Despite the predictable screeching of the climate cultists, ghoulishly trying to pump up the tyres of their clapped-out bandwagon by hitching it to the current NSW bushfires, the fact remains that it ain’t climate change wot dun it. The biggest proximate cause is the devastating drought which has gripped parts of Australia for years – and which even climate scientists concede is not linked to climate change.
But there also remains the possibility that the drought conditions have been exacerbated by “green tape”: land use and vegetation clearing rules which have allegedly stifled mitigation strategies which might not have prevented bushfires, but very likely stopped them reaching the catastrophic scale that they have.
Claims that “green tape’’ worsened an already “difficult and dangerous’’ fire season will be investigated at a special inquiry that will probe the state’s bushfire hazard-reduction strategies, including land clearing and burn-offs. The federal government has bowed to pressure to investigate if the ongoing deadly fire season was fuelled by a failure to properly manage vegetation in national parks, forests and on private properties.
The newly launched bushfire inquiry will consider if governments at all levels have enough power to require landholders to reduce fire risks on their properties, and will investigate the science behind bushfire management activities and the impact of severe blazes.
Committee chair Liberal National MP Ted O’Brien said the inquiry was an “opportunity to better understand” how laws, mitigation strategies and the engagement of emergency services could impact fires.
“The committee understands people will have very passionate views about this, particularly in light of the current bushfire season,” he said.
“We look forward to hearing all views and assessing all the evidence put before us.”
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro was among a number of National Party politicians who blamed “green-left ideology” for the unprecedented fires in recent weeks.
dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/nsw-government-bushfire-inquriy-to-focus-on-failures-in-hazard-reduction/
While an inquiry into green tape is certainly welcome, there is also a whiff of suspicion that this may well just be an arse-covering exercise for the NSW government.
Certainly, the plain evidence is that hazard reduction work has been dangerously down-scaled in recent years. Hazard reduction works in NSW in 2018/19 were over 30% lower than in 2012/13. Other years have been even worse: in 2016/17, reduction works were 70% lower than their 2012/13 peak. What must be established is: is this government negligence, prudence in the face of drought conditions, or the strangulation of good land management by green tape?
At the same time, there was a massive reduction in funding for the Rural Fire Service (RFS) last year – although, to be fair, much of that “cut” was a return to normal funding after a huge cash splash the year before on one-off, massively expensive equipment like 737 water bombers. So, despite opportunistic green tub-thumping about a “75 percent funding cut”, in reality, the true funding cut was a much more modest 4.8%.
Meanwhile, premier Gladys Berejiklian denies cutting ranger numbers.
“Since 2017, we’ve increased by 144 the number of staff in National Parks and Wildlife,” Ms Berejiklian told the ABC. “What you’re hearing is not necessarily facts and I’m talking about the facts.
“I strongly refute those claims. Since 2017 we’ve increased the number of full-time employees.”
But what does “the number of staff” actually mean?
Environment Minister Matt Kean conceded to The Australian on Wednesday that the state had cut the number of rangers, who are involved in hazard-reduction burns, from 264 to 220, but denied the government was not doing enough […]
Mr Barilaro told 2GB that not enough was being done about hazard-reduction burns but it was “not correct” that ranger numbers had been cut.
“National Parks’ approach has been to lock it up and it hasn’t worked,” Mr Barilaro said […]“We still live with Bob Carr’s legacy — lock up the forests and let them burn.”
theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/nsw-premier-gladys-berejiklian-challenged-on-ranger-cuts/
The likely truth is that the NSW bushfires are a perfect storm of naturally-occurring drought, government incompetence and environmentalist ideology. In fact, just about the only thing it can’t be blamed on is climate change.
