Attempts by Liberal and National politicians to place the blame on the Greens represent the worst kind of dishonest politics. The Coalition has spent six years in office ignoring the main cause of these unprecedented bushfires – severe climate change.

Climate change has left forests and grasslands drier, which means the bushfire season has started earlier and will likely last longer. Higher temperatures and drier conditions have made the window for hazard reduction shorter.

The major cause of climate change that has led to these bushfires and extreme dry conditions around the country is the mining, burning and exporting of coal, oil and gas.

Governments at all levels should be co-designing and consulting with First Nations peoples when making decisions about land management and the environment.

The NPWS Act, LLS Act and RFS Act should be amended to strengthen cultural burn practices in NSW. This would legitamise First Nations cultural practices as well as:
1. Secure insurance for Indigenous burns
2. Better manage land across different tenures
3. Appropriately fund cultural burns and equipment
4. Build capacity and educational resources
5. Allow cultural burning on private lands
6. Accredit cultural burns practitioners

Amended legislation is required with direction from the highest levels of government. Hazard reduction burns are dangerous and can take lives if land managers, who are responsible for what happens on their land under NSW legislation, don’t adhere to NPWS cultural burns policy for instance. We need trained professional cultural burning teams that collaborate closely with the land owner that can also cross tenures. We need pilot testing of cultural burn practices to guarantee effective use of fire.

The NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service need to be fully funded, and in particular, an increase in area managers who are confident fire managers. When fires happen you need all hands on deck and a lack of area managers has a negative effect on fighting fires. Staff from other departments should not have to be recruited with no training or prior skills or experience in bushfire fighting. Governments who want to save money by cutting staffing that weakens NPWS’s effort to fight fires. 

We need more people on the ground who are trained and specialists in fire management and the Enhanced Bushfire Management Program fully funded! 

Financial contributions to the fantastic state fire fighting services NSW Fire & Rescue and NSW Rural Fire Service comes from home insurance. In Victoria its tied to the rates, but in NSW its tied to home insurance. Everyone’s property should be protected when fighting fires and as a community, we should all share in funding better fire services. We are calling on the government to levy all property owners to make sure our fire services are funded effectively.