Queensland and New South Wales burning.

Australia's farmers and rural communities were already struggling, thanks to several years of intense drought. Now Mother Nature, and numerous deviants, have come along to compound their plight. Queensland and New South Wales are now enduring Australia's worst bushfire emergency since the 2009 Black Saturday fires.

These bushfires began in country New South Wales last month before crossing the northern border in Queensland, my state (but don't worry; I'm safe). It's currently believed many have been deliberately lit whereas others have the authorities unsure about how they started. However, police have notably arrested a 16-year-old on suspicion of lighting a fire near Yeppoon, Queensland, which has destroyed 14 homes, with another fire in NSW having claimed four lives.

But two things have swayed public attention away from the fires themselves. Firstly, the national debate they have sparked (pun intended) over the effectiveness and (alleged) role of green policies and environmental activism in the fires themselves. It's possible that such endeavours, if sincere but poorly informed and planned, could have a hand in starting bushfires, but as naive or idealistic as this may sound I highly doubt such people would ever intend to do anything like that consciously. Mischievous and/or bored rural teenagers, however... they are a totally different story.

Secondly, a public sledge against bushfire-battling firefighters. Feminist author Sherele Moody (above), during a press conference with Greens Senator Larissa Waters, claimed they would all head home from the frontlines just to beat their wives. Now, domestic violence is nothing to mock or trivialise, but not only does that issue have no relevance to this one, in just that one statement Moody tarred all these brave individuals - women and men - as violent spouse-abusers. That kind of generalisation is reprehensible, and surely as far as possible from the truth. 

But anyway, enough about those things. My heart goes out to everybody caught up in this bushfire emergency, may whoever started the fires be caught and convicted, and let's all raise our glasses to all the firies across Australia. We love and thank all of them.