Member for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly says there is "no doubt" climate change is causing the conditions that generate mega disasters like the current fire crisis.
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"We need the Prime Minister and this government to take seriously the climate change dynamic in all of this because the projections going forward from here mean that we will only be facing worse conditions in the future," he said.
Since the 1970s, he said, the fire season was 19 per cent longer and the Climate Council had estimated Australia will need double the number of firefighters it had by 2030.
The current conditions had been projected, he said, and "unconstrained climate change will make this country uninhabitable in the long term".
Dr Kelly was speaking when visiting Quaama last week with NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay after recovering from a personal medical crisis.
His comments were in contrast to those of Liberal Senator Jim Molan on ABC's Q&A bushfire special on Monday night, where he said he was "not relying on evidence" when it came to keeping an open mind on whether or not climate change was human-induced.
Dr Kelly and Ms McKay also announced their support for traditional burning methods, with the latter saying in the lead up to the last election Labor supported a traditional burning program as "it works".
"Certainly we have to come up with solutions of how to do hazard reduction in the much-narrower window that we have to do that these days with the effects of climate change," Dr Kelly added.
But he warned against using hazard reduction as a "smoke screen" for disguising the climate change issues and policy that needed to be put in place.
"That is the first order of business. As we've heard from [NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner] Shane Fitzsimmons and all of the experts, a lot of hazard reduction would not have helped us in this current mega disaster crisis," he said.
"It is important to do, particularly around population centres and to miminise the risk, but it isn't the answer to a mega disaster like this."
Despite stating their support for traditional burning, with Member for Bega Andrew Constance also announcing his support for the practice on Monday's Q&A program, on the same episode traditional knowledge consultant Victor Steffensen said he had not been approached by any state or federal politicians looking to support such methods.
On Q&A Mr Steffensen, who has been teaching traditional fire methods to the next generation, was also asked what he would say to the authorities about what traditional burning practitioners could do ahead of next summer.
"I would say jump in the passenger's seat and let us drive for a change," he said.
"And when you're in the passenger seat of the car, that means we don't leave you behind."
Dr Kelly also claimed he called "very early in the piece" for a greater mobilisation of defence force resources in combating the bushfire threat.
"Frankly, that should have happened quicker," he said.
"What we need to do now is to think through the fact that that's going to be quite a regular feature of the mega disasters that we face.
"We saw during this crisis disconnect between the federal government and Shane Fitzsimmons at the local level - that's unacceptable."
Last month when visiting Bega Brigadier Mick Garraway, commander of the state's Australian Defence Force (ADF) deployment, rejected any assertion the ADF was not deployed early enough during the emergency as well as the idea of actively using troops in bushfire prevention.
Albert McKnight
Journalist at Bega District News.
Journalist at Bega District News.
