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| Australia fires live: one dead in NSW and six missing in Victoria in Australian bushfires – latest updates | Australia fires live: one dead in NSW and six missing in Victoria in Australian bushfires – latest updates |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates | NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates |
| [cont from previous post] | |
| Yesterday conditions were “pretty horrendous”. | |
| There were some firefighters with heat stress and heat stroke, and one with minor burns, but he’s back at work today. | |
| “We have had some structural losses, we did have reports of structures being under threat in and around Kangaroo valley, we’ve been trying to ascertain any losses up there.” | |
| Today, it’s “looking clear” to send in aerial support, Collins says. They had “so many” out yesterday. | |
| “But we could have had 50 more and still wouldn’t have been able to contain the spread.” | |
| It looked particularly bad at Bundanoon last night. I ask about the group of people who sought to escape during the fire, only to get stuck in the firefront and require an escort out from firefighters. He doesn’t have details about the incident, but says it’s “a really good talking point”. | |
| “We tell people leave early, leaving early is your safest option. Don’t leave it to the last minute. We saw in 2009 in Victoria a 170-odd people killed and a lot of those people were killed in their cars.” | |
| We’re at Nowra, and have just had a briefing about the local situation overnight. | |
| Brad Collins, public liaison officer with the RFS in Nowra, tells me the night saw a lull after the southerly before it picked back up again. | |
| “We weren’t expecting the strength of the southerly,” he says. It gusted about 85km/h here in Nowra, and over 100km/h over firegrounds down south. | |
| “Some of the fire behaviour was terrain driven as well. Fire runs faster up hill, etcetera etcetera” | |
| Fire was expected to jump the Shoalhaven river and get into the Morton national park but it ran through extraordinarily quickly. | |
| The fire is now in the Wingello area, and that will be split off from the Morton fire from a management point of view. This is partly because the Bundanoon, Exeter flank of the Morton fire may join with the Green Wattle Creek Fire. | |
| “It’s absolutely a possibility,” says Collins. | |
| “After yesterday I’m not ruling anything out. | |
| The interview with these people in Eden, was just heartbreaking - and one of thousands we are going to hear as the weeks go on. | |
| Adam told the ABC he was “pretty sure I’ve lost my house” | |
| Watching out for people’s mental health is going to be increasingly important as the fires move on. A lot of these people may intellectually know they have lost their home, but that is not the same as actually seeing what they have lost. Keep checking in on your friends and family as these weeks and months continue. | |
| AAP has also looked at the Victorian forecast: | |
| AAP has an update on the P2 mask filter shortage: | |
| This is happening all over the place, and it is just heartmeltingly lovely how ordinary people are reacting during this emergency. | |
| Australians are so much better than | |
| David Speers then attempts to find out what has changed with the ADF announcement – as in, who will be calling the shots: the states, or the commonwealth, on where and when the defence assets will be deployed. | |
| Linda Reynolds: So that authority still rests with the states and territory, absolutely. What we found – this is an unprecedented natural disaster in terms of scope and defence engagement. | |
| So what we have said to the states and territories and what the prime minister clearly said yesterday is we are ramping up more assets and making it known through our liaison officer network of what the states right down to the local community level can ask for. | |
| Speers: That work, as you said, has been there for a while. | |
| Reynolds: You’re talking over me again. | |
| Speers: I’m trying to establish what changed. | |
| Reynolds: So what that means is that it is still finally the responsibility of the states and territories to ask and coordinate but we are forward positioning and we are making equipment and also activated reservists in these states to make sure the states are very clear on what we can do and we have the people and the resources in location so that they can respond very quickly. | |
| So we’ve now got, for example, with the army, we’ve got specialist medical teams available, engineering teams, transport teams, aerial reconnaissance and also of course evacuation assets. | |
| So it is ultimately still the states’ and territories’ call, but what the prime minister said yesterday is we are being as forward leaning as possible to make sure that we have the maximum amount of resources available when the states ask for it. | |
| That exchange continues: | |
| Speers: I’m not talking about communication. My question, minister, sorry, was about consulting. Wouldn’t you want to consult with the operational chief to make sure this is a necessary step rather than just simply making a decision and communicating it? | |
| Reynolds: Well, David, you are conflating two issues there. The first one is in terms of the decision that the national security committee took yesterday, which was not only the call-out of the reserves, but also the other measures that we announced yesterday. That was done in absolute consultation with the states in terms of what more resources are required. | |
| Speers: So Shane Fitzsimmons was consulted about this? | |
| Reynolds: I said that the state authorities were consulted. | |
| Speers: Shane Fitzsimmons, the fire commissioner, was consulted? | |
| Reynolds: David, with respect, we have liasion officers at all of the impacted state headquarters. We’ve got liasion officers and incident controllers right across New South Wales. We consulted very widely in terms of the resources ... | |
| Speers: This is an important point, minister. | |
| Reynolds: The commissioner said this morning ... You’re talking over me. | |
| Speers: The commissioner said this morning that even the liasion officers you’re referring to weren’t aware of the details. | |
| Reynolds: David, that’s the reason we have the liasion officers out there. | |
| I do acknowledge yesterday that we could have, defence could have worked quicker to push the information out. We acknowledged that yesterday. | |
| We put measures in place to make sure that our defence change chain of command have that information available as soon as possible. | |
| I would say in relation to the commissioner of New South Wales, that that information was passed to the premier. That information was communicated to the state authorities. | |
| David Speers has started his ABC career with an interview with Linda Reynolds. He asks about Shane Fitzsimmons not being told of the ADF announcement ahead of time yesterday. | |
| Speers: What is your reaction or explanation as to why Shane Fitzsimmons, the Rural Fire Service chief in New South Wales, has expressed disappointment and frustration he wasn’t kept in the loop or consulted about this? | |
| Reynolds: Well, David, the first thing I would say is that the national security committee of cabinet met yesterday morning to put together this new suite of measures, not just on behalf of defence but on behalf of the federal government. Straight after that meeting, the prime minister personally contacted each of the impacted premiers to advise them of the measures that we had agreed to take. That was done before we went and made the public announcement. | |
| Speers: Would you not want to consult the guy who’s actually in charge operationally about whether this was a good idea? | |
| Reynolds: Well, the prime minister has been in constant contact with the premiers, daily, in fact, in some cases. | |
| Speers: I’m talking about Shane Fitzsimmons, the fire commissioner. | |
| Reynolds: David, you asked me a question, please allow me to answer it. The prime minister, as is absolutely normal, will let the state leaders know and it is entirely a matter for the state authorities of how they communicate that through their own bureaucracy and their own emergency management processes. | |
| The defence minister, Linda Reynolds, tells the ABC that defence bases between Brisbane and Adelaide are being opened to help house people who have lost their homes in the bushfires. | |
| She also gives an update on where the HMAS Adelaide, which is working to help the HMAS Choules with evacuations: | She also gives an update on where the HMAS Adelaide, which is working to help the HMAS Choules with evacuations: |
| The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia has released a statement on the “horror and shock” it and its members are feeling, while calling for a coordinated recovery response. | The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia has released a statement on the “horror and shock” it and its members are feeling, while calling for a coordinated recovery response. |
| It has also said “enough” to the climate denialist garbage, because it has “endangered us all”. | |
| From chief executive Peter Strong: | |
| You can read the whole statement here | You can read the whole statement here |