We had camped at Wingan Inlet, close to the area where the fire that devastated Mallacoota started. We had driven out every day to check the fire situation.
There was nothing anywhere close in the morning. At 4 pm that day, we had the SES racing into camp and helicopters over our heads. They saved us and we are incredibly thankful.
We left our camper trailer and all equipment to the flames. We were very lucky. A few days later, my wife Louise patrolled fires in Corryong and Walwa all night with the CFA.
This hadn’t been the plan when she left – she was meant to be doing some backburning around Tallangatta.
When I found out where she was headed, I was very worried and didn’t sleep much. And I did have some time to think. My professional life revolves around corporate governance and I think there are some very useful and applicable parallels.
All our governments have proclaimed to be business friendly – with more focus on small or large businesses, employees or entrepreneurs. Pick your flavour.
What should unite them is that our leaders understand how businesses work and how they are led – how they are governed. An organisation’s governing body is the board of directors. The board sets the strategy, policies, and controls to guide the company into the future. Its charge is to ensure a prosperous, competitive, sustainable, safe – and dare I say it – happy organisation.
A central concern for boards is to understand and address risks comprehensively, including events that are rare but would have catastrophic impact if they occurred.
Closely related to this duty is the keeping safe of employees and customers – this is a higher priority than profitability. In case of systemic and significant failure with respect to safety, ignorance (“we didn’t know!”) is not considered an excuse.
Our governments are tasked with, well, governing. A core government task is to proactively seek and appraise advice and scientific evidence on key strategic issues such as climate change.
These are the facts: We Australians, per capita, are the biggest greenhouse gas emitters of all developed nations.
Climate change (or more aptly, global warming) is real.
Its speed and extent is linked to our emissions. More persistent and frequent droughts are occurring as a result of climate change.
The risk of catastrophic bushfires is increasing as a result of increased presence of infrastructure and reduced windows of opportunity to reduce fuel loads.
Our government, like any board, needs to accept the best advice and take action. Yes, a sudden jolt to our economy by trying to eliminate emissions without a planned transition contains risk that we must and can plan for.
The longer we hesitate, the more pronounced this jolt will become.
The world is changing away from fossil fuels faster than we might realise.
We have unparalleled access to renewable energy opportunities and yet we have placed our bets on a fast-ageing horse. Economically and environmentally speaking, our business model is at the cusp of disruption.
Successful companies recognise critical trends early and take action. While the rest of the developed world is changing, we have lost 10 years of a potential energy reform. We have no more time to lose.
Going forward, we need to think longer term. We need better governance, better stewardship.
Less three-year-horizon-surplus fixation. More foresight. Less ideology and political opportunism. Less divide-and-conquer. More nation-building.
More bi-partisan action on our most significant challenges such as environment, energy, health, and ageing.
This is the time for asking the right questions, sincere appraisal of the evidence, transparency, and accountability.
Real political discourse. Sincere stewardship. Leadership. If ever there was a time for politics, this is it.
● Soenke Tremper is a Committee for Greater Shepparton board member.
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