CFA Connect Blogosphere

For nearly 18 months, Saturday 31 July 2010 was marked in our collective consciousness as a landmark day for CFA. While we continued to make long-term plans beyond the due date of the Royal Commission's final report, we knew that our future would be influenced by the findings, whatever the outcome. Now that the recommendations have been handed down, we are focussed on the response.

The Premier announced on Monday that the Government supports in principle 59 of the Commission's 67 recommendations. The remaining recommendations are being further considered before a decision is made on their adoption. Premier Brumby has made a commitment to act swiftly and decisively, with a short and targeted consultation period before the Government delivers its final response.

The Government is seeking feedback on all 67 recommendations, both those that have been supported in principle, and those that need further consultation and consideration. Included in that feedback will be CFA's views.

We learned much from the 2009 firefight and have already done significant work in response to that learning. The pace of change has been rapid and that work will continue following the Government's response. Now, our role is to have a clear voice during the consultation phase. The key topics we are seeking opinions on are:

• Bushfire Safety Policy
• Emergency and Incident Management
• Fireground Response and
• Organisational structure.

Regional Managers will be running a consultation process through their networks until Tuesday 10 August and we have also established an online option that allows you to feed your views directly into the CFA response. Further, a dedicated phone line has been set up with a freecall number so you can speak to a CFA operator.

For details about how to access the online and phone options click here.

Running parallel with CFA's endeavours will be the Government's community consultation, which begins tomorrow and runs through to Wednesday 11 August. CFA representatives - Deputy Chief Officer Geoff Conway, Director Community Safety Lisa Sturzenegger and Executive Manager Fire Planning Systems Terry Hayes - will be part of this process. You can find details of meeting locations and times here.

This is a very intensive consultation process and we expect to hear a range of views over the coming days. The timeframes are tight and will naturally present some difficulties in providing opportunities to every CFA member who wants to provide feedback. In light of the amount of work that we are going to have to do before the fire season though, we have to turn things around very quickly. While short, we believe the process will provide clear feedback to be presented to the CFA Board, which will deliver a response to government on behalf of the organisation.

I encourage you to take part in the consultation process. It is a historic time for CFA and I look forward to the final Government response, which will help shape our direction into the future.