Lets all blame the government of the day for everything that has happened this year.

The droughts in Australia have been have been an ongoing thing for hundreds of years. Some last a couple of years , some considerably more. These fires have been one of the most concentrated and devastating I have heard of and I have been around in rural fire brigades for many years.

Only a small percentage of these fires have been lit by firebugs. The majority have started by lightning strikes in dry storms.

Now who is to blame.. God, Allah, the local government Councils, Prime Minister, State Premiers?

Is it all about climate change? No. We have always had droughts, bushfires, animal deaths and loss of human life. This just happens to be the biggest so far. As our population spreads out and local council rules state what you can clear around your house and what preventative measures you must take are only local rules they tend to differ depending on the squeaky wheel that gets the attention on saving the green tree frogs or legless lizards so prevention of large reduction burns. Air quality campaigners can shut down a proposed controlled burn during a safe period because of wind direction or low cloud ceilings that may trap the smoke and make it uncomfortable to some.

Volunteer fire brigades are local council managed. The fire Brigade will put in a request to the council for the equipment to protect the local region from bushfires. (Number and type of fire fighting appliances etc). The council will then put together a quote to the State run Fire and Emergency service to be provided with the listed goodies. The F&ES will allocate equipment as per their state provided funding through the state budget.

In my last local fire brigade the Brigade committee of Captain, President and senior members would meet with council to advise on current equipment and justify any need to upgrade or ask for further appliances. This was dependant on the area of coverage involved, current and foreseeable conditions (on going drought) and what adjoining brigades had as we all worked together.

States would raise various taxes (in WA they have a Emergency Service Levy attached to land rates that raises most of the monies for rural brigades)

The states decide what happens with their budgets and funding is requested from the Federal Government for the larger items such as roads and schools , hospitals etc.

Just a brief idea of how it works and why social media is being wrongly used to focus on the PM and the federal government when they have no say in the planning, running and operations of the Fire Services in each state.