And they took their news from a statement saying the same thing from the NSW Police.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/australia/australia-fires-police-action-trnd/index.html

https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news_article?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGODIyNjQuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D

EDIT

The figure included statistics from some states covering the entirety of 2019, rather than just the current bushfire season, which began in September. In Victoria, 43 alleged arsonists were counted among the 183 arrested “in the past few months” and “since the start of the bushfire season”. That Victorian figure was, in fact, the figure for the year ending September 2019, meaning it had no relation to the current bushfire season. “There is currently no intelligence to indicate that the fires in East Gippsland and the North East have been caused by arson or any other suspicious behaviour,” a Victoria police spokeswoman said.

The reported figure of 183 also includes 101 individuals from Queensland who were “picked up for setting fires in the bush”. But a Queensland police spokeswoman said the figure included a broader range of offences than arson, including the breaching of total fire bans, and was not a total of arrests, but a total of “police enforcement actions”. “Enforcement action includes charging, restorative justice or cautioning,” she said. Queensland police said between 10 September and 8 January there had been 1,068 reported bushfires in the state, of which 114 had been deliberately or maliciously lit through human involvement and have been subject to police enforcement action. The Australian subsequently updated its story to say the figure covered people “arrested since the start of 2019”.

Victoria police said they were investigating a suspiciously lit fire in Euroa on 4 January, which burned through a large area of land but damaged no properties. Its cause remained unknown. NSW police statistics show 24 individuals have been arrested for deliberately lighting bushfires during the current fire season.

But a Rural Fire Service spokesman told Sky News on Wednesday that the majority of the larger fires in the state were caused by lightning, and that arson was a relatively small source of ignition. Arsonists have been responsible for some of the bushfires this season – though specific numbers are not yet available. There is also no doubt that arson remains a serious problem in Australia, particularly during heightened periods of fire danger. Arsonists have been responsible for some of Australia’s worst fires, including a fire that killed 10 people on Black Saturday in 2009.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/08/police-contradict-claims-spread-online-exaggerating-arsons-role-in-australian-bushfires

The only value he has is money and lots and lots of it in obscene amounts. He has been responsible for no end of human suffering thanks to the harmful lies and propaganda broadcast by Fox and published in his newspapers all over the world.

This arsonist excuse so beloved by deniers could not be more wrong. I live on a hay farm in the Four Corners which has been suffering from drought along with the rest of the SouthWest for almost 20 years now. Everything is dry, dry, dry even now that it's winter. We have had a couple of mere dustings of snow and that's it. We also have had about 6 small grass fires since the beginning of November (highly unusual for us). One was started by someone who threw a lit cigarette out the car window. Another was caused by sparks from a poorly maintained utility line. Yet another was caused by a lightning strike.

If I wanted to - which I most certainly don't - I could go out to the edge of the fields behind my house and light the extremely dry sage and rabbit brush on fire with the strike of a single match and then heaven help us all. The ease with which people can start a fire in times of extreme drought only points to the seriousness of the conditions caused by global warming. It most certainly is NOT evidence that global warming does not exist.

who came into my store today. He and his family shop all the time. I asked him if he had family back in Australia and, if so, how were they doing. He said they were not yet affected as they were about 30 miles away from any fires. He then immediately said, "it's not from global warming. They've already arrested several people for arson." I just left it alone, cuz I certainly didn't want to argue with one of my best customers.

but were intrigued by the "Lord"

https://skepticalscience.com/Monckton_Myths_arg.htm