Mike Kelly, Member for Eden-Monaro. Photo: Mike Kelly Facebook.
“We have never before been under threat east to west, north to south. The whole region has been smashed,” Federal Member for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly says of the South East fire disaster.
He’s considering how we respond to future catastrophic events as a region and as a nation.
“Obviously we need to be better prepared as a nation to come to grips with disasters on this scale. And addressing it will require a mobilisation of national will,” he says.
He’s less certain, however, that a Royal Commission, currently going to Cabinet for consideration, is the right approach for a process of national review.
Kelly believes that while Royal Commissions suit deep, complex and often historical issues as exercises in truth-telling and national reflection, the fire disaster urgently requires concrete outcomes and a strategic national plan.
“There are really important issues to tackle in how that’s designed. We must deeply understand what we’re facing, what the projections mean. From there we’ll need a deep assessment of capability and personnel challenges to address that threat we’ve defined.
“We’d then look at a whole range of command and control, communications, liaison, planning and framework aspects of how we respond to these mega-disasters on a national scale.”
He suggests that a major national review should be supported by authoritative experts from research and advisory agencies including CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology and tertiary researchers, with input and involvement from responder organisations.
Kelly says that kind of planning is the territory of a white paper, and must also incorporate a rigorous and realistic approach to climate change.
“What we’re facing now was projected to happen. We know it won’t get any better – it will get worse – so climate change policy needs to be sorted out as an overarching priority to give our kids and grandkids a fighting chance of coping with the future. I hope that emerges as one of the things that forges national will from this disaster,” he says.
Practically speaking, Kelly points to inherent challenges in a bushfire season that’s expanded by almost 20 per cent from the 1970s and now overlaps with the Northern Hemisphere. That means, for example, that international air assets can’t be shared as easily.
There’s also a major challenge in regard to personnel. Kelly says he’s been speaking to firefighters who have been doing back to back rotations for six weeks. “And frankly, they are buggered,” he says.
As a former senior officer himself, he sees the callout of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) callout is an obvious answer. “There is so much relevant capability in the Army and Reserves we could have had out there that’s being illustrated now that those capabilities are in play.
“We’re seeing engineers and heavy plant at work, moving water in bulk carriers, route clearance, assets like mobile hospitals, evacuation on a large scale, effective communications and air control. We’re even seeing Army vets helping injured wildlife. Defence has the ability to do logistics on the large scale that’s required with a major disaster.”
He thinks the fires crisis has provided an important conceptual breakthrough on how and where we can deploy ADF and Reserve forces so that future responses are more streamlined, efficient, effective and timely.
Beyond that, Kelly envisages a potential civil defence corps. This could preserve the voluntary organisation model but apply the same support mechanisms that exist for Defence Reserves, including payroll tax exemptions.
“We need to explore as many incentives as we can for getting younger people, in particular, to engage with the RFS by providing voluntary incentive options, and perhaps considering a community service gap year after high school.
“Wouldn’t it be great if people got first aid training and disaster training to protect their communities as a result?”
Beyond that, he sees the prolonged period of disaster recovery as an opportunity to invest in viable rural and regional industries.
“We’re looking at a 10-year recovery period for Batlow apple growers, $70 million of damage to timber plantations. That’s why climate change provides us with opportunities that assist recovery. For example, we could resuscitate timber by putting in plantations that are carbon sinks, earning money from the moment they’re planted.
“What I’m trying to do is promote discussion and people having ideas. I’m happy for them to disagree as long as they put up something in return and make a constructive contribution.”
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The liberals love Royal commissions as they delay action and voters pay for them, not the LNP. Bit like their TV PR campaigns.
Six weeks on the fire ground and this is the first I’ve heard or seen him on social media. Bit like some of the trees on the Charleys Forest Fire, three weeks after the event you see little things starting to appear
David Loft all the focus was on Morrison.
Just look at what the last royal Commission in the wake of the 2009 fires in Victoria did? Well, other than cost $40m...
A Royal Commission may help for future solutions, but it will only be a slanging match politically, with lots of blame thrown around, without thought of the great personal loss of all the victims of Nature's cruelty!
Morrison just wants to find others to blame to take pressure off himself
I agree with your sentiments Mike we don't need a talk fest
True. Our concrete was flat and lifeless during the crisis.
How about they drag out the report commissioned by Bill Shorten, pre bushfires , and take up those recommendations? Maybe the dire consequences of the fires might not be so dire......
