Group calls for ‘a big national conversation’ with farmers, councils, the military and politicians

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Australia needs a national summit to address how the country should prepare for and resource bushfire emergencies in a changed climate, former emergency leaders say.

It comes after the prime minister, Scott Morrison, rejected calls on Tuesday for additional help for volunteers who have been fighting fires and assisting fire-affected communities in New South Wales and Queensland for weeks.

Asked how tens of thousands of volunteers were expected to continue without pay, Morrison said they “want to be there”.

But two former fire chiefs – Greg Mullins from NSW and Lee Johnson in Queensland – say a national summit is necessary to discuss not only the increasing strain on volunteers battling more extreme and frequent bushfires, but also how Australia deals with fire in a changed climate.

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Mullins and Johnson are part of a coalition of former emergency leaders who have been calling on the government do more to address the climate crisis.

“What we’re saying long term is there needs to be a paradigm shift for how we deal with these fires,” Mullins said.

“A big national conversation needs to be had. We need farmers, councils, the military, politics.

“There needs to be an emergency summit and there needs to be an acknowledgment from the government that climate change has created conditions for the worst fires we’ve had in NSW and Queensland.”

Mullins, who has been volunteering with RFS crews in Taree, said well-structured resource-sharing arrangements between states and other countries were working well. The challenge would come if more major fires took hold in Victoria and South Australia further into summer.

Mullins said it was not unusual for volunteers to work 12-hour shifts, with a two-hour drive on each side of that.

“It’s not even peak season yet and the fires haven’t come into suburbia yet, which is historically where the worst losses have been,” he said.

But the bigger challenge was longer-term planning for fire seasons similar or worse than the current one.

A summit needed to talk about not just resourcing for increasingly challenging fires, but also adaptation measures such as reviewing building codes for houses in fire-prone areas, examining how to make better use of the defence force during bushfires, and other measures such as fuel reduction.

Johnson said: “Volunteers are under a great deal of strain, no doubt about it, and that’s impacting their personal circumstances.”

That was the case not only for fire crews, but also organisations such as the CWA, the Red Cross and religious organisations that were supporting regional communities.

“What your regional communities are going through is putting a great strain on the economy and wellbeing of those communities. It’s not to be underestimated,” he said.

“When we’re asking people to fight fires in a season extending months, that’s a big ask for free labour.

“The real worry is: is it going to be the same again next year?”

Johnson and Mullins said they did not believe governments had the budgets to support a professionalised firefighting force that could do what the volunteers do.

Instead they needed to look at ways to support the volunteers they already have and develop incentives to encourage new and younger ones to sign up.

The NSW RFS said the fires have had on average 2,000 firefighters from all services on the ground each day.

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On Tuesday there were also 47 personnel from New Zealand and 21 each from the US and Canada. Defence personnel have helped with search and rescue, logistics and building impact assessments.

A spokesman said the organisation did not expect a shortage of volunteers heading into Christmas and as more fatigue set in, but the duration of the emergency was “starting to take its toll”.

Requests for resources from other states or overseas are coordinated through the national resources sharing centre, which sits within the Australasian fire and emergency service authorities council.

In a statement on Tuesday, the council’s chief executive, Stuart Ellis, said suggestions there was a lack of national coordination of fire and emergency services were wrong.

“Australia has a formidable emergency management capability,” he said.

He said state and territory governments spent more than $5.5bn to support fire and emergency services across Australia and New Zealand last year and the country had more than 290,000 personnel and thousands of specialist vehicles.

There was integrated engagement with the commonwealth and national protocols for managing incident responses and the available fleet of 140 aircraft and international personnel.

“These personnel are all trained, equipped and prepared to assist,” Ellis said.