Labor has weighed in on the recently-released NSW Bushfire Inquiry report, calling for greater firefighting resources and a timeline of action on all 76 passed recommendations.
The six-month inquiry, led by former Deputy Commissioner of NSW Police Dave Owens and former NSW Chief Scientist professor Mary O'Kane, was initiated by Premier Gladys Berejiklian following the devastating 2019/20 summer fires to prepare for the upcoming season.
The pair produced 76 recommendations, all of which were adopted by the NSW Government this week.
Shadow Minister for the Hunter and Cessnock MP Clayton Barr said the inquiry was particularly significant for Hunter resident, considering the large amount of National Park and state forest land in the region.
"There are so many communities that live on the edge of that," he said.
For that reason, he said a recommendation which calls on government land agencies to be "the best neighbours possible" when undertaking bushire preparation was particularly important.
"I was asked to go onto resident's properties that had been well maintained, but when you looked at the government owned land next door it was ready to go up," Mr Barr said.
"When a fire front comes through, they need to put in a fire break. They just bring in bulldozers and rip it all out. It's a reactive response, not an ongoing proactive response.
"If we could learn from last season, we have to invest not just equipment but some human resources to help with maintenance.
"Regional areas are calling out for employment. People could be put to work on basic land management."
On a similar vein, NSW shadow Environment Minister Kate Washington was critical of the inquiry for including "nothing that restores funding cuts to National Parks and Wildlife".
"We know since 2011, a third of park rangers have been sacked and many other positions have been left unfilled. These are people who do firefighting, hazard reduction and scientists."
"This government has taken a significant amount of money out of National Parks and firefighting services," Mr Barr added. "When you have a terrible fire season, those things come to the surface."
The NSW Government says NPWS staff levels have remained stable since 2011, going from 1,650 FTE staff in July 2011 to 1,660 in May this year and that it provided an extra $22.9 million in 2020/21 for NPWS to fund an extra 125 firefighters and a helicopter.
Ms Washington also said the report pointed to a lack of prior planning and knowledge relating to wildlife. One of the recommendations calls on the government to develop and implement a policy on injured wildlife response, rescue and rehabilitation.
"It confirms what we saw - wildlife carers were left to fend for themselves," she said. "I met with a lot of groups - they were desperate and had to fund a lot of their own activities."
In response, the government said it hadprovided more than $6.5 million to support the wildlife rehabilitation sector as part of an overall Wildlife Conservation Recovery Plan.
But Mr Barr said the report was a beacon of opportunity, which would require a significant amount of funding and prioritisation.
"You don't get a second chance to get it right," he said.
Ms Washington said Labor was "going to hold the government to account for every single recommendation".
"We need to make sure it's a meaningful response because the community deserves nothing less."
