MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

It’s so easy to be a ‘Monday morning Quarterback’, to use that American expression. An off-field expert picking fault with all the plays on the weekend -- after the weekend. A lot of people risk being tagged with that label as questions start being raised about our preparedness for last weekend’s horror and even as the death toll keeps rising and fires keep burning. The crisis is not over by any means –especially with a new hot stretch looming.

And by raising questions it should not be seen as a criticism at all, not at all, of that amazingly brave and indefatigable volunteer army of firefighters who put the rest of us to shame.

There is no doubt that the speed and ferocity and intensity of the fire meant that no matter how  meticulous and thorough their fire plans were some people could not, and did not, survive. Some people who tried to shelter in basements and makeshift bunkers and covered their faces with wet towels died when the fire sucked the oxygen from them.

And it must hurt grieving families and friends to read today some smug stories about how –as the Herald Sun put it today ‘a little bit of common sense and a solid shot at preparation’ saved one family.

Even before the welcome Royal Commission announced on Monday – and remembering this is only the start of the annual bushfire season – we are entitled to pose questions about not only this state’s preparedness for a massive tragedy but our country’s preparedness.

CFA Chief Russell Rees was blunt when he said he warned us last week we were facing the worst conditions ever. That the predicted heat, the wind, and the tinderbox conditions were a recipe for an Ash Wednesday repeat.

And he pointed out that ‘you may not have a fire truck at your front gate’. As people cruelly and fatally discovered at places like Strathewen and Flowerdale.

You can’t fault the firefighters, but could more have been done in advance? Should Premier Brumby have declared a pre-emptive State of Emergency  on Friday and been prepared to wear accusations of over-reacting if things turned out better than predicted?

Should he have given Victoria Police officers the authority to order people from their homes –an authority which exists in most states. The ‘fight or flee’ principle existed in the past. Does it have a place in our future?

How much blame can be sheeted home to ‘greenie’ councils who have hampered back burning and opposed firebreaks? Last week, before the fires and with all the warning signs there I talked on this program about the YMCA being fined $1000 by a Yarra Ranges council for following CFA orders and clearing a block that happened to take out some native grass.

One of Australia’s leading bushfire experts, Rod Incoll, warned the Nillumbik council six years ago that it risked devastation if it listened to green groups and restricted removal of vegetation.

And former CSIRO bushfire scientist, David Packham, points out that the overwhelming majority of this week’s fires started in state forests,
national parks, or other Crown land.

He points at the lack of controlled burns on those lands putting private houses and towns at risk.
Packham says: ‘If the Government owns it… the Government has to look after it’.

The Royal Commission will have its work cut out.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009