Sometimes when I write these essays (or whatever they are), I find it difficult to not type with my fists as my rage is almost insuperable. This one hasn’t made it any easier. Our feckless Prime Minister Scott Mutebutton (sorry, Freudian slip, I meant Morrison) has again tried to reimagine history much like he did when trying to cover up his urging of Cabinet to use community fear of Muslims for political advantage1.
Now, as if to try to outdo himself, he has stated something that is patently untrue, but not a surprise. He said that “There is no dispute in this country about the issue of climate change, globally, and its effect on global weather patterns, and that includes how that impacts in Australia … I have to correct the record here, I have seen a number of people suggest that somehow the government does not make this connection. The government has always made this connection and that has never been in dispute.”2 This is probably one of the greatest lies ever told by Morrison. To say that the government has always ‘believed’ in climate change is such an obvious and easily demonstrated lie, it is hard to imagine what was going through Morrison’s head when he made the statement. I think it simply indicates how desperate Morrison is to avoid any semblance of blame for the disaster the nation now faces.
To demonstrate how far Morrison’s assertion is from the truth I’ll start with him and continue with a few of his colleagues:
Scott Morrison (Liberal, Cook) brought a lacquered lump of coal into parliament given to him by the climate change denying Minerals Council. As Katharine Murphy from the Guardian said: “The coal was produced as a totem of how the government in Canberra was going to keep the lights on, and keep power prices low, and stop the relentless march of socialism, or prevent random thought crimes against base-load power stations.”3 This was an appalling thing to do and demonstrates Morrison’s lack of political nous. I suspect it will turn out to be the only image for which he is remembered, and that seems entirely appropriate.
Craig Kelly (Liberal, Hughes) is a foaming at the mouth climate change denier. He has said that renewable energy will kill people, and that sea level is not rising4. He also stated that coral atolls float on the ocean, so any sea level rise would not be a problem. He also maintained that the Australian Broadcasting Commission was withholding ‘crucial information’ on climate change5. For his stupidity, Kelly was on the verge of losing preselection for his seat, but Morrison stepped in and saved him6.
Celia Hammond (Liberal, Curtin) has stated that the effect of humans on the climate is “very minimal” apparently believing that, despite being an academic lawyer, she is better at climate science, than the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO or any other scientific organisation you care to name. As she was an academic lawyer at the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic university, so perhaps believes her god wouldn’t let this happen.
Tony Abbott (Liberal, formerly Waringah), although in parliament no longer, was Prime Minister until he was booted out from the Prime Ministership in favour of Malcolm Turnbull. He is infamous for stating at a Liberal Party dinner in 2009, that he thought climate science was “crap”. Under Abbott’s brief tenure as Prime Minister (the Abbott hilarity), the government repealed the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme which was decreasing emissions quite effectively8, and replaced it with a scheme which has allowed them to start climbing again. The government also decreased the renewable energy target, closed the Climate Council, attempted to close the Climate Change Authority, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and almost completely eradicated the words ‘climate change’ from the Intergenerational Report9. That doesn’t sound like he took account of what science tells us.
Eric Abetz (Liberal, Senate, Tasmania) gave a speech to the Young Liberals in South Australia in 2012 in which he characterised environmental concerns over acid rain, ozone depletion, pesticide use and climate change as “chicken little type hysteria”10. Another religious nutter, perhaps he believes that his god wouldn’t allow any of this to happen
Matthew Canavan (LNP, Senate, Queensland) is clearly a climate change denier, given that he said: “Despite what you might hear in the media—and, indeed, what you heard in this chamber only a short while ago—climate change science has become less certain and gives us less reason to worry since the last major climate conference in Copenhagen six years ago.” While he does acknowledge that carbon dioxide can lead to warming of the atmosphere he believes that it is not going to be a problem because he quotes some climate change deniers to support his beliefs11.
George Christensen (LNP, Dawson) attended a Heartland Institute (ultra-right wing and climate change denial lobby group in the USA) and described concerns over climate change as “hysteria” and calls for action to combat it as like something out of a science fiction film. He has said: “It’s hard to tell the difference between an alarmist claim about global effects and the basic premise of a disaster movie plot. The weather and climate in Australia has not changed in the last century but a new religious interpretation has arisen since then. When we are in a flood, they tell us ‘too much rain is a sign, more hurricanes is a sign, fewer hurricanes is a sign, the sky is blue — it’s a sign. Gravity — it’s a sign’.”12 Of course, any perusal of the data from the last hundred years will show how much the climate has changed.
Peter Dutton (LNP, Dickson) is perhaps best remembered for his joke at the expense of Pacific Islanders, seemingly unaware that that large boom-like thing above his head actually had a microphone at the end of it. His views on climate science are unknown, but given the above gaffe, it seems he does not take it too seriously13.
