PM: cut bushfire fuel, not just carbon emissions

Scott Morrison calls for a national standard for hazard-­reduction burns.

Scott Morrison has called for a ­national standard for bushfire hazard-­reduction burns and ­declared that tracking measures to cut fuel loads is at least as important as monitoring Australia’s carbon emissions.

In the wake of the bushfires crisis, the Prime Minister criticised the fact there were clear rules and transparency arrangements for reporting on emissions but not on mitigation measures.

He highlighted hazard-reduction burns, land-clearing laws and management of native vegetation and national parks as critical state issues that had to be scrutinised.

“We report all the time on what our emissions reductions are but across the country there is not a national system of reporting to track how hazard reduction is progressing,” Mr Morrison said on Tuesday night.

“These are all responsibilities of the states and I’m not making any argument for the federal ­government to be intervening in any of these areas but it is a very reasonable expectation people have that there are national ­standards, that there is transparency around how this is being achieved.

“Hazard reduction is as important as emissions reduction and many would argue, I think, even more so because it has an even more direct practical impact on the safety of a person going into a bushfire season.”

Mr Morrison is preparing a submission to put to his cabinet for a royal commission into Australia’s bushfire season, during which 29 people have been killed and more than 1000 homes have been destroyed.

If the states agreed, the royal commission would consider emissions reduction as well as adaptation and resilience measures to manage the changing climate

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Asked by Sky News presenter Peta Credlin whether the government might consider a national fire-risk management plan, fuel-reduction strategy or naming and shaming states that “are not doing what they said they would do”, Mr Morrison said: “These are very constructive suggestions; we’re thinking along very similar lines.”

A national hazard-reduction register could require legislation.

Scott Morrison tried to blame the States before the fires, during the fires and now after the fires. His do nothing, missing in action approach continues to put Australians at risk. https://t.co/qiugqrAR9k

— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) January 21, 2020

The Australian revealed this month that hazard-reduction burns in Victoria over the past three years combined did not reach the level recommended for a single year by the Black Saturday royal commission.

Of the 812 hazard-reduction burns the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services planned for since 2016, just 439 had been completed.

A NSW parliamentary committee into the 2001-02 Black Christmas fires — which devastated swaths of national parks around Sydney and destroyed more than 100 homes — urged reform of the responsibilities and protections of private landholders in relation to controlled burns.

Mr Morrison said a royal commission into the 2019-20 bushfires should not go for more than six months so respective governments could use the recommendations of the inquiry to prepare for the next bushfire season.

“There’s been 100 inquiries or thereabouts since the Ash Wednesday fires,” he said.

“We need to do a very quick audit and there have been ­agencies that have ­already done a lot of this work … (the royal commission will address) how we’re performing when it comes to reducing the risk as we face these fires and hotter, dryer, longer summers. There’s been plenty of chat about emissions reduction and that’s fine. Hazard reduction though is the thing that is going to take a more practical effect on how safe people are in future fire ­seasons.”

Mr Morrison wants any royal commission to look at the legality of the federal government calling out the Australian Defence Force to respond to a natural disaster.

Three thousand reservists were called out in January on a compulsory basis to help in the bushfire recovery.

“I want to know when the trigger line is. I want to know where the authority is established for the prime minister, for the federal government, to be able to take the initiative and move in and direct getting these resources in place where we believe life and property is under threat and we believe we can play a constructive role,” Mr Morrison said.

“That’s no criticism of the state governments — I want to make this very clear, they’ve done an amazing job.”

Mr Morrison was criticised for his initial response to the ­bushfires, including staying on his pre-Christmas family holiday to Hawaii, and has come under ­increasing pressure to take action on climate change.

Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said climate change had contributed to the intensity of the fires and the length of the season, and ­accused Mr Morrison of being ­reluctant to take action.

Mr Morrison has announced an initial $2bn reconstruction fund to be managed by the new national bushfire recovery agency.