Reading—a review Firestorm by Greg Mullins One of the key messages that Mullins makes in his book is that the bushfire seasons of the northern and southern hemispheres were starCng to overlap, meaning that equipment could not be transferred from one country to another. It was this concern that Mullins aLempted to press upon the Government early when it became clear that 2019 presented a substanCal risk of an early bushfire season. Sadly, the warning signs were ignored, despite Mullins and ELCA having made every aLempt to brief the responsible ministers on the issue. In what should have been released to the public as a travesty of consultaCon with consCtuents, Mullins describes how ELCA’s leLers to Agriculture Minister David LiLleproud were responded to formulaically, including a leLer dated 8 December 2019 referring in past tense to a telephone meeCng that never occurred on 10 December 2019. Such lack of respect shown by government ministers towards the experts in their field demonstrates why there is such a loss of faith in governments to act in the public interest. How the CoaliCon Government has been ineffecCve in dealing with our fire crisis Aside from the Prime Minister abandoning the naCon as it burned, other Liberal Party ministers have handled the situaCon equally as ineptly. This cynicism towards the Government is compounded again when Mullins describes another blow-off of bushfire survivors Fiona and Aaron from Taree. When any aLempt was made to link the fires to climate change, the associaCon was flippantly dismissed by everyone from MP Michael McCormack to former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. In a rundown dispelling the numerous myths that were propagated about the bushfires, Mullins pours scorn on the asserCon that greenies were somehow responsible for stopping hazard reducCon burning which contributed to the fires. The widespread misinformaCon campaigns that circulated around the 2019 bushfires, all whilst poliCcians and media failed to acknowledge the elephant in the room, distracted from any aLempt towards meaningful acCon in response to the fires. Hence why it is so imperaCve for voices, like those of Greg Mullins, to be heard. For too long, poliCcians have been willing to write off the calls of acCvists and other thought leaders for greater climate acCon. Now the calls are coming from those people working on the front line. With the people most qualified to examine the effects of a warming planet on our livelihoods advocaCng for more government acCon, one wonders how long the Government can conCnue to ignore the need for increased abatement of carbon emissions. beagle weekly : Vol 251 March 18th 2022
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