Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman has expressed disappointment over the Morrison Government’s failure to immediately release the final report of the Royal Commission into last summer’s bushfire crisis.

The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangement delivered its final report to the government on Wednesday, October 28. However, it will not be publicly released until the afternoon of October 30, to “provide the Commonwealth, States and Territories time to consider the report’s findings”.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable that this report is just sitting on someone’s desk, and I can think of only two reasons why,” Ms Templeman said.

“The first is that the government wants time to put its spin on it, and the other is it’s just not a priority for them.

“Both of these are deeply disrespectful to the families of people who have died, to the people who lost their homes, to the people who are still trying to deal with debris on their land.

“Above all, it’s disrespectful to the firefighters who are now putting in the hours training and getting ready for the season that has technically already started.

“This report contains important findings about what happened in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury and so many other communities last summer.

“There are people in our community who, the moment this is released, will dig into it to see how it might improve their capacity to survive a bushfire, prepare for a bushfire, or know what would happen if there was one in their area.”

On the day the report was released, Ms Templeman joined Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, Shadow Climate Change Minister Mark Butler, Shadow Minister for Natural Disaster and Emergency Managemen