A visitor from Mars could ask me -"So you told me last year about the Tathra fire where 65 homes were lost and you described how your native bush - with all those flammable oils - was allowed to thrive so near to and in & around where you earthlings live in your houses.
So why 20 months later have you lost hundreds of houses in various communities similarly nestled in the same flammable coastal bush within an hour or two's drive of Tathra?
You have had plenty of time to do your fuel reduction burns and even clear fire-breaks in the worst places around housing. Is Australia a dumb & stupid country that you people do not identify such dogs-balls obvious life threatening risk and take the simple steps to eliminate/reduce that risk?
Remember too you told me the extent to which floods ruin houses in Australia - house built too low - too near rivers & creeks, despite your newspapers carrying news of floods ruining houses for a couple of hundred years. You said some houses continue to be built on flood prone land this century post your year 2000. I do not want to harp on this but on Mars we could judge this refusal to see such a high category of repeatable risk in the "dumb & stupid" category and those affected could earn a period of re-education."
How could I continue to explain Australia to my visitor from so far away.
