KEY POINTS:
New Zealanders have been shocked by the ferocity of the bushfires that have engulfed townships in Victoria. Australia's vulnerability to fire is well known but this was destruction and death on a scale never before experienced. Searing temperatures combined with high winds turned tinder-dry bush into uncontrollable conflagrations. Already, the death toll has climbed well beyond the 75 who perished in the Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria and South Australia in 1983.
As befits the close bonds between the two countries, New Zealand is to help out by sending 100 firefighters. In the first instance, that contingent will be employed against the many fires still raging across the state. But the firefighters must also use this as a practical classroom. Climate change is producing more extreme weather conditions, as evidenced by the temperatures in Victoria, and this country is not immune. Its bush may not be as combustible as that of Australia, and its climate is more temperate, but the increasing incidence of drought in regions such as Marlborough and Hawkes Bay raises the risk of serious fire outbreaks.
New Zealanders must be prepared, especially homeowners who have built in potentially dangerous areas, often as cities push towards the bush. The Australian authorities had a long-established approach of advising people to have a bushfire plan that involved either staying and defending their homes or leaving well before the fire became a threat. The defence framework includes the likes of 30m expanses of grass and water in spouting. Such, however, was the scale of these fires and the impossibility of controlling them that the tenability of this policy is already being queried by Victoria's Premier, John Brumby. Also up for debate is the need for more controlled burnoffs to lessen potential bushfire damage.
Much of the comment in the wake of Black Saturday has concerned the police suspicion that many of the fires were deliberately started, and that arsonists had even relit blazes brought under control by firefighters. This would come as no surprise to the Australian Institute of Criminology, which has estimated that of all Australian bushfires, 50 per cent were either known or were suspected to have been lit deliberately.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd suggested yesterday that if the Victorian fires had been lit wilfully, it amounted to "mass murder". Such pronouncements have prompted the police to form a special taskforce to hunt the firebugs. But apprehension is easier said than done because of the difficulties of proving a fire was lit deliberately and securing enough evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the offender committed the crime. In Victoria, only 16 per cent of alleged arsonists are convicted.
This scrutiny will also draw attention to the fact that the maximum punishment for arson in Victoria is 15 years' imprisonment. In this country, it is 14 years. That seems a pallid penalty, given the potential for damage and death. Worse still, most of those convicted receive only short jail sentences. Inevitably, there will be a call for tougher punishment to deter potential arsonists. This, however, offers only a partial solution, given the exasperating problems of gathering evidence and identifying arsonists. Other prevention techniques, including educating children, must be pursued for a crime that is on the increase in New Zealand, as in other parts of the world.
This has been Victoria's greatest natural disaster. The hurt will eventually heal and communities like Kinglake and Marysville will be rebuilt. But, inevitably, there will be a next time. Hopefully, the lessons drawn from this appalling tragedy will make that blaze less destructive, wherever it may be.
New Zealand's Red Cross and Salvation Army are accepting donations for those affected by the fires in Victoria.
Red Cross: Donations can be made by visiting redcross.org.nz, calling 0900 33 200 to make an automatic $20 donation, sending a cheque to Australian Bushfire Appeal, Red Cross House, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington, 6144, or by visiting any Red Cross service centre.
Salvation Army: Donate online at salvationarmy.org.nz or post to The Salvation Army, PO Box 27001, Marion Square, Wellington, 6164.
