Landowners across NSW will be obliged to conduct more hazard-reduction burns on their properties and take an active role in bushfire preparation after the NSW government accepted all 76 recommendations of an independent bushfire inquiry.
A trial will also be conducted of first-response aerial firefighting, which involves water bombers being deployed ahead of firefighters to reduce the intensity of blazes.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in January established the inquiry amid an unprecedented bushfire season in which 25 people died, almost 2500 homes were razed, more than 5.5 million hectares were burned and billions of animals perished.
The inquiry leads, Professor Mary O'Kane and Dave Owens, handed the report to the NSW government in late July and it was published on Tuesday.
Many parts of Australia are still recovering from one of the worst bushfire seasons on record. Source: AAP
Ms Berejiklian's government has agreed to support all 76 recommendations from the inquiry, including an enhanced role for landowners in the firefighting process.
Landowners in fire-prone areas of NSW will be required to do their own hazard-reduction burns, and the NSW RFS will be permitted to intervene if they fail to do so.
The report also recommends more hazard-reduction burns in closer proximity to endangered communities and the performance of hazard-reduction burns and water bombing at night.
Indigenous cultural burning techniques will also be examined in greater detail.
Firefighting authorities will also trial "military-style" water-bombing tactics, update equipment, training and mental health support for firefighters and buy more water-bombing aircraft.
A DC-10 Air Tanker makes a pass to drop fire retardant on a bushfire in North Nowra, 160km south of Sydney, Saturday, January 4, 2020 Source: AAP
"The release of this report is timely - we know our job is not done in recovering and rebuilding in the aftermath of those horrific bushfires," Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Tuesday.
"We think of those who experienced the trauma and pain every day, and those who are still in recovery mode, recovering from that horrific bushfire season."
Climate change admission
Ms Berejiklian admitted climate change had played a major role in the summer's fires, with authorities seeing things "they have never seen before in decades of firefighting".
"There were unprecedented conditions coupled with the drought, the fuel loads in some areas, but moreover that the climate is changing and we have to accept and expect that part of the ferocity we saw was a combination of those things," she said.
"Our government is working as hard as we can, as fast, as efficiently as we can to resource up our agencies but also do everything we can to mitigate the risk."
Ms Berejiklian had in November said it was "inappropriate" to discuss the link between climate change and bushfires while blazes in NSW were raging.
Former NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner Greg Mullins, part of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action ex-fire chief grouping, said on Tuesday the NSW government should heed the report's recommendations but also cut carbon emissions faster.
"As Australia enters a new era of climate-driven bushfires where fires are more likely to develop dangerous pyroconvection events (fire tornadoes), we have to address the root cause of worsening conditions," Mr Mullins said in a statement.
