John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the summer approaching and the risk of bushfires. I would like to commend my colleague Senator Troeth for mentioning the waste of money: the $500 million blow-out on the photovoltaic budget and the $1 billion on the batts in the ceilings. Yesterday we argued about how there is not enough money to support the tertiary education of many after they have a gap year. So it is quite ironic that there is waste here, there and everywhere, but there is not enough money when it comes to sending young people to tertiary education and providing them essential services.

I just want to say a few words about the upcoming fire season. Three things are required for a severe, savage fire: heat, wind and fuel. I refer to fuel because we cannot control heat, despite the fact that Mr Rudd, with his CPRS legislation, says he will. The fact is he will not. And we cannot control the wind. The levels of fuel on the ground we can control. Once you get more than 50 tonnes per hectare of grass, twigs and leaves—what the firemen call fuel—and combine that with hot days of 40, 42 or 44 degrees and a strong wind, you have the environment for tragedy.

When Bob Carr came to government in New South Wales in 1995 he said it was going to be the greenest government the state had ever seen. What did he do? He went out and made all these new national parks. The reason he did it was the pressure put on him by the Greens. He needed the Greens’ support in the Legislative Council. So this was about the Greens putting their weight on the Carr government of New South Wales. He created all these national parks. What is the big thing to note here? The fuel levels in those national parks. Hazard reduction burning is virtually non-existent. The big thing they do not do is to allow sheep and cattle graze in national parks—through managed holistic grazing—to reduce those fuel levels.

What do we see when those three factors come together? The extreme bushfires. It happened to Canberra many years ago. The old-timers warned that if the fuel levels were not reduced in those parks and on those hills then Canberra would be under threat. Exactly what they said came true. My concern as we approach summer—and we have already seen the hot weather in Adelaide and other parts of South Australia, and it is now coming east—is that the severe fires will soon be on. The cost is enormous. The loss is enormous. We can look back on Black Saturday last year.

What are we doing to reduce those fuel levels? Toorale Station at Bourke is 90,000 hectares or 225,000 acres. It is a big stretch of land. Minister Wong has now bought that in an effort to have a little bit of water go down the Murray. It is now a national park. So how are they managing Toorale Station? I bet there is no grazing being carried out to reduce the fuel levels. It is only a matter of time until lightning strikes and it goes up, burning from one end to the other, killing the animals and destroying the trees—and they call it conservation. This is the Labor way of conservation—with pressure put on them by the Greens, who are the ones who pushed it in the first place. This is their conservation: to allow the fuel levels to build up. The next thing will be that we will get a lightning strike, and the fire will be off and going. As the fire goes through, totally out of control because of those fuel levels, what will we see? We will see the destruction of our environment.

This is a pet hate of mine. We are destroying our environment by locking up land and leaving it. We have had drought for years. We have starving stock out there. But, no, you cannot graze them in a national park. That will just feed the stock and keep them alive, reduce the fuel levels and remove a huge risk of severe bushfire. But, no, you are not allowed to do that because a steer walking through the national park might tread on a spotted frog or something. Instead we will just incinerate the frog when it all burns up. We need to see some common sense brought to this place about national parks, about protecting our environment and about protecting the animals that live in those places. While ever you allow those fuel levels to continue to build up, the hot days will come, the wind will be there, the lightning will strike and you will have more trouble than you can handle.

This is what has been happening for years. Those who claim to care about the environment—mainly the Greens, who have influence on the Labor Party on these national parks—and who put their hands on their hearts and say, ‘We are concerned about the environment,’ are the very cause of these fires. They are the very cause of the fuel build-ups, the lack of grazing and the lack of hazard reduction burning. The severe bushfires will once again hit this summer and will continue to do so until some proper management of our national parks is introduced. However, we will not hold our breath for that, because the governments, especially the New South Wales government, will not allow the grazing of national parks. They will simply allow the fuel levels to build up, allow the fires and then say, ‘We’ll have an inquiry into this and see what we can do to prevent it in the future.’ Nothing will change. The same things will go on as always. The parks will burn. The animals will be cooked, sizzled and killed. The trees will be burnt out in the hot fire and their crowns will be destroyed. Once again the government will say, ‘That’s a tragedy.’ Of course it is a tragedy, because nothing is ever done about it. There is no management. The point I make is that you cannot simply lock up country and leave it. If you do, fire will destroy it and everything that lives in it. When will some common sense come to this place about managing our environment? It will never come so long as the Greens have the influence on the Labor Party that they do.