As I’ve written before, the Morrison government’s plans for a royal commission into Australia’s bushfire disaster this summer is fraught with potential problems. Not least is that unscrupulous climate activists will turn it into a bully pulpit for their hysterics.
Another potential roadblock is that those with potentially the most to fear from what the royal commission will find will attempt to derail the whole thing.
The Victorian government is withholding support for Scott Morrison’s black summer bushfire royal commission, threatening the credibility of the inquiry and a nationally co-ordinated approach to natural disasters. Constitutional lawyers said a refusal by a state to participate in the royal commission could prevent Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, who will lead the inquiry, from accessing that state’s documents and compelling high-level public servants to give evidence.
Victoria is apparently standing alone in its obstructionism.
NSW and South Australia have already issued letters patent while Queensland and Western Australia have signed up and begun processes to deliver their letters patent as requested.
But Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’s spokesman said: “We continue to consider Victoria’s involvement in the federal bushfire royal commission.”
So, what’s Andrews’s excuse?
Mr Andrews is concerned about the encroachment of commonwealth powers into areas of state responsibility.
Mr Morrison has asked the commission to look at whether the commonwealth should be able to declare a state of national emergency and be given clearer authority to take action.
This may be a legitimate concern for the states. On the other hand, the commonwealth is rightly concerned that the states dragged their heels in the face of the gathering disaster, while the commonwealth was falsely blamed. Media and social media loudmouths who shrieked that the commonwealth should “send in the army” were either ignorant or chose to ignore the fact that the commonwealth can’t do that unless specifically requested by the states.
Victoria waited until thousands were trapped on the beaches at Mallacoota before it requested the commonwealth’s help.
There’s also another danger for Andrews in the royal commission.
[Mr Morrison] has also said hazard reduction, native vegetation management, building standards and planning laws should remain a state responsibility, but called for “national consistency” after the bushfires burned through states along the east coast.
None of the state governments has much to be proud of when it comes to hazard reduction and vegetation management. Hazard reduction works in NSW have been progressively scaled back. But Victoria is perhaps the most egregious failure. Its own commission in 2009 ruled that “prescribed burning is one of the main tools for fire management on public land”.
Yet Victoria has never, once, met the hazard reduction targets prescribed by the Black Saturday commission. Worse, it has consistently failed to meet even its own targets, which were all well below those recommended by the commission.
It’s almost as if Daniel Andrews is afraid of what a bushfire royal commission will find.
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