From a large country like Australia to a tiny one like Uruguay there are bushfires for the same reasons and climate change isn’t one of them: https://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=49874&SEO=uncontrolled-fire-sweeps-uruguays-eastern-seaside-resort
The article covers the forest fires in Uruguay … I don’t see any statements in the report to either support or refute an argument that climate change is involved. You are obviously a climate change denier and looking for any reason to prosecute your denial, but do you have any scientific facts to support your assertion that the fires are not in some part attributable to climate change? I saw the following in the article “Residents of the place told that it is the first time that they live this situation ….” While it doesn’t in any way attribute climate change as a reason for the fires, it is interesting to see the fires appear to be unprecendented within living memory.
A lot of people in Australia are using the “unprecedented” word about the current bushfires yet the only evidence on this from factual records clearly says they have happened before.
Do you have any evidence that the current ones were caused by climate change? If so, let’s see it.
Go easy on the “denier” stuff too. It might come back to bite you one day.
Yes, there have been larger, in area, individual fires in the past and many of which caused a greater losss of life, but (and I’m more than happy for you to prove me wrong with factual evidence) there have never been so many fires burning across the breadth of the country as is currently happening. I’d call that unprecedented – but again happy for you to present factual argument to refute this.
No, I don’t have any evidence to prove that the fires in Uruguay were, even in part, caused by climate change The report you cited gives no causation whatsoever – for all we know they could have been deliberately started … yet you make the statement “there are bushfires for the same reasons and climate change isn’t one of them” – without providing any factual basis whatsoever for such a claim.
Sure if through some miracle (because that’s what it will take – https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/ ), the impact of climate change is negligible, then those of us who are concerned will have egg on our face. However, that’s a risk I’m prepared to take because if people like you are wrong, it will result in far more than egg on your face. The sad thing is that neither you nor I will ever know which of us is right, as the ultimate outcome and the conclusion of the debate will happen well after we have departed.
Spot on. Royal commissions have become transparent diversionary delaying tactics.
He is right but it will only happen in our wildest dreams. 😥
Kelly was the only politician who actually provided information during the darkest hours of the crisis and was on the phone organising help for his constituents. Although props also go to the liberal guy who called Morrison out.
Beth Mansfield Kelly was one of a few. Darren Chester was at the pointy end down in the Gippsland area and is being deservedly lauded for his efforts. Kelly and Chester are both incredibly decent and hardworking MPs.
Kellys a solutions guy ... practical bringing together of many threads to ensure our society and country is better prepared. 😎👍
BS, even albo has come out and called for bi-partisan politics and a royal commision. I doubt whether this dolt has even read the recommendations that came out of the ACT coronial inquiry into the 2003 bushfires. there were concrete outcomes and recommendations in that let alone the numerous other inquiries into bushfires around the nation that have never been adopted.
Shaun Hoy correct!!! That’s at the core of the anger towards the LNP
A politician with common sense.
A good start would be a bipartisan apolitical discussion amongst the various federal and state political leaders on to actually identify the issues and how to practically address them – now and into the future. However, before that can happen, all pigs must be refueled and readied to fly!
Mike doesn't want anyone talking about coal.
Agree, it should be achieved without "national security" being used as the reason. It should be national decency.
Politicians can say what help is provided in relief and recovery is not political. The sad reality is, that as soon as the Australian economy is impacted, the neo-liberal support suddenly flows.
People were terribly hurting up in the North of New South Wales well before the end of the year. They will thankfully now get additional relief. However, it is only because other area have burnt after there areas that the additional assistance is being provided. That stinks of politics.
Why does the Government distrust volunteers? Why are volunteers supervised and spoken to like children, told what to wear, what to do, how to do it and where it can be done. Why are there not more Gen Y, Get Z and CALD volunteers to support and eventually take over from the mainly Anglo Boomer volunteers?
Couldn’t agree more.
What did he do when he was the member for Eden-Monaro in the past? Sod all except building himself a very expensive electoral office.
Shaun Hoy he is the current member for Eden Monaro. 😳
If you don’t know that, then I strongly doubt you’d know or care what he has done while representing the electorate.
Neenie Baines I am fully aware that he is the sitting member. As I’ve stated, he did sod all then and continues to do sod all now. Where has he been for the last few months?
Shaun Hoy you know that is just bs ... perhaps if youd visited his fb page you'd see how much he helped pull together ... working across and with agencies.