“There'd still be trees aplenty left in the national parks. The number of dwellings in towns outnumbers the number of farms. This means that farm properties engaged in land clearing around their homes and assets is not a problem.”

Not a problem, Webby? You ignore official statistics. The agricultural industry occupies almost two thirds of Australia’s land mass and for those who remain in denial, turn away now.

Upwards of 90 per cent of some native vegetation communities in the Southwest Australia region have been cleared, largely for agriculture.

Whether pastoral leases or agricultural freehold, the agricultural industry has over-cropped, over-grazed, over-cleared and are continuing to do so.

The public and environmental good has been neglected through government ignorance. Successive governments have favoured private land property ownership in rural areas and the land clearing continues.

Seemingly you have little comprehension of Australia's salinity and desertification problems or of the current pressing need to retain what is left of natural forests, undisturbed soils and carbon sinks.

Over 67 million hectares of Australia – an area bigger than France – burnt in 2002-03 due to unplanned grass and forest fires.

But if you wish to know who was responsible for the lack of prescribed burning in the Victorian bushfires, consult with the chief fire officer in Cinders' (a most insensitive pseudonym) link where he acknowledged, with great discomfort, that it's "catch-up" time for fuel reduction. Is he the detestable "greenie" to whom you all refer?

The inconsiderate urban brigade with their large carbon footprints, who are exacerbating the present (and future) dire situation of Australia’s climate impacts by land clearing to set up house in our fragile native forests, must accept the consequences of their own imprudent actions.

Protagoras is about as wrong as a person can be while pontificating on his version of how he sees the world. Most of the clearing that occurred in south west WA was of woodland and scrub/heath, certainly not jarrah and karri forests over which the greenies wage war against almost any commercial use. The 67 million hectares of fires last year were mostly in northern Australia's grasslands and central arid spinifex country, mostly lit by lightning strikes. The size of these fires is a serious environmental threat and a return to Aboriginal fire regimes is urgently needed.
Salinity in south west WA is serious but it's slowing, in part because of reduced rainfall and in part because of revegetation and the construction of deep drains. The solutions aren't perfect but they're improving all the time.
Like the USA and Europe, Australia's forests are expanding thanks to plantations. Again, they're far from providing the environmental values of a natural forest but they're a great improvement than grazed or cropped farmland for many birds and animals.

Shadow Minister,

I stand corrected about the distance of clearing but not about the fact that things inside the cleared area still burnt. There needs to be a balance in these things. I live in the Shire of Nillumbik, an area affected by the bushfires. It is in one of Melbourne’s designated Green Wedges (a policy the Bolte Government adopted in 1968), and I would hate to see the whole shire become another urban area because of excessive subdivision and tree-clearing. People live here because they like the natural environment.

Webby,

I think you need a more sophisticated approach to trees. We live here because we like trees. We actually plant them. If people do not like the natural environment in this area, they can choose not to come here. There are plenty of growth corridors set aside for urban development.

The Royal Commission’s terms of reference are very broad, and no one will get off the hook.

I know that John Mullholland argues that as the DLP did not have a constitutional provision for disbanding common law rules require a special majority. Whether he is legally right or not is never going to get to court because there was no registration of political parties in those days those of us who disbanded the DLP are not going to take a case – lack of money and lack of point being the reasons. I am satisfied that we did the right thing. We had 10 full-time staff, we had regularly raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past (millions in today’s dollars) we could man the booths, we could letterbox the state, but we did not have enough people left to approach our c18,000 potential donors, and the votes just weren’t there any more. Jim Brosnan said he did not want to be secretary of a party that operated from someone’s kitchen table. I still agree with him.

(Senator Conroy was particularly patient on Insight, just as he was on QandA, in explaining the same thing again and again. He did a good job.)

Chris,

Policy should not be decided by people with starry eyed views placing their lack of reality upon their environment. This is post modernist selfishness. Governments that pander to this pantheism are being irresponsible. Tree clearing doesn't have to mean excessive subdivision however, if more people do wish to move out of Melbourne why should the selfish views of existing former city farm hobby yuppies try to stop them? Decentralisation would be a great way to live for families and a great way to break up old unprinciples Right and also abortion loving Lefties from the inner city and wealthy suburbs, don't you think? Jobs closer to home in rural communities does make for less gothic extended university promiscuousness and to larger families. I think this would be a great way to undermine the growth of the chattering classes.
Chris, your view isn't very sophisticated and you are sounding like an ALP apologist drone. All those trees you "actually" planted , are now literally up in smoke. Nature never forgives post modernists. God forgives though.

The Royal Commission is just another junket. They usually are.

Mulholland is legally and morally right. You failed to have the required two thirds back then. Chris don't be such a snob. It is better to work from a kitchen table than to operate from a corporate boardroom and jeopardise your soul.

Yes Conroy did a very good job considering that much of the audience sadly are of the narcissistic and cynical corporate variety , only interested in either profit or libertine promiscuity or both. My wife thought the same. We are not oldies Chris. We have two children under five and we despise the types of narcisstic audiences sadly becoming more representative though still a minority albeit very noisy. Maybe a good thing from 300,000 plus immigrants p.a. Chris will be to outnumber the promiscuous Anglo-Celts. I'd like to think so.