Hon Rick Mazza MLC: “Laughable if it weren’t downright dangerous”

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Member for the Agricultural Region in the Western Australian Upper House Hon Rick Mazza MLC gave this passionate speech during a debate on Climate Change in the Legislative Council yesterday.

FOR THE RECORD: The Association published this opinion piece in The Countryman last week expressing our concerns about the potential for high-emotion political activism on Climate Change to distract decision-makers from the fact that hundreds of thousands of Australian volunteers need their support (and funding) to deal with today’s threats.

The opinion piece we published explicitly accepts that the climate is changing AND that with warmer, drier weather, fuel becomes more flammable which will obviously increase bushfire risk. The Association is not qualified to talk to the issue of the origins of Climate Change and therefore neither deny or support any perspective in that debate.

The important role for us – which we will never step away from – is to ensure that decision-makers are always aware that irrespective of what the future brings, an amazing army of skilled emergency services volunteers leave their homes and families to protect those of others every single day of the year – and have done since european settlement.