❓ Hon Steve Martin asked about prescribed burning and fire mitigation expenditure in Lake Magenta Nature Reserve. The response indicates no prescribed burning occurred, and $32,000 was spent on mitigation in 2022-23, but nothing in the other years.

I refer to the Lake Magenta Nature Reserve, and I ask:(a) for each of the below financial years, how many hectares of prescribed burning have been undertaken:(i) 2024-25;(ii) 2023-24; and(iii) 2022-23; and(b) for each of the years in (a), what was spent on fire mitigation specifically within the reserve (not the broader region)?

(a) Prescribed burning is not a suitable standalone indicator of bushfire mitigation in the mallee vegetation of Lake Magenta Nature Reserve, as broad-scale prescribed burning is not undertaken in this landscape. Instead, bushfire mitigation is primarily achieved through the establishment and maintenance of fuel-reduced buffers, typically created using mechanical scrub rolling. Hectares of prescribed burning undertaken within Lake Magenta Nature Reserve for each financial year was: (i) 2024-25 – 0 hectares (ii) 2023-24 – 0 hectares (iii) 2022–23 – 0 hectares (b) Amount spent on bushfire mitigation within Lake Magenta Nature Reserve for each financial year was: (i) 2024-25 – $0 (ii) 2023-24 – $0 (iii) 2022–23 – $32,000