Coalition policies blamed for bushfires

firefighters fighting bushfires in Australia

Scott Morrison has denied his climate change policy has anything to do with Australia’s already tragic bushfire season, saying nothing he could have done would have made a difference, report The New Daily.

“I am up for taking action on it, not just jabbering on about it,” he told ABC radio.

“But I think to suggest, with just 1.3 per cent of global emissions, that Australia doing something differently, more or less, would have changed the fire outcome this season; I don’t think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all.

“The suggestion in any way, shape or form, that … the individual actions of Australia are impacting directly on specific fire events, whether it is here or anywhere else in the world; that doesn’t bear up to credible scientific evidence either.”

The PM was responding to former NSW fire chief Greg Mullins, who said that Australia could have been better prepared for the current bushfire crisis if the Morrison government had followed advice from emergency leaders.

Twice this year, Mr Mullins had written to Mr Morrison, warning him of the coming bushfire season and requesting an urgent meeting to discuss funding for firefighting and action to address climate change.

“In a nutshell, it has been difficult and the Prime Minister has seen fit not to meet with us,” Mr Mullins told ABC’s Radio National.

Mr Morrison said the government was taking action on climate change rather than “jabbering about it”.

“We like taking action on climate change, that is what we like doing. We have got our commitments for Kyoto 2020. Remember, they are the commitments that were put in place to deal with the global climactic conditions that we are experiencing right now. We not only lived up to those commitments for next year but we will beat them by 367 million tonnes,” Mr Morrison said.

“If anything, Australia is an overachiever on our global commitments and for 2030 we will meet those as well with the mechanisms we have put in place.”

Mr Morrison admitted to a possible link between climate change and bushfires, but said Australia’s action alone would not reduce global warming, and that Australia was well prepared for the bushfires ahead.

“This is advice we already have from existing fire chiefs doing the existing job,” he said.

“This is why we put the additional resources into our emergency services and our aviation firefighting assets.

“These are things that were very well known to the government. I mean, it’s the contribution of these issues to global weather conditions and to conditions here in Australia are known and acknowledged. And so we were getting on with the job of preparing for what is already being a very devastating fire season.”

“I mean, in February I acknowledged the contribution of those factors to what was happening in Australia, amongst many other issues.”

FirstPrev12(page 2/2)
16 comments

A lot of bushfires have started in National Parks which are not cleared with fire breaks at all. They don't even clear grass away from edges of roads or tracks that they expect people to use to enjoy the park. They seem to wait for the fires to escape it before they attempt to extinguish it. Sometimes as a result of that they can be uncontrollable for anything up to 3 weeks + There was a bad one started in SA one year during the Tour Down Under. They had all of the water bombers on standby in case one started in that area. Meanwhile the fire had burnt all the way around a huge reservoir. By the time it got into farmland it was completely out of control. The Councils warm people about clearing undergrowth from their properties and tell them they will incur a fine if they don't. They don't clear the dry grass  on road edges at all.

A lot of bushfires have started in National Parks which are not cleared with fire breaks at all. They don't even clear grass away from edges of roads or tracks that they expect people to use to enjoy the park. They seem to wait for the fires to escape it before they attempt to extinguish it. Sometimes as a result of that they can be uncontrollable for anything up to 3 weeks + There was a bad one started in SA one year during the Tour Down Under. They had all of the water bombers on standby in case one started in that area. Meanwhile the fire had burnt all the way around a huge reservoir. By the time it got into farmland it was completely out of control. The Councils warm people about clearing undergrowth from their properties and tell them they will incur a fine if they don't. They don't clear the dry grass  on road edges at all.

FirstPrev12(page 2/2)
16 comments



To make a comment, please register or login

Preview your comment