At the dissolution of the Senate and the House of Representatives on 9 May 2016 for a general election on 2 July 2016, the parliamentary committees of the 44th Parliament ceased to exist and inquiries referred to the committees lapsed.

On 13 September 2016, the Senate agreed to the committee's recommendation that this inquiry be re-adopted in the 45th Parliament. Information about the re-adopted inquiry is available here.

This is an archived webpage that is no longer updated.

On 17 March 2016, the following matter be referred to the Environment and Communications References Committee for inquiry and report by 30 May 2016:

The response to, and lessons learnt from, recent fires in remote Tasmanian wilderness affecting the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, with particular reference to:

1. the impact of global warming on fire frequency and magnitude;
2. the availability and provisions of financial, human and mechanical resources;
3. the adequacy of fire assessment and modelling capacity;
4. Australia’s obligations as State Party to the World Heritage Convention;
5. world best practice in remote area fire management; and
6. any related matter.

The closing date for submissions is 15 April 2016.