I’m six years out of school, nearly graduated from university, and I’ve never seen a protest like this
Saturday, 1 December 2018
The school climate strike was a new generation's activism – and I'm so proud
Extract from The Guardian
Thousands of students join climate protest – video
The kids couldn’t believe it. The adults couldn’t believe it.
Martin Place hadn’t seen anything like it for years, and Elly and her sister had never seen anything like it – ever.
Elly, 14, and Aidan, 10, had come thinking the strike would be “a small thing”. Elly said she didn’t know many people from her school who were coming. She found a thousand others.
On Friday, in a crowded Martin Place, the chants went up and I’ve never felt prouder.
This week thousands of students in every state walked out of school to protest inaction over climate change and the sense that their future is being frittered away.
They had the signs, the statistics, the anger – and the solutions too. I looked around and felt I had seen the future, clever and full of passion.
I count myself as nearly of the same generation as the strikers. I’m
six years out of high school, nearly graduated from university – but
I’ve never seen a protest like this.Martin Place hadn’t seen anything like it for years, and Elly and her sister had never seen anything like it – ever.
Elly, 14, and Aidan, 10, had come thinking the strike would be “a small thing”. Elly said she didn’t know many people from her school who were coming. She found a thousand others.
On Friday, in a crowded Martin Place, the chants went up and I’ve never felt prouder.
This week thousands of students in every state walked out of school to protest inaction over climate change and the sense that their future is being frittered away.
They had the signs, the statistics, the anger – and the solutions too. I looked around and felt I had seen the future, clever and full of passion.
I came in with cynicism. In the exact same spot, I have seen so many protests wither on the vine, outnumbered by food-court patrons.
University students like to think that they are the epicentre of social change, or at least they were in the heyday of the 70s. But on Friday in Sydney all you could hear in the CBD were the school kids, and in Melbourne they stopped traffic at 1pm on a school day.
Activism seems to have skipped a generation, and I couldn’t be happier.
In Sydney, Jean Hinchliffe, 14, had the stage and took the roll, in a way. She asked who here was in primary school, who was in high school, who was from western Sydney, who had travelled from the bush, who wanted their politicians to do way more about climate change. The roar sent the microphones screaming into static and camera operators winced with their headphones in.
Scott Morrison had told them not to gather and that only made them feel better about doing it. Finally, something the politicians couldn’t control. That was the theme of the day – the frustration of feeling powerless.
“You have failed us all so terribly,” said Nosrat Fareha, 15, from Auburn Girls High school.
“We deserve better. Young people can’t even vote but will have to live with the consequences of your inaction for decades.”
Morrison was mentioned by every speaker and booed every time. How much he must regret that throwaway line in question time, that “kids should go to school” and be “less activist”, and the electoral harm it threatens to cause in a few more years.
It was so easily turned around, and the irony obvious to all. “If Scott Morrison wants children to stop acting like a parliament, then maybe the parliament should stop acting like children,” Manjot Kaur, 17, said.
It was an articulate anger, and the speakers made sure to say they had the solutions too, not just the doom and gloom. There was music and happiness. They sang Stand by Me and everyone knew the words – an old-school activist vibe to make anyone dewy-eyed. One girl said to another, “Oh I should have put you up on my shoulders for that!” and then did on the next song.
“Here’s to us”, said Fareha. “The generation that can’t wait until it’s too late”.
There will inevitably be blowback from the rightwing commentariat, and the politicians themselves, that these young activists have been whipped into a false frenzy. But that’s not what this was. It was a hesitant, cautious embrace of something long overdue.
“When I say student, you say power!” Hinchliffe shouted. They did. And it felt like a sense of self-actualisation – hundreds looking around and thinking yes, everyone is actually, really saying it too. Maybe it’s true. The call and response came up and down Martin Place in waves, swimming long laps. They were clutching their ears it was so loud.
