This week I've been following the Royal Commission into National Natural Disasters Arrangement ('bushfires') and the Senate Inquiry into lessons learned. What's been said so far and what does all this mean for the future? Some of my own thoughts:

2019 was extreme - hottest and driest on record for Australia and the fire season was catastrophic in terms of length, duration, spatial extent, severity and impact.

Many factors contributed to the climate extremes, including large scale natural drivers and human caused climate change. These extreme events are becoming more extreme and more frequent because of climate change.

The impacts of the fires were and remain horrific - lives, homes and livelihoods lost, decades of trauma laid down, swathes of landscape scorched and millions of animals killed.

The bushfire smoke alone is linked to 445 deaths, thousands of hospitalisations and a $2billion economic hit. 80% of Australian were impacted over summer and the health implications for our children will also play out for decades.

In Canberra, unhealthy bushfire smoke passed through the hospital air-conditioning units and into wards and surgical theatres, contaminating equipment and the neonatal care unit.

Both inquiries have heard about the predictability of this unprecedented season. There is a clear trend in worsening fire weather and extreme heat and seasonal outlooks showed 2019/20 to be exceptional well before it commenced.

I think my family had about 2 weeks of "normal" life (commuting, working in the office, doing the daycare drop off) between summer and COVID worries. Then we all listened to the experts, learned about curve flattening, hand hygiene, social distancing and zoom meetings.

In Canberra, remote learning flexibility saw herds of kids with balls, bikes and on foot outside and connecting with the environment after a harsh summer without the pool and without the beach.

And now as our children return to schools and we start to discuss transitioning back to our office? Not even 3 months since the last fire in NSW was extinguished (after 240 days of burning), we are being encouraged to a gas led recovery.

That's more fossil fuels for our children, more fires, more heat, more excess deaths. Our children have grappled with two crises in 6 months, they deserve better from us.