NSW bushfire statistics showing only one person is prosecuted for every 2000 unlawful burns - the majority landowner "escaped" fires for land clearing and hazard reduction - have been forwarded to the NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry.
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NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said he forwarded emergency service and Bureau of Crime Statistics data collated by the Newcastle Herald to former NSW chief scientist Professor Mary O'Kane who is chairing the inquiry with former NSW Police deputy commissioner Dave Owens.
Bureau of Crime Statistics data shows only 16 landowners have been convicted of illegal hazard reduction burn offences in NSW since 2009, despite problem landowner fires jumping from less than 350 in 2010 to nearly 3000 a year since 2017.
While the NSW Rural Fire Service established a compliance unit in 2018 and issued more than 600 people with warning letters in that year after illegal burns, the lack of prosecutions gives the green light for illegal burning by landowners because "the law becomes a joke", Mr Shoebridge said.
"These numbers don't lie," he said.
"When a teenager starts a grass fire then politicians call for harsh penalties, but when landowners do the exact same thing there is silence," he said.
"It may be politically convenient for the Liberal Government to focus on teenage arsonists but there is a real issue here of illegal burning by landowners that needs to be addressed."
The Herald on Thursday revealed data held by NSW emergency services shows "escaped" fires from hazard reduction by landowners, permit and pile burns have dramatically increased in less than a decade while politicians, mainly Nationals, have pushed for more hazard reduction burning to deal with catastrophic bushfires.
The push is despite strong challenges from academics, fire experts and fire commissioners, including Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, against the claims.
In 2018 Mr Fitzsimmons said escaped and illegal fires posed "a very real and potentially deadly threat to the public", and in 2019/20 the RFS launched a media campaign targeting regional and local areas to reduce the incidence of illegal and careless fires.
It rolled out the Don't Be The Fire Risk To Your Community public awareness campaign targeting local landholders in areas where spikes in illegal and escaped burn incidents occurred, but the Bureau of Crime Statistics showed only three people were convicted of hazard reduction offences in NSW in 2019.
The data shows only two people were convicted for lighting fires for land clearing without permits or authority in 2016, despite the annual escaped landowner fires reported to authorities jumping from 1514 in 2015 to 2565 in 2016.
In a statement on Friday the Rural Fire Service said 635 people in 2017/18 were issued with warning letters after 1664 illegal burns in NSW, another 28 were fined and 16 "received police action".
In the same year another 72 people received warning letters, and one fine was issued, after 267 escaped private burns, the RFS said.
There were 1625 illegal burns in 2018/19 resulting in 573 people being issued with warning letters. Eleven people were fined and 18 "received police action". There were an additional 248 escaped private pile burns, where 46 landowners received warning letters, one was fined and two "received police action".
"All these escaped fires do result in a number of resources being sent to respond, including aircraft which can be at considerable cost," the RFS said.
"The NSW RFS works closely with the NSW Police Force, including the provision of a liaison officer within the arson squad."
Mr Shoebridge said the dramatic jump in "escaped" burns, including from hazard reduction by landowners, needed to be addressed during the NSW Bushfire Inquiry.
"One of the major focuses of the current inquiry must be the role that illegal burning by landowners has played in these dreadful fires, and whether or not the state government has been complicit in this practice," Mr Shoebridge said.
"It is hard to understand why this government is so unwilling to enforce the law, especially when we know that illegal burning by landowners has been a major source of large scale bush fires."
Mr Shoebridge said there would always be cases where "desperate last minute back burns" were essential to save life and property, "but this can hardly be the case for the thousands of escaped fires that the authorities have on the record".
Former Hunter and Central Coast RFS fire investigator Rick Miller said the push by National Party politicians for greater freedom for landowners to do hazard reduction burns failed to acknowledge the current known and serious risks posed by careless and reckless landowners.
"If you're going to talk about doubling hazard reduction burns, as some of these politicians are, then you're going to have to get real about the amount of illegal burns that are already occurring without real penalty," Mr Miller said.
NSW Deputy Premier and Nationals MP John Barilaro referred questions to Police and Emergency Services David Elliott. Mr Elliott did not respond.
The NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry is investigating the causes and contributing factors to the frequency, intensity, timing and location of bushfires in the 2019/20 season, including the role of weather, drought, climate change, fuel loads and human activity.
It will consider preparation and planning for future bushfire threats and risks, appropriate clearing and other hazard reduction, and resourcing of emergency responses to bushfires.
The six-month inquiry is accepting submissions until March 27. It will report back to Premier Gladys Berejiklian before the next fire season.
