Article item posted on Thursday, July 30th 2009 at 10:42 pm

Yesterday Fairfax newspapers reported on a leaked document from the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment which stated the department’s firm conviction the bushfire threat in the coming 2009/2010 bushfire season – which begins  in just 90 days  – will be worse than the one that produced Black Saturday 2009.

But the government wasn’t going to tell us about that were they?  At least not until it was leaked to Fairfax.

Now, to be fair, we have to pretty much take Fairfax’s word on the leaked document.  That’s because, I  assume, Fairfax is protecting the source of it’s leak.  Perfectly understandable as Victoria’s flimsy Whistle Blower legislation of 2001 is unlikely to protect them from the most vicious retribution – jail, dismissal, loss of pension.

Naturally the “official” – read “paid” as opposed to “volunteer” – arm of the CFA has rushed to deflect this with gobbledegook that the bushfire risk is “…depending on what El Nino does”.

This is nonsense.  The problem is not dependent on El Nino anymore.  Victoria is beyond that.  The fuel load is still there -  untouched, denser and more explosive than a year ago.

The leaked document reportedly names the outer suburbs where the potential tragedy will unfold.  To the best of my knowledge details of which towns have not been released.

Why not?

Fear.  No – not the public’s fear -  the fear their own backsides will be kicked by the people of Victoria.  They know they’ve made a mess of this, they know why, they know how, they even know when.

The Liberal/ National Coalition appears to have handed out corks to stuff into their pollies’ mouths in a desperate bid to make sure absolutely nothing is said by them .  That’s pretty much been the case all year.   Cowards!  Who do they really represent?

Premier Brumby put on his serious and sorry face to appeal to us to be calm.  If the DSE predictions are accurate, he will be able to appeal for calm all summer long, as shocked and blackened evacuees camp out in relative’s lounge rooms.  Again.

Better not be any deaths this season, John Brumby.  You have been warned by DSE and the buck stops with you.

The Greens, the ultimate purveyors of bovine manure, on the other hand have been busy all year.  Their posture has been likened to the tobacco industry’s denial of the connection between smoking and cancer.

Victorian Greens Party spokesman Jim Reiher said on 16 February 2009:

“The Greens do NOT oppose controlled back-burning.”

(His emphasis)

That’s a strange and politically expedient statement from a party who, as recently as 2003, said in a submission to the Victorian Bushfire Inquiry:

“An effective strategic fuel-reduction burning strategy is required on scientific fire ecology behaviour information. It is critical that any revised approach to fuel-reduction burning is scientifically based, drawing on the expertise and further research of fire ecologists and fire behaviour scientists.”

To translate this Orwellian Doublespeak:  “The Greens will support fuel-reduction only after ‘further’ critical research.”

This is what the tobacco industry did.  They demanded more research.  When the research failed to match their position they simply demanded more research.  On and on and on…  This is to confuse voters, water down existing research by scientists and indeed the forestry industry, who whether we like it or not have a direct interest in this issue – just as The Greens, you, me and all Victorians do.

What is at the end of this cycle of “research” and “inquiries”?

Nothing.  No action.  You’d be better served watching a rock grow as there would be more positive action there.

The only “evidence” The Greens have reluctantly accepted are those with ambiguous findings, those that talk about animals dying in controlled burns  – but curiously omit the animals and people dying in wildfire.

It is so disappointing to realize The Greens are just as much “bastards” as the Labor and Liberal parties.  Perhaps more insidiously so having promoted themselves as a party that would watch the excesses of the big two.

They have their own clear agenda, and it doesn’t include those most at risk of losing lives and property in Victoria.  They’d rather you burned.

Scott Kane