Australian Bushfire Response? Ability?
Researched and Compiled by Kara Eva Schlegl
Additional research and fact checking: Simon Holmes à Court
Special thanks to Dan Ilic, Alex Gabbott, Maria Yanovsky, Ena Markovic, Matt Perrott, James Colley, Scott Ludlam, Tim Minchin, Simon & Katrina Holmes à Court & Dick Smith.
Introduction
I was driving home at 3am, after my team and I finalised the edit of this video, and a government ad came on the radio advising that extreme water restrictions are now in place, due to the severe drought currently afflicting NSW.
I don’t know about you, but I’m furious. Furious that we are governed by people who will instruct us to have shorter showers, and at the same time, will allow Australia’s mining sector to consume over 20% of our freshwater supply every single year.
I’m furious that our government will pour billions of dollars into the mining sector, but refuses to pay even minimum wage to the firefighters who put their lives on the line for us every bushfire season.
In December 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison ran a campaign of deflection, telling the Australian people that the unprecedented bushfire crisis raging across the country had nothing to do with his government’s inaction on climate change, saying that emissions reductions in Australia won’t make a difference to the climate.
The truth is, taking action on climate change isn’t limited to emissions reduction. Taking action means heeding the warnings, and investing time, money and influence into preventing the worst from happening, and preparing our country for oncoming disasters.
Our governments didn’t take action on climate change, and now, in the words of NSW RFS Firefighter Darin Sullivan, ‘we’ve gotta deal with it’.
I hope this document, and the video it accompanies, gives us a better understanding of the circumstances that led to the 2019 - 2020 bushfire crisis, and inspires us to help prevent it from happening again.
- Kara