THE Brumby government has hired a private firm run by a former Labor insider to help organise consultations with bushfire-ravaged towns on the Black Saturday royal commission recommendations.
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James O'Brien, a former ministerial chief of staff, has been commissioned to run some of the 21 community meetings being held across the state over the next week.
The opposition last night said the revelation showed the meetings were ''public relations exercises rather than genuine consultation''.
Liberal frontbencher David Davis accused the government of hiring expensive PR consultancies ''run by Labor mates to manage the government's response'' to the commission's final report.
He said Premier John Brumby ''would be much better off spending his time and taxpayers's money'' on implementing the recommendations before summer.
The government hit back, accusing Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu of ''arrogantly refusing to speak to the community about their views''.
In reference to the Coalition's vow to implement all the commission's recommendations, Police Minister Bob Cameron said Mr Baillieu had ''announced he would de-populate parts of rural Victoria without first speaking to affected communities''.
The meetings are designed to get feedback on the commission's most controversial recommendations, including proposals for a taxpayer-funded scheme to buy back the properties of people wanting to move from high-risk fire zones and for a multibillion-dollar program to upgrade dangerous power lines.
FarmOnline understands the cost of organising the meetings, the first of which were held in Ballarat, Beechworth and Churchill last night, will run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
The consultations got off to a bad start for Mr Brumby on Tuesday when Gippsland resident Tony Mann, who lost his home in the Black Saturday fires, confronted the Premier and accused him of engaging in media stunts.
The Department of Justice said it had selected communication consultants Robert Masters & Associates and Scaffidi Hugh-Jones to coordinate the consultations, and they had sub-contracted ''a small component of their work'' to Mr O'Brien's Quality Community Outcomes Pty Ltd.
Mr O'Brien, who was chief of staff to community services minister Sheryl Garbutt from 2002 to 2005, said in an email to community organisations on Wednesday night that his company had been engaged ''to help facilitate a program of community consultation across Victoria to inform the state government's final decision making'' on the commission's recommendations.
''We will be listening very carefully to the views expressed and ensuring they are properly reflected in our reporting back to government,'' he wrote.
Mr O'Brien last night declined to respond to the opposition's comments.
Mr Cameron urged people to use the meetings to have their say on the commission's proposals. He said most of the meetings, which conclude on Wednesday night with sessions in Mildura, Portland and Bairnsdale, would be run by departmental officials. Mr Brumby and ministers would attend some.
Details of the remaining meetings are at www.premier.vic.gov.au