Why Donald Trump's lawyers fear Robert Mueller is trying to catch him out in a lie
Updated
The lawyer who had long worked for Donald Trump as
his self-described "fixer" has admitted to lying to US Congress over the
Russia investigation.
The question now is what this means for the
US President himself — and specifically, how Michael Cohen's new
account of events squares with what Mr Trump had told special counsel
Robert Mueller.Let's take a closer look at this latest development.
Cohen has given a new version of events when it comes to Mr Trump's business dealings in Russia
Here's what the court documents say:- He told Congress in a written statement in 2017 that a Trump Tower project in Moscow had ceased by January 2016, but now he says they didn't stop until June 2016 (after Mr Trump became the Republican presidential nominee)
- In January 2016, Cohen spoke with an assistant to Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson about moving the project forward
- In May 2016, Cohen talked to a Trump Organisation official about making a trip to Russia in relation to the project
- Cohen discussed the real estate project with Mr Trump on multiple occasions and with unidentified members of the President's family
However, nothing said in court or in associated court filings addressed whether Mr Trump or his aides had directed Cohen to mislead Congress.
There is also no clear link in the court filings between Cohen's lies and Mr Mueller's central question of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
What's relevant is that Mr Trump had insisted repeatedly during the 2016 campaign that he had no business dealings in Russia
Here's an example from July 2016:And here's what Mr Trump said during the second presidential debate in October 2016:
"I know nothing about the inner workings of Russia. I don't deal there. I have no businesses there. I have no loans from Russia."Mr Trump's statements might not have been contradicted, but if true, Cohen's testimony suggests the President wasn't giving the full picture.
Then there's the question of what Mr Trump had told Mr Mueller about his Russian business dealings
It was only last week that Mr Trump and his lawyers had provided Mr Mueller with responses to written questions.Mr Mueller's team has asked Mr Trump about the Russian real estate deal, but it wasn't immediately clear whether that was one of the questions Mr Trump answered last week.
If he did answer questions on the topic, Mr Trump could have problems if the responses deviate from prosecutors' factual narrative.
According to the New York Times, Mr Trump's lawyers have long feared that Mr Mueller was trying to catch out Mr Trump in a lie
Mr Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani had previously made that argument to Fox News in August:
"Why do you [Mr Mueller] want to get him under oath? You think we're fools? You want to get him under oath because you want to trap him into perjury … You are trying to trap him into perjury because you don't have a case."Alan Dershowitz, Emeritus Professor of Law at Harvard, made similar points in a Fox News interview following the revelation that Cohen had given a new account of events to Mr Mueller.
"They're going to comb through every one of his answers and see if they can come up with anybody who can contradict anything the President said. That's why it's called a perjury trap. Because even if the President believes what he said was true, if somebody will contradict it, then the President can be charged with lying to government officials, which is the equivalent of perjury," he said.Professor Dershowitz went on to say:
"I think the weakness of Mueller's substantive findings are suggested by the fact that he has to resort to false statement prosecutions, which really shows that he didn't start with very much. And the very fact that he is conducting an investigation has created these crimes. These are not crimes that had been committed prior to his appointment."
However, some have previously taken issue with the suggestion that Mr Mueller was laying a 'perjury trap'
In August, former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason spoke to NPR's All Things Considered about the issue.Firstly, he said "perjury trap" had a precise definition:
"A perjury trap is a specific legal defence. It's actually related to entrapment, and it's actually an accusation of prosecutorial misconduct. So what it means is that the prosecutor calls you in to testify not because they've got some legitimate investigative reason to have you testify, but simply to try to sort of trick you or trap you into some kind of a lie that they could then charge you with."He said the concept didn't apply in this situation because Mr Mueller had legitimate reasons for wanting to speak to Mr Trump given the President "is at the centre of everything that he's investigating".
"Simply the fact that you're asked to testify doesn't make it a perjury trap. If that were true, then every witness who is called to testify about anything could claim they were being set up with a perjury trap," he said.
