By any measure this is a fair point. Those fire experts begged for a meeting as they could see what was coming, but no time could be found. Surely, we may also look sideways at the NSW government, which could find a couple of billion dollars for new stadiums in Sydney we don't need but did not have equal enthusiasm for allocating resources the bush was crying out for to defend against bushfires. The widespread charge that most of the slashing and burning done by the NSW government was on the budget of Fire and Rescue NSW and the Rural Fire Service is bitterly disputed by the government. The least that can be agreed is that despite the expert warnings of what was coming, the NSW government failed to respond in a manner that might even begin to look like prescience. But what is the group you could least blame? I am going to go with the Greens, and greenies in general. They have for decades been shrilly warning of precisely what we are seeing, and have been proven tragically correct.

Who, though, is being most blamed. The Greens and the greenies! We have seen it all week: on radio, TV, columnists, politicians and on social media – the outrageous 'Big Lie' that this is all their fault, because their specific policies have prevented hazard reduction burning. Enter Greg Mullins the former NSW fire commissioner, who has spoken out on this: "It is often either too wet, or too dry and windy to burn safely. Blaming 'greenies' for stopping these important measures is a familiar, populist, but untrue claim." And he is demonstrably correct. Loading In the first place, the Greens have no specific policy against hazard reduction, and have a specific policy in favour of it. Here is their official policy: "Hazard reduction, including manual, mechanical and hazard reduction burning activities should be strategically planned to protect the community and vulnerable assets while minimising the adverse impacts of these activities on the environment." In the second place, in NSW, there is no record – ever, anywhere – of a Greens-dominated council ever holding back hazard-reduction burning.

In the third place, there are bugger-all Greens on councils and in governments to begin with. See, right now, there are 1480 councillors in NSW. Of these, just 58 – count 'em – 58 are Greens.

But they are the ones to blame! Such extraordinary power they have. Those maintaining this is all the Greens fault look ridiculous – and no one more than you, Barnaby. Farewell Fordo Bloody hell, talk about le tout Sydney. Your humble correspondent was caught in Tasmania on a book tour and sadly couldn't attend the funeral at Paddington's St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on Friday afternoon of my erstwhile agent, John Fordham. Famous faces at John Fordham's funeral. Credit:SMH

Mrs TFF, however, was front and centre and reported that in all her days she has never been at a gathering so heavily loaded with Sydney's movers and shakers – most from the world of sports, media, politics and business – nearly all of whom had dealt with Fordham over his 50-year career. Their numbers, of course, included his sons Ben – of 2GB fame – and Nick who has taken over the business but I am told it was John's eldest child Sarah, an artist, who provided one of the most memorable moments for the 700 strong-throng. Rising to the pulpit to deliver the eulogy, both high-powered brothers hovered close in fraternal support of their sister, in case she couldn't get through it, until she told them lovingly but straight: "It's all right boys, I've got this." "You can sit down." The church exploded with joy – John would have been so proud – and Sarah proved as good as her word, delivering a eulogy for the ages. Vale, John. Your whole family did you proud. Joke of the Week

A man wakes up one morning in Alaska to find a bear on his roof. So he looks in the Yellow Pages and, sure enough, there's an ad for "Bear Removers". He calls the number and the bear remover says he'll be over in 30 minutes. The bear remover arrives and gets out of his van. He's got a ladder, a baseball bat, a shotgun and a mean old pit-bull. "What are you going to do?" the home owner asks. "I'm going to put this ladder up against the roof, then I'm going to go up there and knock the bear off the roof with this baseball bat. When the bear falls off, the pit bull is trained to grab his testicles in his teeth and not let go. The bear will then be subdued enough for me to put him in the cage in the back of the van." He hands the shotgun to the home owner.

"What's the shotgun for?" asks the home owner. "If the bear knocks me off the roof, shoot the dog." Quotes of the Week "Message to Media: Enough Bullshit. Read the evidence, believe the science, stop mucking about. This is what our BOM says of bushfires. 1. They're increasingly common 2. The fire season is getting longer. 3. Climate change is contributing." – Paul Barry, of Media Watch, on Twitter. "There are a range of things that affect the climate and on a global scale, you should be part of it, and acknowledge it would have an effect and I acknowledge that there are other issues as well. There's just the oscillation of the seasons. There's a change in the magnetic field of the sun." – Barnaby Joyce. No words. Climate scientists soon called this out as "ludicrous and grossly ill-informed".

"It brings it all up again. It makes it continue and, again, it just leaves it open for another decision." – Abuse survivors advocate Chrissy Foster about the effect of the High Court agreeing to look at Cardinal Pell's conviction. "Now 16-odd years later, he's benefitted from millions of dollars in taxpayers' funds and he really doesn't deserve them." – Beth Heinrich, whose account of a sexual relationship with an Anglican priest from the age of 15 led in part to former governor-general Peter Hollingworth's downfall, as West Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert introduces a private member's bill that would allow a minister or Parliament to axe vice-regal pensions over "serious misconduct" in or out of office. "I'm afraid that Australia must stop selling coal overseas to China and it must stop using coal in Australia. It is the most damaging thing that it can do. I would suggest the Australian government create a revolution in clean energy, which can create thousands more jobs than coal could ever produce." – English billionaire Sir Richard Branson calling on Australia to become a world leader in the renewable energy space, saying that "if you do the right thing, you'll find in the years to come you'll get the benefits". "It is passing strange to me that some Australians talk about phasing out coal. For heaven's sake it is one of our great assets … [iron ore and coal] exports form the bedrock of our trading relationship with China." – Former prime minister John Howard, speaking to a conference of Chinese and Australian entrepreneurs while Rome burned. "I acknowledge that the two people who died were most likely people who voted for the Green party so I am not going to start attacking them, that's the last thing I want to do." – Barnaby Joyce, saying that victims of the devastating NSW bushfires were likely Greens voters.

"The ABC should reconsider this decision. The AOC is prepared to put this case to the chair of the ABC directly, on behalf of the 8 million Australians who participate in Olympic sports. Not to mention the millions more who follow, support and celebrate those athletes. The AOC believes the decision is monumentally short-sighted and a great let-down to Australians who rely on their national broadcaster – from the smallest of communities to our suburbs." – Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll about the ABC decision not to provide live coverage of next year's Olympic Games in Tokyo. "I've been asking people for months and years to clear around their houses, and days like today and tomorrow is why. If we can't have a crew there safely next to your house, I'm not going to lose firies to save something that someone couldn't care about themselves enough to clear." – Charlie Cohen, RFS Divisional Commander, Mt Nardi. "It won't be a straight line to zero simply because the progress on biofuel and other technology won't be linear, either. But there will be clear progress. We picked 2050 because it's ambitious but we think it's achievable." – Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce as Qantas pledged to cut its net carbon emissions to zero by 2050, breaking ranks with its global airline peers at a time when aviation is under unprecedented scrutiny over its contribution to climate change. "We've had fires in Australia since time began, and what people need now is sympathy, understanding, help and shelter. They don't need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at this time." – Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack slamming climate change concerns of "raving inner city lunatics" at a time when rural Australians are dealing with catastrophic bushfires. "Just stay away from any kind of bushland whatsoever." – Part of Gladys Berejiklian's advice to people about the catastrophic fire rating this week.