Inspector-General for Emergency Management bushfire inquiry delay labelled a farce as Victoria heads for El Nino summer
Lessons learned from last summer’s devastating bushfires will come too late to inform Victoria’s preparations for the next fire season after the state’s emergency management watchdog delayed its investigation into the 2026 disaster.
Emergency Management Inspector-General Emily Phillips confirmed she had not begun the review announced by Premier Jacinta Allan at the height of the crisis, three months after fires killed one person, destroyed 300 homes and burned 400,000 hectares across the state.
Instead, he shelved his work until a separate parliamentary inquiry into the fires could report. Phillips predicts his research will not be completed before the “middle or end” of this year, as southeastern Australia enters a potentially hot and dry El Niño summer.
The delayed timeline means that even if Phillips reports before the end of this year, his recommendations would be too late to make any decisions about firefighting equipment, staffing or emergency response practices for next summer.
The Victorian government confirmed it was aware of the timeframe. “As the independent inspector general has said, streamlining the reviews allows his work to take into account the findings of the parliamentary inquiry, while also ensuring that our emergency agencies are not spread across multiple significant reviews at the same time,” a spokesman said.
National MP Annabelle Cleeland, whose Euroa electorate was gripped by the deadly Longwood fire that ignited alongside the Hume Highway and killed local cattle farmer Max Hobson, said the delay “reeks of bureaucracy”.
“This was a tragedy,” he said. “Significant elements of this disaster could have been prevented and we need this feedback before we make the same mistakes next summer.
“Why did they ask for this to be delayed for nearly 12 months when you cannot make any proposed changes before next summer? What is the Prime Minister hiding? Is he willing to make the same mistakes again?”
John Houston, chairman of the Country Fire Authority Volunteer Group, said there was no reason why the two investigations could not be run in parallel.
“If you’re going to wait until next year, you might as well not investigate,” he said. “Apparently he expects everyone to write the report and will just click and drag.”
Wimmera grain farmer Andrew Weidemann, whose Across Victoria Alliance has become a lightning rod for regional resentment over the government’s tax policies and claims he is an under-resourced CFA, said there was an urgent need to improve firefighting equipment and morale ahead of the next bushfire season.
The group, along with the opposition, the United Firefighters Association and the CFA Volunteer Group, backed a parliamentary inquiry into the fires. “This shows why we think the inspector general is a toothless tiger,” Weidemann said. “We see another folk comedy”
The Prime Minister announced the Inspector General of Emergency Management’s investigation into the fires on January 15; This was a week after the Longwood fire was ignited by a trailer that sent sparks into the tall grass next to the highway during a disaster-filled day.
At the time, Allan was frustrated with CFA funding and what he described as a campaign of misinformation about problems with the agency’s aging truck fleet.
In a statement released to announce the investigation, a government spokesperson emphasized the need for a non-partisan review.
“Once the risk is reduced, we will demand a formal review of this wildfire season led by the Inspector General of Emergency Management, not politicians,” they said. “The Inspector General of Emergency Management was established for exactly this purpose – to provide expert advice so we can continually improve our response.”
The opposition then won the support of cross-party MPs to form a separate upper house inquiry, to be chaired by Labor MP Ryan Batchelor. It has invited applications but has not yet scheduled any public hearings; The original reporting date was pushed back two months to the end of July.
This investigation will look at issues such as preparation and planning by government and emergency services agencies, as well as funding the CFA for equipment and devices.
The Inspector General for Emergency Management was created after the 2009 Black Saturday fires, the deadliest since records have been kept, to promote public accountability for the state’s response to wildfire and other emergency disasters.
When the previous inspector general, Tony Pearce, conducted an investigation into the 2019-20 fires, he delivered his findings and 17 recommendations regarding the state’s fire preparedness and response on July 31, 2020. The second half of his inquiry into the effectiveness of relief and recovery arrangements was completed the following year.
The delay in the 2026 inquiry was revealed when independent MP Will Fowles wrote to Phillips last month asking about the timing and scope of his review. Fowles is the brother of winemaker Matt Fowles, whose Avenel vineyards were destroyed in the Longwood fire.
Phillips told Will Fowles that he wanted to consider the findings and recommendations of the parliamentary committee’s review before starting his own investigation. “Upon completion of the committee’s work in mid-to-late 2026, I plan to release information related to my review, including its terms of reference and public engagement opportunities,” he wrote.
The outlet posed a series of questions to Phillips, including whether he could provide assurances that the investigation into last summer’s fires would be completed before the next fire season, but his spokesman did not respond to that question.
Prior to his appointment in 2024, Phillips spent 10 years in senior civil service positions in water, agriculture, telecommunications and regulatory services.
Victoria’s emergency services are conducting their own investigation into last summer’s fires and their findings will inform preparations for the next fire season, a government spokesman said.
“Last summer’s fires were devastating and our focus is on learning from them and supporting affected Victorian communities,” the spokesman said.
Bureau of Meteorology latest long term forecastThe report, published late last month, predicts higher-than-average sea surface temperatures and a possible transition to El Niño by the end of winter. If confirmed, warmer and drier summer conditions are likely to come to Victoria.
The risk of delaying the Inspector General of Emergency Management’s investigation is that memories are erased and important issues remain unaddressed, Cleeland said. He said the response to the Longwood fire was hampered by confusion over which radio channels to use and the suitability of trucks and other equipment available to fire crews.
“Memory has a timeline,” he said. “If you really want to create change and protect communities from the same mistakes, the sooner the better.”
Last summer’s fire crisis was the first crisis responded to by Victorian emergency services since the CFA was shifted to the newly created Victoria Fire Services; This was a change resisted by some within the traditionally voluntary organisation.
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Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He had previously served as the newspaper’s chief correspondent and was a journalist with 30 years of experience.Connect via email.
