Catastrophic bushfire, politics and the public interest

Death, injury and asset damage statistics following natural disasters are a relatively simple, shorthand means of rapidly gauging policy ' success' or 'failure' in relation to the management of such events at many different levels. Invariably, alleged policy failings are blamed upon 'unprecedented' events, or 'residual risk', that could not have been anticipated or planned for. This is an argument that has been mounted in recent times in the United States (US), for example, to absolve the relevant authorities from blame in the cases of serious oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico and the devastation of New Orleans as a consequence of Hurricane Katrina (Congleton 2006).