Belly how 1950's are you?
Paul1405,
At least Belly is a male, something your confused hybrid type will never understand.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20958060

Regardless of whether climate change has a hand in the fires or not, there will always be fires and a ground up review of all fire mitigation practices is needed, at personal and governmental levels. There are a lot of truths in this thread to be considered.

Meanwhile, let's put the fire out.

Until about 20 years ago public service department heads were permanent positions, held by people who had worked their way up through the department, gaining experience and knowledge. The middle managers under them had also risen through hand-on experience. (The weakness in this system - a tendency to be static - 'we've always done it this way'). DH's were mainly men, because they had started work in the days when there were few women in the professional workforce.

Then politicians introduced the SES system, where DH's were on contract. Previously they could give fearless advice, based on expertise, now they were caught - they often didn't know enough to understand the advice from their staff below, and they had to placate their Ministers or risk losing their job.

The overt justification for this was that 'management' was a career in itself - get your MBA, then work up through the system, hopping from one department to another for promotion. People with no specific expertise were appointed at middle management levels too. (there is a point below which you must have expertise, in the hands-on positions; there are tensions within agencies where specific expert advice meets non-specific management)

This change coincided with more women entering the professional workforce. So there are both women and men working in middle/senior management in the new system whereas managers under the old system were predominantly male. (Inexpertise is shared by both male and female managers today).

To attribute cause and effect: more women caused current management trends is false correlation. It was about political control.

Re the comment 'women managers who spend more time putting warnings in mens toilets to wash hands etc. "

This again is false correlation. Health signs are part of the OHS system. Some good points wrt occupational safety, but the actual process is designed (by lawyers) as a financial risk minimisation policy for government. Managers don't put up signs because they are women, but because they are instructed to. (I doubt the managers put up the signs - someone from Human Resources will do that, again under instruction.)

The add fits perfectly.

Some posters go on about so-called climate-change scientists and academics telling us about the reasons for global warming. But would they listen to the emergency personnel on the ground?
I was reading the news on 'Zite' today and found this quote from a large group of Aussie volunteer firefighters back in 2007: "... the United Firefighters Union’s national secretary wrote to then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd:

On behalf of more than 13,000 firefighters and support staff in Australia, I write this open letter to request a review of Australia’s fire risk… As we battle blazes here in Victoria, firefighters are busy rescuing people from floods in Queensland. Without a massive turnaround in policies, aside from the tragic loss of life and property, we will be asking firefighters to put themselves at an unacceptable risk.

Firefighters know that it is better to prevent an emergency than to have to rescue people from it, and we urge state and federal governments to follow scientific advice and keep firefighters and the community safe by halving the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020."

I would think they would have a better idea on the issues of global warming and firestorms than anyone else...

So true Belly, but it does get worse.

With the bureaucracy loving bits of paper, we have in Parks, & up here where water resources was given to the Environ department along with Parks & Dept. of Agriculture, by that fool Beattie, a great proliferation, yes an infestation of young ladies who have done an environmental science degree.

This course is designed for dummies who can't add up, but they get a BSc if they have managed to regurgitate the course notes. You can imagine they gravitate to the environment department.

We got a couple of quite nice young lady graduates replace our experienced district water resources officer a while back. We most definitely got half the brain power for twice the wages bill. I'm sure I saw one of them throw a twig in the river at one meeting, to see which way it flowed.

Fortunately they have disappeared these last 3 years. Probably at a desk in the city, where they can feel comfortable with a computer, rather than out in the nasty bush. We all know for most of these people the environment is something we talk about, not go out into.

We used to be kept up to date with departmental thinking & planning. Now we are kept in the dark, both about the future, & about why we are paying for district officers who are never seen.

Yep belly, infested is the right word.