Prime Minister Abbott 

manned an RFS fire truck this week to fight the NSW bushfires. 

Neil Mitchell of radio 3AW asked listeners: 

'Should the PM be fighting fires?'

Well -

The PM has the power 

to subsidize the financially disadvantaged to prepare their homes and properties to make them more ember proof and fire retardant. 

He has the power 

to enact laws to force every bushfire-vulnerable property owner to cut their grass and clear beneath trees, etc., so as not to endanger others. 

Every burning house send off embers flying to ignite others. 

Every burned house causes not only personal grief but increases the public housing crisis. 

He has the power 

to see to it that safe reaction to bushfire is taught in every school. 

All this would cost less than spending afterwards on reconstruction. 

If the PM used his unique ‘muscle’ to do this preventative work, 

he would achieve more good than putting it to be a ‘firie’.