A message to our members of Parliament: for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, David Gillespie MP, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Leslie Williams MLA, Melinda Pavey MLA and Mayor Peta Pinson:
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You must listen to the people, to what is being said the print, on the radio and on social media (YouTube and Facebook.)
People are hurting so badly from these fires. They are telling such heart-wrenching stories of grief; they have lost their homes, their farms and livelihoods, their stock, fences, sheds and machinery. They have fought so hard to save their farms.
Dairy farmers are milking with a generator and the raw milk is going down the drain. They have no power to cool the milk. Other people are grieving for loved ones killed in the fires. The stories go on and on. They make me cry. It is so sad. People are anxious and suffering from great trauma.
Many are saying the fires come from the enormous fuel build-up in our forests. The fires are a fire storm. They are described as apocalyptic by those who have escaped from them. We live in a catastrophic fire danger area. It is FRIGHTENING. Forests around us have not been burnt in 20 or more years. The right conditions and we could have a fire storm.
The mayor of Greater Taree City Council, Paul Hogan, spoke passionately to Alan Jones on Facebook. He said we should:
- Open the fire trails in the forests, so the firefighters can access the fires IMMEDIATELY. We have summer yet to come.
- Form a Forest Fire Control Authority made up of knowledgeable, experienced people (senior firefighters?) to monitor the fuel load in the forests. Where it exceeds 25 tonnes per hectare, have a cool fire burn (in winter) to keep the fuel load under control. This would kill no animals.
- Give this authority the money and resources to do the job.
- Give this authority complete authority to do its job, over and above the authority of the national parks.
- Open the forests to cattle-grazing (you know the hard-hoofed animals).
Some native plants have seeds that need to pass through a fire to germinate, as do some of the plants of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions need freezing temperatures to germinate their seeds.
I have no mentioned the native wildlife. They are killed en masse - burnt alive. The koala colony in the Lake Cathie Reserve: 300 killed. The small animals are all wiped out. It is so sad and needless.
The NSW Rural Fire Service men and woman, and the volunteers, are so brave and skilled and they are my heroes. The pilots have such a dangerous job, low-flying, in smoke, so many of them working together, and coming down and taking off all day? Thank you to all the volunteers who feed the firies.
We voted you people to office to look after us and our land. Are you doing that?
Don't let all this die down and settle back to comfort UNTIL the next fire season arrives. Your people are suffering! Listen to what the people are saying. PLEASE.
Penelope McKinnon, Sancrox
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