Refuges 'won't be ready' by fire season

It is too late to establish fire refuges in Victorian communities in time for the next bushfire season, the government has revealed.

The government agrees with interim recommendations made by the royal commission into the February 7 bushfires that there must be options for people who are unable to shelter in homes or are caught in the open during a fire.

State counsel Allan Myers QC said the government was willing to start work on construction of refuges as soon as possible but would need to wait until building standards were developed, which could take several months.

"The task of creating fire refuges throughout the state is not something that the state of Victoria can complete before the next fire season," Mr Myers told the commission on Friday.

He conceded that while the state has some responsibility for fire refuges, their creation and administration lies with local communities and municipalities.

But bushfire expert David Packham said existing buildings could be used provided they met fire survival standards.

"We need them there for some other purpose," he told AAP.

Fire refuges maintained by local councils in Victoria during the 1980s were gradually decommissioned for fear of liability and as the "stay or go" policy became entrenched.

Evidence presented to the commission by Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) chief executive Rob Spence has previously detailed that refuges are managed by councils only in "rare and exceptional circumstances" where a community is remote or isolated.

In Victoria, only eight formally designated fire refuges remain in use in the Baw Baw Shire and one in Woods Point, in the Mansfield Shire.

They include locations as diverse as a reservoir, a shopping centre, a dam wall, community hall and a dugout but the commission has heard a number are undergoing fire safety assessments.

Mr Myers also said the government agreed with the commission lawyers' proposal to retain elements of the controversial "stay or go" policy, but said the Country Fire Authority (CFA) needed to develop education programs that advise individual residents about the defensibility of their properties.

The revised policy will place much more emphasis on the protection of life as paramount by leaving a property early.

But the claim by counsel assisting that chief CFA officer Russell Rees "was divorced from fundamental aspects" of his role is vehemently denied by the government in its submissions.

Despite this, the government is generally in agreement with most interim proposals put by commission lawyers, including the introduction of warnings and voluntary evacuation.

Bushfire Response opposition spokesman Peter Ryan said the Victorian government had wasted "literally years" to deliver recommendations made to the commission, including the introduction of a single "behind the scenes" website that uploads same-time information to CFA and Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) websites.

"Much of what has been spoken of today was already known to the government before Black Saturday happened," Mr Ryan told reporters.

The commission will sit on Monday before retiring to prepare its interim report due for release on August 17.