Is Australia going to act with speed on FIRE, like China on Drought by PM Wen to do the On-Spot direction ?

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Cecil

Hi Artoro

South East Australia is amongst the most fire prone areas in the world. Our vegetation has developed over thousands of years to need fire for its renewal. Australians have been dealing with fire for over 40,000 years now. More recently, in the last 100 years or so, States have developed bush fire fighting capabilities and have two of the largest volunteer organisations in the world. These are the NSW Rural Fire Service and the Vic Country Fire Authority. The World could learn a lot from the mateship and volunteer ethic demonstrated by Australians. We don't have to rely on an army of conscripts in times of natural disaster like say, China.

We actually do have plans to protect property and people. Around the Nation fire fighters provide community education to the community, take part in debate about land management, participate in hazard reduction activities. To say that the Australian Government should be able to do something about major bushfires is like saying the Chinese Government should be able to stop flooding that we all to often here about or that the Japanese Government should be able to prevent earthquakes or that Papua New Guiani Government should prevent Tzunamis.

Australia is a "Commonwealth" of States. The constitution clearly outlines State and Commonwealth responsibilities. The bushfire effort is the responsibility of the States. Having said that the Prime Minister has relocated to Victoria to provide every assistance that he and his Government can. Commonwealth funding has been released to assist the State and victims. Our defence forces have been deployed to assist in fire fighting and recovery (and are also assisting with flooding in Queensland). From what I can see, our Governments have acted immediately. Main difference between China and Australia is that we all elect our Government. We react not on the basis of fear of what our Government will do if we don't comply but out of a desire to pitch in and help out our mates. We have the rule of law in this country and that is not based upon the whim of our leaders. Kevin Rudd would not be so arrogant as to believe that only he held the answers.

Elizabeth

I must say your post is premature and insensitive in the extreme...BUT

From reading what you wrote I think you're suggesting that when the towns are rebuilt they should be designed to be less susceptible to the ravages of bushfire.

The same way as Darwin was rebuilt to withstand future cyclones after Cyclone Tracy hit the city on Christmas Eve 1974.

Yes, if at all possible that would be a very good idea.

Possibly this is a question you could post in the far distant future when all of us here in Australia are not in mourning for our fellow Aussies killed and maimed in this tragedy.

Edit: Yes, the Australian Army and fire fighters and other emergency services from interstate are in Victoria working along side the locals. You really need to get your facts straight before mouthing off.

Jemma K

Yes your English is 'that bad for understanding' and of course the government is doing everything in their power to stop the fires. Its not easy to put out a fire when the temperatures are almost 50 degrees celcius and the winds are blowing at 100kph.
Bushfires are unpredictable and our firefighters are putting their own lives on the line to save people and property.

Mel

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. I have absolutely no idea what you are babbling about.

Many of the fires where purposely lit, others can be caused by lightening, the dryness of the area, etc.. There are many many reasons bush fires get started.

The fires in California have absolutely nothing to do with the fires in Australia.

Since you're in Hong Kong just mind your own business and let our government worry about ours. Nice to see you have no compassion, what so ever.

The latest I heard the official death toll was at 108, suspected to raise to 170. I honestly don't know who I feel worse for, those that lost their lives or those in hospital with third degree burns. The thought brings tears to my eyes. I can not imagine what it would be like.

For those who have lost loved ones, are seriously injured or even lost your homes. My thoughts are with you.

fee

To make Australia fire-proof would require us to remove the land and rid ourselves of natural resources, which I don't think the world would want as we have a lot. Be it eucalyptus trees or sugar cane- they all burn fast. We also cannot change the weather, we cannot predict what is going to happen and aussie weather is volatile at times.
Also, why would we want to destroy the environment, and have rural farmers out of jobs? It is a tragedy what has happened, but drought, fire and floods are a part of life in australia. The extreme that has happened in VIC is rare, generally we cope well with these events, this time it was an extreme example.
The army is helping, and emergency services (SES- state emergency service and CFA- country fire association) are doing everything they can, I applaud there dedication, bravery and effort. They always give 110%

Ozmaniac

You have no right to compare Australia unfavourably with China without acknowledging at least a few basic facts.

â€¢ Temperatures in Victoria and NSW have risen to around 50Â°C (122Â°F) and these were previously unimagined record highs.

â€¢ Australia's bush is unique as it is almost entirely highly volatile eucalyptus forest. Eucalypts burn very hot and they have such a high oil content that they explode and bushfires very quickly become firestorms of unimaginable ferocity travelling at speeds of over 100kph.

â€¢ We have been in drought for the best part of 10 years and the bush is drier than it has ever been before.

â€¢ The size of Australia is approximately 7.6 million kmÂ² compared to China's size of around 9.5 million kmÂ² i.e. our country is 80% of the size of yours.

â€¢ Our population is around 21 million and yours is 1.3 billion i.e. we have 1.6% of your population spread over that vast area.

â€¢ China has a standing army of around 2,500,000. Australia's army has something like 25,000 and many are already deployed in positions in which they are needed. Our army has been brought in to assist with equipment and fire fighters, but there are simply not enough of them and not enough equipment close to the fires which are spread over 2 main states and over hundreds of thousands of hectares, much of which is close to inaccessible.

You say "they know the Wind, the Heat, the environment & the fire-makers, including human.......so do something to make them void. " How do you suggest that we do that with so few people spread over such a wide area? You should appreciate that this isn't a totalitarian state - we can't arrest people because of what we think they MIGHT do, we have to catch them in the act and they must then go through the courts.

The wind and the heat? It is absolutely impossible to plan for the avoidance of events such as those this week. Record high temperature and high winds combined with drought dry volatile bush - even your much vaunted Chinese government wouldn't be able to cope with that combination.

When this is over, people will rebuild and will make their houses as fireproof as possible as as always happened in the past, but short of living in a thick walled concrete bunker, nothing will be enough to cope with fires like ours. Do you suggest that we force everyone in a bush area to pull down their house and rebuild concrete bunkers? Again, this isn't a totalitarian state. Your government might be prepared to force people to take extreme measures like that, but thankfully ours won't.

minimouse68

Do us all a favour, dry up and disappear. You are highly offensive. Australians have been dealing with bush fires since the beginning, we are very good at it,unfortunately a fire as big as these fires were moves too fast it simply cant be fought effectively.
That you are Chinese/from Hong Kong just adds insult to injury. To claim that China with its draconian style of government and rules like the one child policy that enforce abortion and infant death if you are unfortunate enough to get pregnant with a second would deal with these bush fires better than our government and emergency services is highly offensive and I refuse to believe that you meant it any other way. Why dont you take a good hard look at the problems in your own backyard before you stick your nose into ours??!!

rustupd

stop talking crap
you know nothing
your post as it is not understandable to a normal person

ps
order the planes & army to take up the battle to fight FIRE.
that will just put more untrained people at risk of being killed
the army IS helping by suplying bull-dozers to help with firebreakes & acomadition for victims of the fires

pss
people DO NOT want to live in a town surounded by bare land with nothing growing on it they live in country areas to be surounded by nature as that is what they want

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