O 102100Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0972
INFO AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 
AMEMBASSY BEIJING 
AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 
AMEMBASSY SEOUL 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 
AMCONSUL MELBOURNE 
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AMCONSUL SYDNEY 
DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHINGTON DC
THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC

C O N F I D E N T I A L CANBERRA 000136 
 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC BADER, BANGKOK FOR RDMA BERGER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2019 
TAGS: EAID SENV AS
SUBJECT: VICTORIA WILDFIRES: CANBERRA UPDATE 
 
REF: A. MELBOURNE 20 
     ¶B. MELBOURNE 21 
     ¶C. CANBERRA 134 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Daniel A. Clune, Reasons 1.4(b)(d) 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Though the worst of the fires appear to be 
over, Australia is reeling as rescuers discover more victims 
from Victoria's wildfires, with the death toll expected to 
pass 200 (ref B).  Deputy PM Gillard termed the fires "one of 
the darkest days" in Australia's peacetime history.  The 
President's call to Prime Minister Rudd received considerable 
positive attention, with Rudd referring to it in Parliament. 
Victoria has yet to make a formal request for U.S. 
assistance, but we understand that Departments of Interior 
and Agriculture are ready to act as soon as Victoria 
finalizes its request.  The focus continues to be on fighting 
the remaining fires and supporting victims, but there are now 
calls for comprehensive reviews of policy, and unprecedented 
investigations into how the fires started and were handled. 
End Summary. 
 
PRESIDENT'S CALL WELL RECEIVED 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) PM Rudd, back in Canberra after touring Victoria 
over the past two days, expressed national condolences in 
Parliament and referred in very positive terms to his January 
10 conversation with the President, in which the President 
reiterated the offer of USG assistance to Victoria. 
 
¶3. (SBU) In addition to the President's call, Rudd said that 
Australia received offers of financial or material assistance 
from the following countries: France, Japan, Thailand, 
Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore.  UK Prime Minister 
Brown, European Commission President Barroso, UN Secretary 
General Ban, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, all offered 
expressions of support, as have Pakistan, Brazil, Cuba, Nauru 
and Andorra. 
 
¶4. (C) We continue to work closely with National Interagency 
Fire Center Deputy Director Bodie Shaw (ref A) to formalize 
Victoria's request for U.S. firefighting assistance. 
Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) 
indicated late in the day on February 10 that they wanted to 
consider their resource needs overnight, but we expect a 
finalized request on the morning of February 11.  We are 
monitoring that situation closely to ensure that U.S. 
assistance will be put in place in a timely manner. 
 
POLICY REVIEW AND ARSON INVESTIGATION 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Experts have already begun to analyze why the fires 
caused so many deaths and whether the "shelter in place" 
policy guidance was correct.  Gary Morgan, CEO of the 
Bushfire Cooperative Research Center, told MDRO on February 8 
that anyone who died in their vehicles "was not following the 
policy."  Morgan noted that instead of sheltering in place, 
many initially decided to stay, then tried to flee at the 
last minute as the scale of the fires became clear.  Many 
were then killed in their vehicles as country roads were 
blocked by debris and smoke.  Morgan said the stay and defend 
policy was developed over a period of decades following the 
1983 Ash Wednesday fires, and was based on sound experience 
and science about what is best to do in a bushfire situation. 
 While sobered by the death toll, Morgan was confident that 
Q While sobered by the death toll, Morgan was confident that 
the crisis would result in a new surge in federal funding for 
fire research.  He also said, however, that his Center's 
funding had not been renewed for next year. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Analysis of the fire sources has been colored by a 
suspicion that many of the dozens of major fires over the 
weekend were set deliberately.  PM Rudd said that anyone who 
was determined to have been involved in arson would be 
considered a "mass murderer."  Victoria Police Commissions 
Christine Nixon declared all fire sites crime scenes and 
Victorian detective ranks were being bolstered by police 
forces from other states.  Investigations into the sources of 
the fires are predicted to take up to a year, with the 
recognition that the extreme nature of many of the fires will 
make a determination of the causes difficult. 
 
¶7. (C) The fires will add impetus to efforts to clarify the 
roles and responsibilities of the federal government.  Both 
Morgan and Tony Bartlett, General Manager for Finance and 
Community Grants at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries 
and Forestry (DAFF) said that the current federal 
arrangements have long been criticized, as the fire response 
role is currently split between three agencies in Canberra. 
Bartlett said that the initial emergency response, including 
coordinating release of federal military assets, sits with 
Emergency Management Australia.  The fire prevention policy 
for the forestry and agricultural industries sits in DAFF, 
and the environmental management role sits with Department of 
Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.  Bartlett said 
that the government had been trying to develop a unified 
national bushfire policy since the 2003 fires that devastated 
Canberra, but the process had been in a "long gestation as 
there is no one driving it here."  The Victorian fires, with 
their shocking death toll (for comparison, the 2003 fires 
killed four people) would add new impetus to clearing up the 
tangled undergrowth in federal fire policy, Bartlett said. 
 
MEDIA SUMMARY 
------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The fires have dominated the local and national 
sections in newspapers across the country with extensive 
reports and photography the last two days.   News and current 
affairs programs have sent crews to the affected areas. Many 
programs have extended their on-air broadcast times to cover 
events as they occur.  Reports that a team of U.S. wildfire 
specialists would be coming to assist was quickly picked up 
by several media outlets, including the national Australian 
newspaper and Sky News.  News that the President had called 
Prime Minister Rudd was also widely reported.  However, with 
the volume of domestic human interest stories and messages of 
condolence from other governments (of the UK and New Zealand 
among others), the U.S. response has received comparatively 
minimal coverage. 
 
CLUNE