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MELBOURNE - The three-member royal commission into Victoria's catastrophic bushfires hopes to have recommendations in place in time for the next fire season.
Commission head, former Supreme Court judge Justice Bernard Teague, says he wants to start meeting fire victims and fire authorities within the next two weeks.
The commission, armed with a A$40 million ($50.3 million) budget, will stage informal round-table discussions as well as open and closed hearings.
"We want to do that as soon as possible - probably not next week but starting to have these discussions the week after," Teague said yesterday.
He will be assisted by fellow royal commissioners Ron McLeod, who led the inquiry after the 2003 ACT bushfires, and Susan Pascoe, who is commissioner of the Victorian State Services Authority.
"In the early stages we want to get out and talk to members of the public to the maximum extent possible and at the end of six months make recommendations for changes in respect to those matters we perceive to be urgent and important," Teague said.
The commission would spend another 18 months considering less urgent changes that should be made.
He said urgent matters included establishing the cause of the fires, ways to help victims and improving communications to give people enough warning of danger.
"We would aim to go out into the field and to listen and question as much as possible. Where appropriate we would have round-table discussions, so it won't be in a formal hearing context, and not only in Melbourne but in those fire-affected areas."
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the federal and Victorian governments would respond quickly to the royal commission's report.
People were looking for assurances that governments would make changes to try to avoid similar disasters in the future.
"Everybody who has lived through this experience in Victoria and around the nation has asked the question: 'Why? What can we do better?"'
No one wanted to see the report "as a book on a shelf gathering dust", she said.
The huge task of finding accommodation for the 7000 people who lost their homes begins this week at a two-day meeting.
The Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, the Department of Human Services and other agencies are holding the two-day planning exercise today and tomorrow.
Some people would be displaced for a significant amount of time, DHS director of emergency management Craig Lapsley said. "We've now got more than 1800 houses burnt or significantly impacted ... 1800 households out there need to be accommodated somewhere else.
"Some are still living in relief centres, we're looking at how we best relocate those into other accommodation ... it could be emergency to temporary to something more permanent.
"It's very important to understand the connection for children to their educational facilities, where people earn money and social connections.
"Some people find it difficult to move away from a community they have been part of, but it may be a necessary step for rebuilding."
Lapsley said the agencies would be better placed after the meeting to understand how housing people would work in the medium to long-term.
"It's probably the number one issue at the moment, it needs a lot of thinking, not one single solution."
- AAP
