The politics of bushfires

While the “green” lobby has undoubtedly had a negative influence on forest management, they are not alone in being responsible for Black Saturday (as some have claimed). However, as self-proclaimed environmental saviours, they have certainly been derelict in virtually ignoring the massive environmental impact of recent Australian bushfires - preferring instead to continue their ideologically-based forests campaign against an activity which has almost negligible environmental impact.

Unfortunately, while “locking-on” to logging equipment fits the current culture of “green” activism, lobbying state governments to allocate more resources to prescribed burning does not - despite the reality that it would have infinitely more environmental benefit.

The “green” lobby is also largely responsible for creating warped community attitudes to Australian forests based around an emotional and romantic view of the fragility of nature which is at odds with the evolutionary reliance of our forests on regular disturbance shaped by thousands of years of Aboriginal burning.

The resultant “green” culture which dictates that forests must be handled with kid-gloves is largely responsible for those state and local government policies that are impeding sensible fire management. In addition, the engendered misconception of forests as welcoming and benign has undoubtedly attracted many to a pleasant life among the trees without sufficient awareness of the inevitable brutality of fire.

Australia’s “green” lobby deserves little credibility in relation to forests, yet many of our politicians have knowingly spent the past decade deferring to them to gain political kudos. Indeed, the ink is still drying on the Victorian government’s latest decision to overturn generations of effective forest management - this time among the Murray valley red gums - largely to appease “green” political allies.

The Black Saturday Royal Commission must take the opportunity to go further than other recent bushfire inquiries by examining the close linkages that exist between the major “green” groups, our politicians, and their advisors. Victorians may then understand why public land management standards have declined against the express wishes of rural communities, and in contravention of the advice of many of those who know the most about forests and fire.