The state's agriculture minister expects the NSW bushfire inquiry will consider the use of cattle in national parks as a fire-prevention tactic when it hands down its recommendations late next month.
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And Adam Marshall, who is the MP for the badly-burnt Northern Tablelands electorate, revealed he personally wrote a submission to the inquiry calling for the state to adapt a 'nil tenure' approach to public lands.
A "nil tenure" approach would mean imposing the same rules for bushfire management in National Parks, Crown Lands, the Forestry Corporation and all other government-owned land.
"That's certainly the submission I made to the inquiry, yes," he said.
"Whether that happens that will be a matter for government to consider after the inquiry reports back.
"But it's certainly that's something that I think is very worthy of consideration."
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Mr Marshall has been campaigning to permit the use of cattle in national parks as a bushfire mitigation tactic since the fires went out.
He said he is "very confident" the NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry will consider the idea.
"I'm hoping that the report does come down on the side of if not implementing it, at least trialing it or having an analysis of it," he said.
"I'm very confident that [the mitigation tactic] will be successful because it is being implemented and is being successful in other jurisdictions.
"I don't see that it would be any different in NSW."
The NSW government included the controversial proposal in a submission to the Commonwealth Royal Commission into the bushfire crisis, which Mr Marshall said shows the state is "interested in exploring" the idea further.
Cattle can already graze in parts of three NSW National Parks, and are used to reduce fuel loads in the ACT.
"We owe it to all the people that have lost their homes, their dwellings, unfortunately, loved ones to really make some significant changes in the way that we manage public land and try and manage fuel loads in the future," Mr Marshall said.
"To me, this is not the silver bullet but it has to be one of those things that we do."
In an interview in March, Mr Marshall said closing the National Parks and Wildlife service and amalgamating all state government land managers into a single super-agency "should" be considered as an option to fight future bushfires. He said that would help root out a silo mentality within government.
But cabinet colleague Environment Minister Matt Kean last year condemned the idea of allowing cattle into the state's national parks as "ridiculous".
Nature Conservation Council Communications Manager James Tremain also condemned the idea, saying the bushfire mitigation strategy has been proven not to work.
"This is an example of how bereft of original ideas the National Party is," he said.
"Every time that there's a bushfire, every time there's a drought, you can guarantee they'll come up with the same worn old idea.
"It seeks to distract regional communities from the real challenges that we're facing, and that is, dealing with climate change.
"If you've got a problem with drought, deal with climate change."