Legal experts at publication Lawfare say there's no obvious criminal exposure for Mr Trump in what Mr Cohen said
Here's what they wrote:"While there are many reasons to be alarmed about a candidate for president of the United States, soon to be designated the presidential nominee of a major political party, contemplating a significant real estate deal in the capital of a hostile foreign power, that in and of itself does not constitute criminal behaviour."However, they also note we haven't been told everything:
"Mueller almost certainly knows a great deal more about what Donald Trump did and said than is included in this document. And that means that Mueller knows what Trump did and what role he played in this matter — and Trump and his lawyers know that Mueller knows this."
Meanwhile, Mr Trump says Cohen is lying to get a lighter sentence
He called Cohen a "weak person" and repeatedly stressed that the real estate deal at issue was never a secret and never executed."There would be nothing wrong if I did do it," Mr Trump said of pursuing the Moscow project.
"I was running my business while I was campaigning. There was a good chance that I wouldn't have won, in which case I would have gone back into the business, and why should I lose lots of opportunities?"He said the primary reason he didn't pursue it was "I was focused on running for president".
Mr Giuliani, meanwhile, said that Cohen was a "proven liar" and that Mr Trump's business organisation had voluntarily given Mr Mueller the same documents cited in the guilty plea "because there was nothing to hide".
He also told the New York Times there was no contradiction between what Mr Trump told Mr Mueller and what Cohen had.
ABC/AP
Morrison government is facing a threat from a new direction
Analysis
Analysis
Morrison government is facing a threat from a new direction
Updated
It's a question that has come up repeatedly in the past few days: have you ever seen politics quite so dysfunctional?
It is hardly the first time the question has come up of course.
There have been plenty of periods of chaos and weirdness in Canberra, particularly in the past 10 years.
But the past week really has entrenched the sense of a new low being reached.
For
people outside of Canberra, it is so often the images that are the
powerful things in a week like this: the Prime Minister having a press
conference in one part of the building, trying to get the agenda back on
track, while one of his backbenchers a few hundred metres away in the
House of Representatives is announcing she is going to the crossbench.
There
are the images of all the Coalition blokes, except one, walking out on
the MP, Julia Banks, while she speaks about a decision partly prompted
by her observations of the male bully culture in the Liberal Party.
Julia Banks is joined by the crossbenchers after standing in the House of Representatives to resign from the Liberal party because of the treatment of women and disunity over energy and climate change
And
there's the image of the Prime Minister walking out — breaking one of
the few remaining protocols in the Parliament — as a new independent MP,
Kerryn Phelps, gets to her feet to give her maiden speech.
Updated
It's a question that has come up repeatedly in the past few days: have you ever seen politics quite so dysfunctional?
It is hardly the first time the question has come up of course.There have been plenty of periods of chaos and weirdness in Canberra, particularly in the past 10 years.
But the past week really has entrenched the sense of a new low being reached.
For people outside of Canberra, it is so often the images that are the powerful things in a week like this: the Prime Minister having a press conference in one part of the building, trying to get the agenda back on track, while one of his backbenchers a few hundred metres away in the House of Representatives is announcing she is going to the crossbench.
There are the images of all the Coalition blokes, except one, walking out on the MP, Julia Banks, while she speaks about a decision partly prompted by her observations of the male bully culture in the Liberal Party.
Julia Banks is joined by the crossbenchers after standing in the House of Representatives to resign from the Liberal party because of the treatment of women and disunity over energy and climate change
And there's the image of the Prime Minister walking out — breaking one of the few remaining protocols in the Parliament — as a new independent MP, Kerryn Phelps, gets to her feet to give her maiden speech.
PM Scott Morrison exits the House of Representatives as Dr Kerryn Phelps gets ready to deliver her first speech
PM Scott Morrison exits the House of Representatives as Dr Kerryn Phelps gets ready to deliver her first speech
And what about the country?
