Massive Australian bushfire impacts: it's our fault

A number of threatened species are pushed closer to extinction. Water catchments are compromised by erosion. Air quality deteriorates for months at a time. The carbon released from massive forest fires makes a mockery of our climate targets. Yet the policies that fuel this spiral remain untouched.

The economic case for fire reform

It costs billions to fight bushfires once they have started. The 2021 Dixie Fire in California, a case study of what happens when fuel loads are ignored, cost $700 million to suppress. But a fraction of that spent on thinning and burning would have prevented it.

Australia is making the same mistake. Insurance costs are rising. Infrastructure is repeatedly destroyed. Forestry plantations are lost. Tourism suffers. Budgets are blown out by emergency response. And all of it is predictable, because we know what causes it.

Policy failures decades in the making

The current system is paralysed by ecological idealism and bureaucratic inertia. Fire return intervals are based on static assumptions about individual species and ecological communities rather than dynamic risk across landscapes. Regulations prohibit low-intensity burns in areas deemed too sensitive - which inevitably are often then burned at high intensity anyway.

Risk assessments focus on suppression, not mitigation. Community preparedness is undercooked. Local knowledge is ignored. And in the absence of accountability, nothing changes.

It is essential that all the impacts and costs of these failing fire regimes across SE Australia be assessed. The attached assessment identifies 32 distinct impact areas spanning disaster, social, environmental and economic categories. The scale of impacts is immense. The damage is systemic. And the time for action is now.

What must be done

We need a revolution in land management. Not more inquiries. Not more air tankers. Action.

1. Scale up prescribed burning. This is not a silver bullet, but it is our best available tool. We must increase the rate of low-intensity burning across SE Australia to at least 5–8% per annum, with variation by forest type. It must be strategic, landscape-scale, and continuous.

2. Reform regulation. Current biodiversity protections perversely guarantee ecological destruction by minimizing management burning at regular intervals. A complete overhaul of fire interval guidelines and environmental approvals is essential.

3. Implement sound community protection. Develop town-level fire protection plans. Clear evacuation routes. Harden infrastructure. Implement US-style Firewise and FireSmart programs. Stop pretending that national parks are human-free zones.

4. Build accountability. Fire agencies, conservation bodies, and governments must be held to measurable outcomes: area treated, risk reduced, communities protected. No more hiding behind process.

Conclusion: fire is not the enemy, mismanagement is

Fire shaped this continent. But in failing to manage it, we have turned it into a destroyer. Unless we reset our relationship with fire - from fear and suppression to knowledge and stewardship - Australia will keep burning. And each fire will be worse than the last.

We are not passive victims of climate. We are active contributors to disaster. And we can change it.

It is time for governments at all levels to acknowledge this reality and commit to genuine, large-scale fire mitigation - in policy, in funding, and on the ground.