The Liberals and The Nationals will double prescribed burning and work towards the Bushfire Royal Commission’s recommendation to treat 5 per cent of treatable public land annually, building a safer and more resilient Victoria.
Shadow Minister for Public Land Management, Melina Bath, said an elected Liberal and Nationals Government would adopt a whole-of-landscape approach that combines strategic burning and, targeted fuel reduction.
Last summer’s fires burnt more than 440,000 hectares across Victoria, a larger area than Black Saturday, and destroyed 451 homes.
The Parliamentary inquiry into the 2026 summer fires heard repeated evidence that Victoria entered the fire season underprepared, despite years of warnings about declining planned burning, rising fuel loads and inadequate roadside vegetation management.
“That’s why our plan takes a whole-of-landscape approach: public land, roadsides and the interface with private land,” Ms Bath said.
“We’ll back local brigades and land managers to get fuel reduction done when the conditions are right, not tie them up in red tape until the window has closed.”
“Labor’s own auditor found it couldn’t deliver its own fuel breaks. Victorians deserve a government that sets clear targets, publishes the results and is held to account for them.”
“Our plan puts prevention back where it belongs, at the centre of bushfire management,” Ms Bath said.
“We will double prescribed burning and work towards the Royal Commission’s 5 per cent target, guided by science and local knowledge, to build a safer and more resilient Victoria.”
The plan will also:
• Expand cultural burning in partnership with Indigenous Victorians, combining traditional knowledge with modern fire management to reduce bushfire risk and care for Country.
• Put more boots on the ground and less bureaucracy in Melbourne, backing the people who know the land, forests and fire risks.
• Restore transparency by publishing fuel management plans, targets and results, so communities can see what is promised and what is delivered.
“Unlike Labor, we won’t hide the facts and we won’t neglect regional Victoria until it’s too late. Communities deserve to see exactly what is planned, what is targeted and what is actually delivered,” Ms Bath said.
Last year, the government cut fuel reduction work by 33 per cent, leaving less than 1 per cent of Victoria’s public land estate treated to reduce bushfire risk.
Victoria’s per capita bushfire death rate has been 18 times higher than south-west Western Australia, where sustained fuel reduction remains a cornerstone of bushfire preparedness.
“Sixteen years after the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission called for a 5 per cent fuel reduction target, Labor has allowed fuel management to fall to less than 1 per cent of our public land estate.” Ms Bath said.
“After Black Summer in 2019-20, the destructive fires of 2025 and the devastating bushfires of 2026, Victorians are entitled to ask why Labor has allowed fuel management to decline while bushfire risk continues to grow.”