None of those things are particularly good for the government's political fortunes.But dare one say, what about the fortunes of the country?
There aren't many occasions in the past 30 years when a government has so comprehensively lost its political and administrative bundle.
Proper processes have broken down — as thoroughly documented during Senate estimates in the case of the decision to announce a possible move of the Australian embassy to Jerusalem during the Wentworth by-election. That was a decision taken without consulting the foreign affairs and security bureaucracy. Just a craven bit of political opportunism.
Senior public servants are scathing about the lack of proper process more broadly, and for that matter, the lack of being given anything to do.
Not on their best behaviour
In the Parliament, the government lost its majority in the House of Representatives with the election of Dr Phelps. And you might think that would make it a little more cautious and careful about how it runs the Parliament, and behaves in it.But this week, during Question Time, Liberal MP Tony Pasin — who happens to be the chair of the Procedures Committee — got himself thrown out.
That gave Labor an opportunity to give the Coalition a nasty fright when it moved a suspension of standing orders, protesting what it (quite reasonably) described as the "part-time" parliament, in the wake of the tabling of the government's proposed sitting plans for next year.
The Coalition was only saved a humiliating lost vote by the abstention of cross bench MPs who didn't want to get engaged in political games in the chamber.
Have government MPs given up?
But the problem for the Coalition goes beyond tactics and appearances.There has been legislation debated in the House this week. But it appears that the government has had trouble getting its own members to turn up to speak.
For example, government legislation on the domestic violence leave was debated on Thursday. There were 11 speakers from Labor, one from the Greens and just one Coalition MP.
It was a similar story with a lot of other pieces of legislation.
It's as if government MPs have given up and gone home. Except we, the taxpayers, are still paying for them to run the country.
Shorten slams the 'part-time Parliament'
It is true people don't pay so much attention to what happens in the Parliament these days as they once did.But Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke both gave great speeches, when pressing the government on Thursday afternoon.
Shorten began:
"Australians are outraged that this government is too scared to turn up to Parliament, with the Parliament just sitting — after it rises next week — for 10 days in the next eight months. The rest of Australia doesn't get to take months and months off work when it feels scared about coming to work, so why is the Prime Minister insisting on a part-time Parliament?Meanwhile, Burke observed:
"I have wondered what would happen to members of the CFMEU if they ran an industrial action campaign and proposed this in the lunch shed one morning: 'I have a great idea. Let's only go to work for 10 days in the next eight months.' They would probably be sacked. Indeed, this government would like to put them in jail. But it's one standard for the Morrison ministry and another standard for the workers of Australia.
"The part-time parliament, however, points to a bigger issue. This is a government that has simply ceased to govern. Not only have they given up governing but they have given up pretending to govern. They have no agenda and no legislation. They are just being swept along by the currents of hate and division in the river that is the government coalition ranks."
"For the first time since 1901, the Parliament is planning to sit for only 10 days in an eight-month period. A lot of the debate has been, 'Maybe that's because they're scared of the numbers on the floor of the parliament,' but we're missing the other point: every time the parliament meets, the party room meets ...
"I can understand why they want to reduce the number of party room meetings between now and the election."
Morrison attacks Labor in return
The Prime Minister, as he keeps doing, responded by attacking Labor for being cocky — as if it was all Labor's doing that the government is in such trouble — and stretched his talking points out for the allotted time to attack Labor, and talk about unemployment … which may well be on his mind.Keep in mind that this is the same Coalition which brought cardboard cut-outs of then prime minister Kevin Rudd into the House in February 2008, expressing outrage about his absence from the House. But also keep in mind the circumstances of this incident: Rudd had moved to have the House sit an extra day each sitting week — on Fridays — to get through more work.
The threat is now coming from a new direction
Something feels like it has snapped in Canberra this week. Years of sometimes bizarre rhetoric from the right of the Coalition — arguments about how it was going to lose because of the threat from the right and One Nation, about how it was in trouble because it had moved too far to the "left" — have fallen silent.No-one is talking about the threat from the right and One Nation just now.
