WHO POURED COLD WATER?

Victoria’s great bushfire expert John Brumby knocked back the offer of two Russian water bombing planes during the Black Saturday disaster. He now says the Department of Sustainability and Environment decided they were unsuitable and could risk lives. The fact that the giant Ilyushin II 76 planes had been specifically adapted for firefighting and carried 40 tonnes of water -- five times as much as ‘Elvis’ helicopters – was immaterial. Also that they had been designed to fight bushfires worldwide. And could have been here in two days.

Premier Brumby says: ‘These big planes, they come down to 500 feet. You could imagine in some of these big areas, flying throughout some of our high country, how difficult and testing that would be.’

Like these planes and their crews wouldn’t experience high country or thick smoke anywhere else in the world where they operate? And have they even been considered for the upcoming fire season? Or rejected out of hand. Again.

But it’s not those planes I want to talk about. And not what happened during and after Black Saturday.

I want to talk about an American DC-10, a water-carrying fire bomber, that, I am told, was actually ordered before Black Saturday, before the fire season started.

The national secretary of the United Firefighters Union, Peter Marshall, mentioned it my 3AW program yesterday.  A government official was sent to the United States a year ago to evaluate it, organize the lease and timetable.

What happened? Somebody canned the idea. But my question is: Was it because the plane was unsuitable? And I believe that’s not true. It was eminently suitable. A great firefighting weapon. It can dump 43,000 litres at a time. It’s been used in California. Which also has high country, Mr. Brumby.

Or was it vetoed because it cost too much? And did that decision go as high as the Premier’s desk?

I’m told the lease could have cost between four and five million dollars.  A lot of money – but only a tenth of what we lost on the Grand Prix this year and about what they’re paying Tiger Woods to play golf.

I want to know: Who made the decision to cancel the DC-10 deal? To paraphrase Watergate: What did the Premier know and when did he know it?

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009