In an approach that could shame the states into stronger action, national parks and state forests will be targeted in a major new federal push to conduct more land clearing and controlled burn-offs. ausfires auspol
Mr Morrison said the issues were overseen “entirely” by state governments along with planning laws and building codes.
Victoria’s former fire chief Craig Lapsley said fire intensity had increased in the past two decades amid a changing climate and more extreme weather conditions and this current crisis was a "watershed" moment.Mr Lapsley, who led the recovery after the 2009 Black Saturday fire, said the way state governments had managed the bush had changed in the past 70 years because of society’s conservation and environmental values.
In 2010, the Black Saturday bushfires royal commission recommended Victoria undertake at least 385,000 hectares of planned burning a year. Last year there were 74,000 hectares burned off. This year there were130,000.“It's becoming harder every year to find enough days where it's safe to do burn-offs, to get anywhere near the amount that there was found back through the royal commission more than 10 years ago," Mr Andrews said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews flies in helicopter over the East Gippsland fires in Victoria, New year's Day.Mr Morrison said he had spoken to former prime minister John Howard on Sunday morning and thought this summer crisis was on a “scale of things” that required a role for national agencies.
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