MINUTES Meeting
2
Date: Wednesday
26 August 2015
Time: 10:15am
– 11:30am
Venue: Raymond
Island Community Hall
Present: Chair: Dave Munday (independent
facilitator)
RICA / Community: Jack Pearce, David Prasad, Tom Ponting, Warwick Hall, Jack Holbrook
DELWP: Mick
Beckers, Willow Bourke, Catherine Burton (minutes)
GLaWAC:
Grattan Mullett
Apologies: DELWP: Brad Fisher, Leona Waldegrave-Knight
Parks Victoria: Jeremy Tscharke
Purpose of
this meeting
The community consultation on managing bushfire risk
on Raymond Island will begin in late September, guided by the Department of
Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and Parks Victoria, and is
occurring due to concerns raised by residents earlier this year in response to
the planned burning and slashing programs.
The process will be overseen by a community working
group, which will include local community members and staff from DELWP, Parks
Victoria and Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC).
The purpose of this meeting is to:
·
Clarify the
purpose and parameters of the group
·
Assess the
expressions of interest (EOIs) that have been received against a set of
criteria
·
Develop the
process for follow-up for both successful and unsuccessful applicants.
Purpose of
the group overseeing the consultation process
The
purpose of the group is to ensure that the consultation process put in place
will effectively engage with the broader Raymond Island community. Desired
outcomes are:
·
Raised awareness
of local bushfire management issues
·
The community had
the opportunity to have their views heard
·
The community had
the opportunity to contribute into how future bushfire management will look on
the island.
The
group is not a forum for discussing the bushfire management issues involved;
rather it is focused on developing the process and opportunities for the
broader Raymond Island community to be engaged to the best possible degree in
the conversation.
Key
tasks include:
·
Developing and
informing communication processes to engage the community to explore bushfire
management options
·
Prepare and
disseminate information relating to the process with best possible reach into
the community
·
Represent Raymond
Island interests
·
Create a chance
for all islanders to be heard and to contribute.
EOI
assessment
The applicants were assessed against four criteria:
1.
Working with
others – Experience working with teams
2.
Planning ability
– Involvement in leadership roles
3.
Connection to
Raymond Island community – Evidence of links into the local community, e.g.
involvement in local groups
4.
Representation of
local groups – CFA, Emergency Preparation, Gunaikurnai, Koala and Wildlife
Shelter, Landcare, RICA, and the broader community.
·
A cap on the
numbers of members of the group was set at 11.
·
Six applicants
were successful.
·
Five places are
set for agency staff.
·
Follow up to all
applicants will be a letter and telephone call.
·
Feedback from the
group on the fairness of the process used for determining the working group, on
a scale of 1 – 5 where 1 = not fair, 2 = slightly fair, 3 = moderately fair, 4
= very fair, and 5 = extremely fair, was unanimous at 4, a very fair process
was used.
General
Discussion
·
Current fuel breaks will continue to be maintained however
fuel reduction measures proposed for 2015 including planned burning and
mulching have been placed on hold until after the consultation process is
complete.
·
In terms of managing
cultural values, GLaWAC works with DELWP and Parks Victoria to assess the fire
operations plan and sort any issues including the protection of registered
sites listed on the database.
·
Next steps
include setting the date with the members of the new group for the first
meeting, which is expected to be late next week (Thursday 3 or Friday 4
September).
Actions
1.
Catherine to
provide minutes for community dissemination – COMPLETED
2.
Catherine to provide
follow-up to all applicants - COMPLETED
3.
Catherine to
submit article for Raymond Island Landcare newsletter September issue –
COMPLETED
