BUSHFIRES: COAG inquiry skirts the real issues
A recent inter-government report into the 2003 Australian bushfires – the worst since 1939 – has ignored advice on how to prevent a similar outbreak again. The recently-released COAG report into the 2003 Australian bushfires, commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), has failed to deal with the central problems of bushfire management: the need for prescriptive fuel-reduction burn-offs, and providing more manpower for fire control and fire-fighting. The 2002-3 bushfire season destroyed over 50 million hectares, mainly in Queensland, NSW and Victoria; burnt over half the ACT; destroyed some 600 homes in Canberra; and took ten lives. The…