00:02Picking through the rubble of what was Harcourt Cool Stores, manager Trevor Peeler is still
00:08processing the disaster.
00:10I think things could have been learnt from this fire.
00:14Harcourt was one of the towns decimated by January's bushfires.
00:20The blaze burned through thousands of hectares across the state, destroying hundreds of
00:25buildings and leaving one man dead.
00:27Under pressure on how well Victoria was prepared, the Premier Jacinta Allen announced in January
00:33she would request a formal independent review, led by the Inspector General for Emergency
00:39Management.
00:40But the work on that review won't even begin until a separate parliamentary inquiry is
00:46complete.
00:47And that inquiry isn't reporting back until the end of July.
00:51There is no point in kicking off that broad inquiry in August or September.
00:55You'll be running straight into the caretaker period and there will be simply no prayer
00:58of delivering any findings prior to the next fire season.
01:02We always thought that a parliamentary inquiry was important as well, but there shouldn't
01:07be any reason for the two not to run in parallel.
01:09The State Government has defended the timing, saying it will ensure emergency agencies aren't
01:14stretched across multiple major reviews.
01:17But it could mean communities head into the next bushfire season without learning the lessons
01:22of the past.
01:24It is actually useless to have an inquiry that reports after a fire season.
01:29The more other communities can learn from it, that's all we want from it.
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