We’ve had 57 bushfire inquiries. Another won’t tell us a single thing we don’t already know

As our country battles the most extensive fires of our lifetime, there are increasing calls for a royal commission into the states and territories’ preparedness and the Federal Government’s response to the disaster.

Good fire and land management needs to be done with
long-term perspective, not a short-term political focus. P

A royal commission has coercive powers beyond a government inquiry, and the need for one implies there are facts and evidence that would otherwise be “hidden” to an inquiry or review.

Research I’ve recently conducted with other fire experts has concluded there have been 57 formal public inquiries, reviews and royal commissions related to bushfires and fire management since 1939, most of which are listed here.

I have given expert evidence to at least seven of them, including the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.

That is more than one inquiry every two years in the past 80 years. Do we need yet another?

Read the story from The New Daily by Kevin Tolhurst - “We’ve had 57 bushfire inquiries. Another won’t tell us a single thing we don’t already know,”