Poirot,

You might like employers to develop a bit of mongrel and dock employees' pay for voluntary work such as for the SES, but a lot of employers would not agree with you and nor would the public.

Like Adam Bandt you are out to score political points.

It is easy for both of you where others have to take the risks.

otb,

"You might like employers to develop a bit of mongrel and dock employees' pay for voluntary work such as for the SES, but a lot of employers would not agree with you and nor would the public"

There you go again, attributing views to people which they don't hold.

I'm not talking about "genuine" volunteers.

I'm addressing Mr Abbott and his shonky habit of promoting himself and his party under the guise of altruistism...and then claiming expenses for it.

It's Mr Abbott who is politically point scoring.

I love to know how many times he's taken a risk while "volunteering" - unless you count too many camera flashes damaging his eyesight.

Lol Poirot... no wonder Abbott has a tendency to squint : )

I must say, I don't see a problem with Bandt, or anyone else, bringing up the matter of climate change during an unusually hot, dry October fire emergency.
What better time to discuss climate change than now?

It is obvious our climate is changing, if we have such an early awful fire season.
I doubt the poor victims of the NSW fires will give a damn what anyone says about climate change at present anyway.

I have lived many years in remote communities on Cape York & I have never seen houses burnt down by bushfires. The people KNOW when & HOW to back burn unlike the Green "Experts" in the South. The people in the bush don't have trees two feet from their homes.
That could account for indigenous communities not being in the same dilemma.

I found Adam Bandt's comments measured, but to the point. Will the climate change skeptics be contrite when more of these extreme weather evens are visited upon us in the future, most likely not.
It stands to reason even if one had doubts about global warming being a reality, even though the scientific evidence most definitely points the other way, and considering the consequences of being wrong are to terrifying to contemplate, would it not be prudent for society to err on the side of caution and take notice of people like Adam Bandt and act positivity to try and avert possible coming climatic disasters.

You are right Paul.
I see no reason not to consider there might be some merit in worrying about climate change. Whether this change is 'caused' by human activity is a harder concept for me.

Individual, I doubt there would be many fire problems in the far North of Australia, with such high humidity?
And yes, Aboriginal people knew how to manage fire seasons, but of course there are now far more people populating the Southern States, so it is a far different scenario these days.