While the government insists there are no lessons from the repeated wallopings it has been receiving in federal and state elections and by-elections, the threat is from the centre ground of politics, a place to which the Coalition appears to have lost the coordinates.
Laura Tingle is 7.30's chief political correspondent.
Farmer fights off 12-metre tall flames as bushfire threatened his home and mango trees
Updated
A central Queensland farmer spent six hours fighting
off an intense bushfire with flames up to 12 metres high to protect his
crop and home north of Rockhampton.
Key points:
- 'Ferocious' fires threatened Jeff Pershouse's 1,000 mango trees and crops
- Jeff and local firefighters worked for hours to keep the flames at bay
- His wife says he is a 'hero' but doesn't think the emotional toll has hit him yet
Jeff Pershouse managed to save 1,000 mango trees and other small vegetable crops at his farm near The Caves after putting a call out for help on Facebook, when his calls to triple zero initially went unanswered.
He said after an hour about 30 locals and rural firefighters came to his aid.
"It was just ferocious — travelling at high speeds and just uncontrollable," he said.
Photo:
Jeff Pershouse says he could've been 'fried' by the massive flames. (ABC News: Alice Roberts)
"I've lived here 50 years and never seen fire in those parts of the mountain before.
"There's nothing much you could do to stop them and if you were in the way, you're going to get fried."Mr Pershouse has barely slept in days and continues to patrol the fire breaks on his property to ensure no further fires start.
"Yesterday was pretty bad, even after the fires there was a lot of whirly winds and swirling winds — it would be very easy for an ember or a spark to fly over the other side of the firebreak and go again so I'll keep an eye out," he said.
Karen Pershouse said her husband had to go to hospital after he "landed on a tree stalk at 2:30am yesterday putting out spot fires".
"He fought that fire from 3.45pm through to 10.30pm that night, I don't know how he did it.
"The emotional toll hasn't hit him yet I don't think.
"He is a quiet, proud guy who won't blow his own trumpet but he is our hero."
Residents in the nearby township of The Caves were ordered to evacuate on Wednesday evening after a fast-moving fire made its way towards the area.
Firefighters managed to contain the blaze on Thursday morning but conditions worsened by the afternoon, with evacuations in the area taking place again.
"I think we're all at the moment a bit relieved no one's been seriously hurt or lost any major property at the moment," Mr Pershouse said.
"I got 1,000 mango trees so I could have lost every one of them. We've got two houses on the property and the shed so we could have lost all of that potentially.
"[I've got] a lot of gratitude — we just saw everyone turning up and helping out, so yeah the more hands the more chance you've got of controlling it."
Queensland Fire and Emergency Service is currently asking residents of The Caves to stay informed as hot dry conditions continue to impact the area.
Queensland bushfires see Sarina residents woken in fright and ordered to flee in darkness
Updated
Residents of Sarina Beach in north Queensland have
described the terror of being woken in the middle of the night by
authorities banging on their doors ordering them to flee their homes in
the face of a fast-moving, ferocious bushfire.
Key points:
- Several north Queensland communities have been "traumatised" by the fire emergency
- Sarina Beach residents recall a frantic early morning doorknock
- A Pioneer Valley cane farmer saved their home with just water buckets
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) issued an emergency alert about 2:00am (AEST) on Thursday, advising residents of Sarina Beach and Campwin Beach to leave immediately, with a bushfire expected to impact the community within 30 minutes.
Thomas Ritchie said he would have slept through the fire if authorities had not banged on his door.
"They were slamming it saying, 'Evacuate, evacuate'," he said.
"So we've got into the car, we've reversed out and all you could see was the fire from up on the hill all over the road and as we were coming down it was jumping across the road."
Residents have since been able to return to their homes and said it was a miracle none were lost.
