scomo shamed into returning to burning Oz., page-275

Our PM is clueless.

The PM has said the government is doing everything it can, it's the states' responsibility and he'll come back essentially for moral support.

Wrong.

If we had a real PM, and not Scotty from Marketing, they would initiate action like this for a national crisis:

1. Support the volunteers. You don't expect to be away from your work, home and family for months when you become a volunteer firefighter. Some have been on call for 30 days, and it's been busy for two months before that, and there's months of the bushfire season left. The mortgage still has to paid though and the health of some volunteers is crumbling. A real PM would investigate what they need and connect them to services that provide the necessary health, financial and family support.
2. A real PM would convene the national fire emergency summit, as has been suggested many times. Experts in the field would examine how effective current practices are, and what has to be changed to cope with more catastrophic fire events occurring more often for more months of the year. A real PM would come up with a solid plan that could be implemented.
3. A real PM would then convene a national heads of government meeting. They would work through the recommendations of the plan, and manage implementation. Changes to firefighting policy, practices, old growth removal, staffing in national parks dedicated to fire prevention, massive increases in resourcing, less reliance on volunteers and more support for them, changes to building codes, where people can build etc etc etc.

A real PM would show leadership. But Scotty from Marketing will come back and sulk.