Dr Bill Johnston

Crowdy Bay National Park January 2020 (Credit: Bill Johnston)

Summary and recommendations

• Bushfire fighting capabilities are a matter for the States and the role of the Commonwealth should be limited to providing manpower (ADF personnel, who are largely untrained for firefighting per se.) and financial support on request. The problem with the Commonwealth assuming some overarching role is that it adds another level of complexity to an already over-crowded coordination-space; and as occurred during the recent crisis it also invites political grandstanding.
• The proposal that the Commonwealth be able of its own volition to declare a state of national emergency is unsound. It could declare a ‘climate emergency’ for political purposes for example, when no such thing exists.
• It ought to be of concern to the Commission that there is no evidence that Australia’s climate is changing or that summers are becoming longer, hotter or drier. Relationships between climate and bushfire are well understood and empirically predictable. Briefly, runs of years of above-average rainfall encourage fuel build-up, which if not controlled results in potentially cataclysmic fires once dry conditions return. As rainfall is episodic, unpredictable and shows no trend the contention that bushfire is related to some unnatural phenomenon is unsupportable and should not cloud the Commission’s deliberations.
• It is a matter of great urgency to resolve the contradiction that, on the one-hand NSW Rural Fires Act (1997) compels managers of public and private land to undertake hazard reduction; while on the other, onerous environmental considerations make the carrying-out of hazard reduction more difficult and possibly illegal. As neither objective sits comfortably with the other, legislative change is recommended.
• The intensity and unmanageability of recent fires in NSW resulted from the failure to mitigate biomass accumulation since the end of the Millennium drought in 2010/11. Blame for that situation lies squarely with the environmental provisions of the Rural Fires Act (1997), which places undue restraint on Rural Fire Service volunteers and others by requiring them to take account of ‘principles of sustainable development’ in order to gain approval for implementing control measures on public land.

Important link:

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