Mackay Regional Council said it was setting up community recovery centres and providing counselling to traumatised residents as emergency services continued to battle five major fire fronts in the region and worked to restore power to some areas.
Mayor Greg Williamson said the Department of Communities was flying 20 staff into Mackay to assist, and recovery centres would be set up in Mirani, Sarina and in the Mackay CBD.
"There's a couple of very, very traumatised communities," he said.
"Sarina Beach and Campwin Beach, just imagine sleeping in your bed, knocking at your door at three o'clock in the morning and the police saying you've got five minutes to get out, get your kids and go."And they couldn't go anywhere except onto the beach and watch the fire rage.
"We have communities at Crediton, at Eungella and Dalrymple Heights, they can't get back to their homes at the moment."
Vicky Chrichton said she was sound asleep when she got the knock on her door.
"I thought I was dreaming and the next minute I realised it was someone bashing on my front door," she said.
"Some random guy — and he was just screaming at me, 'Get out, get out, evacuate'."
Ms Chrichton said it was orange outside, with trees exploding and embers flying everywhere.
"I went and grabbed my kids' portraits off the walls and that was it, they were in the car and we had no time for anything else," she said.
"We're going to come back to nothing, that's what we thought."
Buckets saved home from 'fire tornado'
Jenny Ward's cane farm at Netherdale in the Pioneer Valley, west of Mackay, was devastated by fire.But her house, shed and most of the farming equipment were saved.
"Devastation … everything's just black. And it was so quick," she said.
Ms Ward said she could not get home from work and her family called triple zero for help as "fire tornadoes" approached.
But the fire trucks did not arrive and they had to use buckets to save their home themselves.
"Looking around us, I am absolutely amazed they saved the house and the shed over here because you can see where the flames had been up the shed wall," she said.
"And all they had was buckets because by that stage the power had gone out, the power poles had been burnt down.
"We're not on town water and all they had was a little cement tank full of water and buckets."
Ms Ward said they had crop insurance and were still tallying how much they had lost.
"You look at what [the fire] has done to trees and you wonder if any of it has survived," she said.
In surrounding areas, farmers used hand tools and buckets as they desperately tried to save their properties.
Marty Bella described how he and other landholders were "hit by a firestorm" as they tried to backburn and create firebreaks at Koumala, south of Mackay.
"We had fire spirals and a couple of us got cut off on the other side of it," he said."Looked like we had to run to the creek about a kilometre away but [luckily] the wind changed."
He said the group used hand tools to create firebreaks in areas that could not be accessed by heavy machinery.
"We had a dozen people up there with rakes and shovels … that's all we had. You couldn't get anything up, it's like climbing up your wall," he said.
'I had a joey in the car'
Wildlife carer Glenda Fletcher said she only had a moment's notice to evacuate her home at Netherdale when an emergency declaration was made for the Finch Hatton fire on Tuesday afternoon."I had no idea that there was a problem because I don't have a computer, I don't have Facebook … the cop turned up and told me to get out," she said.
"I had a joey in the car and said I had creatures in the house and wanted to come back and get them and he said, 'Go now'."Ms Fletcher said she was upset at having to leave behind two possums and seven birds but understood the urgency of the situation as she could see huge flames from the house.
She was able to return home later that night to find the house still standing and just one bird missing.
"I've been through cyclones and give me a cyclone anytime because fires are just totally unpredictable and extremely scary," she said.
Queensland bushfire crisis escalates at Eungella and Broken River in state's north
Updated
Residents in the path of a large fire in north
Queensland have been urged to seek shelter immediately as conditions
worsened rapidly late on Friday afternoon.
Key points:
- Authorities warn the fire approaching Broken River could have 'life-threatening impact'
- The two men arrested over alleged arson are not connected to the Stanwell emergency, police say
- Frustrations are growing among people evacuated from fire zones who are not allowed back to their homes
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) said shortly before dark it was too late for residents of Broken River, west of Mackay, to leave the area.
