gippsland and the state government's failure to reduce the risk they pose for next summer has reached alarming levels, according to a local member of parliament.
Nationals Member for Eastern Victoria Region Melina Bath said the residual fuel levels, well in excess of what was stipulated in government policy, was utterly irresponsible and left the region to face a summer bushfire season of unacceptable fire danger.
Ms Bath said Minister for Environment Ingrid Stitt had refused to explain why the district fire risk was "so dangerously high" when questioned in parliament, dodging the issue with a "woefully inadequate" answer to questioning in parliament.
"She also refused to commit to any additional fuel reduction activities in the district before the start of the bushfire season".
Ms Bath said an analysis of the government's "Safer Together" program revealed only 43 per cent of planned fuel reduction targets had been met in the past six years.
The government is "rolling the dice" with the lives of thousands of Gippslanders, their properties and the environment by not reducing forest fuel loads after years of cooler and wetter conditions, she claimed.