— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on January 13, 2020, Monday.
As we mentioned earlier, wildfires are common in Australia, but this one was made more destructive by drought and high temperatures. what's more important is that in previous years, fires have usually occurred in areas with relatively low population density, so the treatment was more "lenient", but this time it happened in the southeast, where population density is higher and the economy is more developed.
In the face of this change, the response of the Australian authorities has clearly been inadequate, in a long time, the fire will only be as a regional problem, instead of level of national crisis, and also the lack of effective assistance among the affected states is one of the reasons for the continuing impact of the fire and the mounting damage. As a result, the prime minister and key emergency officials have continued to take holidays and travel abroad, adding to public anger. It wasn't until the fires had been burning for months that Australia's prime minister admitted mistakes had been made.
Scott Morrison
Australian PM
There are things I could have handled on the ground much better, there is a very emotional environments, I get to say that 95%, well the responses are handled in these cases are very positive and very appreciative, These are sensitive environments, there are very emotional environments; prime ministers are flesh and blood too in how they engage with people."
This mistake has led to huge economic losses for Australia. John quiggin, John quiggin, winner of the Australian economics prize at the university of Queensland, wrote a signed article for CNN, saying the total economic cost of the fire would be a $100 billion, or 477.4 billion yuan. In his view, the eventual impact of the fire will likely exceed that of hurricane sandy in the United States.
Among the specific economic losses, insurance claims alone now exceed 700 million Australian dollars, and many private properties remain uninsured, making the losses even greater, the damage to public infrastructure, including roads, Bridges, power and water systems, is also severe. The fires have also hit Australia's tourism industry and dealt a blow to the southeast's international image as a tourist destination. Less obvious but no less important is the loss of people's health. After acknowledging the failure, the Australian prime minister announced a proposal to his cabinet to set up a commission to deal with the fire disaster, and to discuss how the federal government could step in and assist the states with greater flexibility in the event of a disaster. But until those issues are resolved, how to deal with the wildfires remains difficult, especially as recent high winds have increased the number of evacuations.
At the same time, the international community continues to help, with a number of individuals and organizations, including actor Leonardo Dicaprio and amazon founder Bezos, announcing new donations over the past two days. Looking further ahead, experts have suggested that the Australian government needs to establish a dedicated prevention and response mechanism to effectively organize evacuation and relief efforts.
To prevent a repeat of such massive disruption, the government should spend at least a $1 billion a year on that.
We will also keep an eye on whether these measures can be effectively implemented