That story went around the world, seized on by the Murdochs’ London Sun, tweeted in America by Donald Trump Jr, rehashed by Fox News star Sean Hannity on his website, and promoted on Fox News as the real cause of the fires.
Even the right wing politicians in our government jumped on the band wagon.
Craig Kelly, a Federal Government MP said “with the majority of these fires we’ve had unprecedented numbers of people being arrested and charged with arson offences. Now arson is not caused by climate change.”
George Christensen, another government MP said “the cause of the fires is certainly man made, it’s just not man-made climate change. It’s man-made arson that, to me, almost borders on terrorism.”
The New South Wales Bushfire Inquiry’s very recent 460-page report has a table listing all the significant bushfires in the state last season.
The table lists 32 major fires and finds that debris burning started three, power lines started two, equipment and a shredded tyre started another two, one was undetermined and all the rest (including ‘our ‘ Currowan fire) were caused by lightning strikes.
And the number started by arson?
None. Zero. Nada.
There were suspected cases of arson in some areas, but the report makes clear “these were a very small proportion of the area burnt”.
ABC News crunched the numbers and came to the conclusion that only about 1% of the land burnt in New South Wales during the bushfire season can officially be attributed to arson.
The Victorian police came to the same conclusion saying there was no intelligence to indicate that the fires in East Gippsland and north east Victoria have been caused by arson or any other suspicious behaviour.
So, have any of these media outlets or politicians reported that important news and corrected the record?
Of course not!
Of course not!
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