Daily Advertiser letters: Can't get more a more naturally-occurring bushfire than a lightning strike

That particular is contained in his statement "we have always had hot summers and bushfires have occurred in Australia for billions of years "

This is a curious statement given that plant life did not first appear on the planet's land surface until 350 million years ago, and even then land plants were still relatively new kids on the evolutionary block and the tallest trees stood just a few feet high.

Australia did not break away from the super continent Gondwanaland until about 99 million years ago.

Add to that mixture the fact Australia was almost 100 per cent rainforest for some 40 million years after that separation.

The eucalyptus species then came along and adapted to the evolving drier climatic conditions.

Those type of rainforests were and those still left like Daintree, are characterised by continuous tree canopy, high humidity, moisture dependent vegetation, a moist layer of leaf litter and importantly for this exercise the absence of wildfire.

Essentially when the eucalyptus tree species arrived on the scene, so did bush fires.

Mr Collins makes the comment, "Don't extinguish naturally occurring bushfires".

My understanding is that where a bushfire starts from a lightning strike, that is a naturally occurring event.

Such events were very prevalent during the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/2020 and in fact led to several megafires during that horrific event. Some clarification on this point would help.

It may be that Mr Collins simply pressed the wrong letter on his computer keyboard, that is the B instead of M. I wonder what the chances of that are. One in a million or one in a billion.

I see there is going to be more money spent on Lake Albert - this time into dredging it (something that should have been done when the lake was nearly empty not full like it is now).

Not to mention the proposed pipeline. How much is all this going to cost?

Surely the money could be better spent on things like fixing up our potholed road system, assisting the homeless and domestic violence victims etc.

I certainly hope that the Boat Club Commodore Michael Henderson is absenteeing himself from any votes in this matter - certainly would be a conflict of interest.

Kudos to the ACT for leading the nation on clean electric vehicle uptake.

That EV sales have more than doubled from 3.8 per cent in 2022 to 8.6 per cent of light vehicle sales across the country is great progress.

But Australia's uptake is four times slower than the global average.

As is too often the case, the federal government is holding us back. EVs are both climate change and public health solutions. An estimated 11,000 Australians die prematurely every year from traffic exhaust related air pollution.

They are also cheaper to run. Imagine how quickly we could be a nation driving clean, healthy cars if the government would cut to the chase and actually legislate tougher fuel efficiency standards.

Over to you, climate and transport ministers, Chris Bowen and Catherine King.