QFES warned the fire threatened to have "a life-threatening impact on the community".
"Conditions are now very dangerous and firefighters are unable to prevent the fire advancing," a QFES spokesperson said.
"The fire poses a threat to all lives directly in its path. Fire crews may not be able to protect your property."
QFES warned power, water, and mobile phone services may soon be lost and driving would be "extremely dangerous".
Residents who had left nearby Dalrymple Heights for Eungella were urged to return home and seek shelter as it was unsafe to travel.
Just before dusk, a CQ Rescue helicopter evacuated a group of women and children from Eungella, and delivered them to nearby Finch Hatton.
Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson said the situation had escalated quickly, but that there were 30 to 40 people who had not left the area.
"It's turned into quite a grim situation, there is a fear that we will lose buildings in the area," he said.
"The fire is roaring up to the ramp at Eungella, it's turned quite grim quite fast this afternoon and it just shows how these things, how dynamic they are, and this fire that's been escalating for the last couple of days has just turned nasty on us."
A 737 water bomber was sent to Eungella on Friday afternoon to slow the fire's advance.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the situation was "unfolding".
"People are safe, they are in the community centre," she said.
"We have equipment and appliances there, we have some aerial water bombing taking place."
State disaster coordinator Bob Gee urged people in the Eungella area to listen to advice from authorities.
"It's a rapidly changing environment, but we have rapidly changing attack plans," he said.
Fires have been burning in the region for days and the warning includes the Finch Hatton, Eungella, and Crediton areas.
QFES Commissioner Katarina Carroll said as of Friday evening there were still 113 fires burning across the state.
"The heatwave is still continuing, the sea breezes are coming in the next couple of days which will present obviously further challenges."
"The message from all of us really is, please don't be complacent."
Two men arrested for arson
The latest emergency comes after two men were arrested for arson as authorities continue to battle extreme conditions and more than 114 fires across the state.Mr Gee said police arrested a 26-year-old man on Thursday for attempting to light a fire in Rockhampton.
He said the fire was not connected to the nearby blaze at Stanwell that prompted the mass evacuation of Gracemere, south of Rockhampton, on Wednesday.
Friday afternoon, police then arrested a 27-year-old man for arson over a fire at Port Curtis, east of Gracemere.
Mr Gee described the offences as "incredibly serious".
"Now, both of these incidents, the offenders were arrested very, very quickly, due to the public coming forward," he said.
"I've got to stress the point that neither of these incidences are related to the Stanwell fire.
"Both resulting fires were small and both were put out quickly and, indeed, the arrests were also made soon after the alleged offences were reported.
"If you commit these sorts of offences in this environment where police and the public and the community are working together, the chances of you being caught are very, very, very high."
Frustration grows for hundreds of people
The arrests come as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Friday afternoon the creation of the Queensland Bushfire Appeal, to which she committed $125,000 in state funding.
"We need to help people. Organisations such as Give It, the Salvation Army, Lifeline and others are going to partner with us, so, please, I need Queenslanders to dig deep," she said.
Speaking in the town of Miriam Vale, Ms Palaszczuk also called for patience from people displaced from the Deepwater fire zone south of Gladstone, as frustration grows for hundreds of people not yet allowed to return home.
"It is deeply distressing … we're going to make sure that the residents here can come to Miriam Vale and twice a day get regular updates," the Premier said.
"We're going to see if one of the firefighters who have been out on the field on their way home can just drop in and talk about what they've been dealing with."
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katarina Carroll pleaded with people in the fire zones to "please bear with us".
She said it was not yet clear when people with homes inside the Deepwater fire zone would be allowed to return to their properties.
"We have experienced what is the unimaginable — catastrophic conditions have never, ever been experienced in this state, and it has certainly been a challenging time," Commissioner Carroll said.
"It may not be the fact that you will be going home today or tomorrow, but you need to know what is happening, and when those decisions may come closer."
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