Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about bushfires. Obviously, they are of great concern to me, as I come from regional Western Australia and my family has been involved in farming for well over 150 years in Western Australia. It's important to keep these things in perspective. I was having a look through—there have been a number of royal commissions into bushfires, but this particular one dates to the 1960s. it goes through the history of bushfire regulation in Western Australia. When some in this place seek to politicise bushfires for their own ends, I think they should reflect on the reality of the situation, particularly in my home state.

The first bushfires legislation in Western Australia actually passed in 1847, before Australia even became a nation. It outlawed the lighting of fires between 1 September and 1 April the following year. That was later updated to 1 October, and that lasted well into the 1960s. Western Australia has always been highly at risk of bushfires, and that has been known for a very long time. What has changed is that we've had extraordinary growth in peri-urban areas; a lack of land management, largely based around the destruction of the forest industry in Western Australia; and a disincentive on private property owners—in fact, overregulation of their ability and right to burn to protect. That is a very important point We can't be thinking that technology can solve this problem through bigger aerial bombers. We need to take prevention measures every day.