Bushfires: NSW ministers blame ‘green ideology’ for lack of hazard reduction

Two senior NSW ministers have accused their own environmental agencies of not conducting enough hazard reduction burning.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Two senior NSW government ministers have accused their own environmental agencies of not conducting enough hazard reduction burning in the lead-up to the bushfire season, with Deputy Premier John Barilaro blaming green ideology for allowing forest fuel loads to build up.

Mr Barilaro said the NSW ­National Parks and Wildlife Service was “ideologically opposed” to hazard reductions.

In a separate interview, NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey suggested it was wrong to blame climate change for the recent devastating bushfires when there were more practical solutions that could be deployed.

The comments of Mr Barilaro and Ms Pavey — both Nationals — are at odds with that of their cabinet colleague, NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean, who is advocating for a greater focus on renewable technologies to bring down the state’s carbon emissions. He has not ruled out increasing hazard reduction burning.

Mr Kean sparked a furore this week after he alleged some senior federal government MPs were uncomfortable with Scott Morrison’s stance on climate change, and that they wanted more drastic action to be taken, prompting a backlash from fellow party members.

A third NSW Nationals MP, Michael Johnsen, told The Australian on Tuesday that Mr Kean should be stripped of the environment portfolio, and it should be given to a “country MP” more committed to land management.

Ms Pavey appeared to partially back Mr Johnsen’s call during an interview on Sky News.

“I think the community wants us to get on with the job and not blame climate change,” she said.

Asked if she believed enough hazard reduction burns were being conducted, she said: “My community is telling me not, but it’s more complex than that.”

The NSW NPWS exceeded its hazard reduction target of 135,000ha during the 2018-19 ­financial year, according to annual report figures.

In 2017-18, it reached 71 per cent of the target, and 65 per cent the previous year.

Mr Barilaro said the NSW NPWS and other agencies had set “arbitrary targets” for hazard reductions, suggesting the current targets were too low.

“Who set them up? Probably our own agencies who are actually ideologically opposed to hazard reduction,” he told Sky News.

“I genuinely do believe we have agencies within government that, over decades, haven’t actually honoured their commitments for fuel reduction because of ideological positions, especially in national parks. We just lock them up.”

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister said tracking measures to cut fuel loads was at least as important as monitoring Australia’s carbon emissions, and flagged a national standard and a possible “naming and shaming” of states’ burning practices through a register.

Western Australia said it was open to a national standard on bushfire hazard reduction but Labor, the Greens and the Senate crossbench remain sceptical and have labelled the proposals “a distraction” from climate action.

WA Environment Minister Stephen Dawson said he was happy for his state to be part of a national process that set and upheld standards for hazard reduction, but not if it was overly bureaucratic and costly to the state. “We are transparent about our prescribed burning program,” he said.

“My office gets inundated with people calling to complain about the smoke (from hazard reduction) but we do it to save lives.”

Mr Dawson, a Labor minister, said hazard reduction was “very important” but it would be wrong to argue it was more important than reducing carbon emissions.

“We are in a drying climate and with that climate change, the window to undertake hazard reduction burning continues to lessen,” he said.

Victorian Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, also from Labor, would not say whether she supported Mr Morrison’s proposal but did defend the state’s record on hazard reduction.

“Planned burning is not a silver bullet. It’s part of an integrated strategy to protect life and property,” she said. “We planned to burn 246,396ha of public land in 2019, but were unable to do so because it would have been unsafe.”

Queensland’s Acting Minister for Fire and Emergency Services, Di Farmer, criticised the Prime Minister’s call for a national standard for bushfire hazard-­reduction burns, saying his lack of action on climate change was “an international embarrassment”.

“None of the experts who fight fires agrees with the Prime Minister on this,” Ms Farmer said.

Additional reporting: Paige Taylor, Sarah Elks