Tim Holmes (not pictured) and his wife Tammy (second from left) huddled under a jetty for three hours with their grandchildren while their hometown in Tasmania was destroyed by wildfires. Photograph: Tim Holmes/AP Guardian fire report here
Today, photography is the only art that seriously maintains this attention to the stuff that matters. Just look (as the world is looking) at this week’s incredible photographs of a family surviving a wild fire in Tasmania. Here is the human creature, vulnerable and heroic. Jonathan Jones on Art, The Guardian here
• 7.30 Report: The Holmes family tell the story
• Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: Tasmanian tourism open for business, YouTube, here
• TFGA says hay OK; now it’s grain
• Greens: Tribute to Victorian firefighter
• The Australian: Fire clean-up contract generates storm of protest
MATTHEW DENHOLM
The Australian
15 January 2013
CONTRACTORS in fire-ravaged areas of Tasmania are furious the state government has given the main contract for cleaning their devastated towns to a single company, without a tender process.
Premier Lara Giddings defended the decision to award the work to Hazell Bros without a competitive tender, saying it was vital to ensuring a quick start to the clean-up.
• Examiner: Government unsure of clean-up cost
By DINAH ARNDT
14 Jan 2013
The cost to Tasmanian taxpayers of the state government’s promise to clean up the mess left by recent bushfires remains a mystery.
Premier Lara Giddings yesterday said she was still not in a position to say how much it would cost the government to carry out the promised clean-up, or how it would be paid for.
