Two weeks ago, in the midst of the nation's bushfire crisis, an arsonist lit grass fires in the bushy Canberra suburb of Curtin, about one kilometre from the family home we recently moved into.

A week later, a letter arrived from the ACT Conservator of Flora and Fauna, rejecting my earlier application for a huge gum tree on our land – its roots damaging my neighbour’s property and an obvious fire hazard – to be cut down or pruned.