Ed,

We must take account of the following:

Off course the “heroes” are the employed workers and hundreds of volunteers of the RFS.

This is ‘no thanks’ to the ‘bosses’ who never learn from the reports of the past Royal Commissions that clearly stated, ‘fuel loads’ in National Parks; Crown Land and private property must not be left to build up… because this can create disasters like the 2019 fires.

Fires need ‘fuel’ to burn. Bad management, lack of proper fire trails and back burning practices were disregarded. Conservative state governments have kept local council’s hands tied by bowing down to “green” policy. Of course, global warming has not helped, but 2019 heat was not new. In 1851 and 1939 we in Australia had similar disasters.

These fires of recent times as in 2019 could have seen ‘less of an impact’ if the Royal Commission reports had been implemented. We now need to learn from the past and be honest and not fall into complacency as the forests and farms left need work now.

The greens in this country need to wake-up as they must take a huge ‘hit’ of blame.

State governments and the RFS must stand up and be counted. Farmers and private landowners need to be able to protect their properties, instead of being hauled before the courts because of these ‘mad green policies’ on both sides of politics.

Please let’s open our National Parks, giving employment opportunities and bring back fire trails and protect our wildlife. We also need to bring back ‘back burning’ in winter and proper boundary clearing so no more homes and lives are lost, or at least kept to a minimum.

‘Trauma’ caused to families especially children is ‘tragic’ especially when we had warning after warning but ‘nothing was done’. We need to learn from the aboriginal management of the land. They always burnt the areas they lived in before they made camp in another area.

This disaster of 34 people dying; 11 million ha’s of forests lost with millions of wildlife killed and 6,000 buildings across our nation destroyed in the fires of 2019 should not be allowed to happen again.

God Bless.

Rex Tory, Yamba