Rudd stoops as low as greenie policies

IT HAD to be seen to be believed but there was the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, playing politics with bushfire relief money.

On a Canberra day marked by sincere, heartfelt and profoundly personal stories from federal politicians that replaced the usual argy-bargy of Question Time, Rudd's deliberate statement about funding which could be available to Victorians and Queenslanders under his proposal to spend $42 billion of borrowed money drew a grimace of revulsion from MPs on both sides of the House. Even parliamentary press gallery members who usually accept Rudd's remarks unquestioningly were stunned by this new low in parliamentary behaviour as the Prime Minister plumbed political depths hitherto uncharted. When they had recovered sufficiently to seek the view of Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, he initially demurred then indicated he would write a letter to Rudd seeking clarification. The Government had caught the angry mood as it hastily released a letter in response to the gallery, before Turnbull's letter had time to arrive. True to form, Rudd did not accept personal responsibility. He subordinated the letter to his faithful Treasurer Wayne Swan and the hacks received the lackey's letter. Before the 2007 election, the electorate was warned that Rudd was wanting in character. The contrast between his appalling and inexcusable attempt to link his package with this national disaster and remarks made by others during the condolence addresses which have dominated proceedings each day this week is stark. Australians grappling with the scale of this tragedy might look up the House of Representatives Hansard for Tuesday and read the contribution made by Liberal MP for McMillan Russell Broadbent to gain some sense of the ordeal and the bravery and sacrifice of those who were there. Rudd's cold and calculating contribution is so vastly different that in time it may be seen as the wake-up call Australians need to recognise the monstrous hypocrisy that clouds his every Prime Ministerial utterance. Victoria Premier John Brumby has announced a royal commission into the killer fires. It is to be hoped investigators take note of warnings from previous inquiries into the 1939 fires, the Ash Wednesday inferno, the 1994 emergency, the 2003 blazes and ask those responsible why measures deemed essential were never implemented. Political pandering to green minorities has played a part in exacerbating risk and subsequent fires. This, too, was forecast by forestry workers and scientists. Greens leader Bob Brown has taken no responsibility for the huge lock-up of forest reserves. It is bewildering to listen to Brown and other extremist environmentalists call for more wilderness areas, areas left in as pristine a state as possible, when they also purport to support the claims of Aboriginal Australians that they managed the "wilderness" for perhaps 40,000 years through regular burning. The Greens' approach is a formula for disaster. Not only has much of the Australian flora evolved in a manner which requires a fire regimen, whether deliberately or naturally sparked, but it is widely accepted that the vegetation on the continent at the time of European settlement was significantly different to what we see today. It was not locked away as the Greens insist occurs today. The regular burning kept vast areas clear for grazing game. The woody, weedy undergrowth seen in national parks around our cities is now choking what were once clearways for hunters and their prey. As The Australian reported yesterday, Nillumbik, Victoria's shire council hit hardest by the fires, boasted its green credentials as "the green wedge shire" after green groups won control and shelved a damning 2003 environmental report which predicted there would be a "major disaster" unless action was taken to remove vegetation and ban plantings adjacent to homes. The "green wedge" is now a blackened, crisped monument to those green policies. What happened in Victoria could occur in and around Sydney in the same weather conditions - we have similar fuel loads because damper conditions over the past year encouraged fuel growth and made fuel reduction difficult. Green politics are incendiary. As a member of a volunteer rural fire brigade for 15 years, there is one obvious and critical lesson that needs to be drummed into those who want a safer Australian environment: Fire management must be a preventative measure, not a last resort.