David Templeman, the former executive director of Emergency Management Australia, said the 2019-20 bushfire season played out exactly as predicted despite warnings from agencies like the Bureau of Meteorology.

Current Emergency Management Australia director-general Robert Cameron told a Senate inquiry this week last season's forecast "was dire and was characterised as dire in every instance".

"In fact, the language I used in pretty much every briefing I gave ahead of last summer was ... I talked about 'dire fire'," Mr Cameron said.

Mr Templeman said "certain senior leaders" needed to be educated about listening to experts within the public service.

"I think there are certainly lessons that have come out of what happened in January, it will have to be really gone over and really made sure there is no lack of understanding and lack of communication," he said.

"It's a matter of listening to the experts. It's not a matter of political people weighing into it and determining it without having consulted other people and things like this, you rely on these people, their experience in this area, and they can do their job effectively and they'll get on with it, and make the appropriate recommendations for politicians to understand and let the operation proceed."

Mr Templeman said there appeared to be promising signs of change with the federal government's response to the coronavirus crisis.

"We have seen real action in this situation more recently when we've seen the chief health officers step up and really give good quality scientific advice, medical advice to political leaders and they've had to listen to and acknowledge and they have done so," Mr Templeman said.

"I want to see more of this happen within the bureaucracy, where we really continue to use the talents of the bureaucracy."

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Mr Templeman's comments came after former NSW fire chief Greg Mullins told a parliamentary inquiry public servants were self-censoring on climate change to avoid angering their political masters.

Mr Mullins said he was chastised by his minister after linking Victoria's Black Saturday bushfires to climate change.

"One of the things I'll put to you is when I was commissioner I was constrained in talking about climate change because it was very inconvenient to some politicians," Mr Mullins said.

"As a public servant I was required to stay within policy boundaries and not comment on policies and I had this drawn to my attention in no uncertain manner during one set of fires in particular."

Former Department of Human Services secretary Renee Leon also unloaded on the government, alleging it was "sick of experts".

She said a growing number of ministers regarded independent advice from the public service as an affront if it did not align with their views.

"We have seen an attack on expertise in the last decade where to be an expert was almost to be reviled for being part of an elite of people," Ms Leon said.

"I think some ministers have not understood that it is perfectly all right for them to get advice from the public service and disagree with it, but they ought to get the advice.

"There are [some] who see it as an affront to their ego if you don't agree with them all the time. And of course they are much more difficult to work with because of the fear that you will offend them and pay the price."

Both Mr Templeman and Mr Mullins are set to speak at the National Bushfire and Climate Summit 2020 on Tuesday.

The inaugural summit will bring together former fire and emergency chiefs, ex-defence personnel, Indigenous experts, and climate scientists to look at how Australia can respond to the growing risk of bushfires due to climate change.