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (Senate, New South Wales) has stated that she hoped the climate science curriculum would reflect balance if there was a divergence of views in the science. In 2011, she was seemingly oblivious to the satirical nature of a question posed by a member of the audience, who, in part said that climate science ‘was just a theory … like gravity’. The senator replied “If there are two points of view then that is fair enough”. It is difficult to tell if she is simply naïve, or is a climate change denier.14
Alex Hawke (Liberal, Mitchell) has stated that “To say that climate change is human induced is to overblow and overstate our role in the scheme of the universe quite completely over a long period of time. I note that the member for Fraser came in here today with a very strong view about how human beings have been the source of all change in the universe at all times. He has joined a long line of Labor backbenchers I have spoken about in this place before—amateur scientists, wannabe weather readers, people who want to read the weather, people who like to come in here and make the most grandiose predictions about all sorts of scientific matters without even a basic understanding of the periodic table, or the elements or where carbon might be placed on the periodic table. So, the member for Fraser has joined this esteemed group of people who seem to be great authorities on science.” Apart from being temporally incoherent, it is clear that he is a climate change denier. It is also clear that he does not understand irony given that he is complaining about ‘amateur scientists’ when it is many of his colleagues who tell all the climate scientists on the planet that they are wrong.15
Barnaby Joyce (National, New England) probably exemplifies the idiot end of the climate change denialism spectrum better than anyone in parliament except for Craig Kelly. Joyce called climate change “an indulgent and irrelevant debate because, even if climate change turns out to exist one day, we will have absolutely no impact on it whatsoever”. He has also said that he was “always sceptical [that] anybody’s going to change the environment”16. Now he has actually realised that the climate is changing, but, as if to further illustrate his monumental ignorance, he initially blamed the Sun’s magnetic field for climate change (yes, seriously). He said: “There are a range of things that affect the climate and on a global scale, you should be part of it, and acknowledge it would have an effect and I acknowledge that there are other issues as well… There’s just the oscillation of the seasons. There’s a change in the magnetic field of the sun.”17 However, a few weeks later, he blamed his god for it and suggested that if we try to fix it his god would not be happy.18 It is difficult to understand the thought processes behind this abject drivel.
Andrew Laming (LNP, Bowman) seems to believe that since Australia is a relatively small country and has lower total emissions than larger countries (but not low per capita emissions), we should do nothing. He never overtly denies climate science, but his statements indicate that he is a climate change denier12.
Ian Macdonald (LNP, former senator, Queensland) lost his seat in the senate at the 2019 election and has stated in parliament that Australia’s children have been “brainwashed” about human-induced climate change. He said he did not deny the climate was changing. “As I repeatedly say, Australia was once covered in ice. Of course the climate changes.” But he challenged the theory that humans were contributing to this. “This new theory, I refer to it often as a fad or a farce or a hoax, that suddenly since man started the industrial age, a change of climate has happened is just farcical and fanciful.”. The fact that Australia was never ‘covered in ice’, except perhaps 600 million years ago when Australia was much smaller, demonstrates the level of ignorance of Macdonald and his speechwriters19. It is symptomatic of people like him who seem to think science is simply a matter of opinion.
James Paterson (Liberal senator, Victoria) is a member of the Institute of Public Affairs, the ultra-right wing lobbying organisation, which seems to pull the strings in the Liberal Party. It is a stridently opposed to any action to mitigate climate change, because they insist it does not exist. So, that and the way he refers to climate change clearly indicate he is also a denier20,21.
Zed Seselja (Liberal senator, Australian Capital Territory) has one of the worst records of voting in parliament with regard to the environment, and was disappointed when Turnbull toppled Abbott for the leadership of the Liberal Party. Seselja was also a member of the Monkeypod group of ultraconservatives22. Seselja is a big fan of coal, and once said that shutting down the coal industry will “send us back to the caves”. He was against the carbon price, the mining tax and voted against setting national targets for emissions reductions23.
Ann Sudmalis (Liberal, formerly Gilmore) resigned from parliament in 2019 when it would look like she would lose her seat at the May election. She has had this to say about climate change: “It is my belief that every Australian wants to ensure that the planet is a better place for the future, for their children and their grandchildren, but this carbon tax is not the mechanism, as has already been proved. Professor Woodcock (former NASA scientist) also said: ‘Carbon dioxide has been made out to be some kind of toxic gas but the truth is it’s the gas of life. We breathe it out, plants breath it in. The green lobby has created a do-good industry and it becomes a way of life, like a religion. I understand why people defend it when they have spent so long believing in it, people do not like to admit they have been wrong.’ They should have invested in research and development for our planet as there are now new gases impacting on our atmosphere.”24 This is something only a fruitcake or a complete ignoramus would say.
Angus Taylor (Liberal, Hume) has been a long term opponent of the renewable energy target and the renewable energy industry, and has said in parliament: that human-induced climate change is “the new climate religion” and that “religious belief is based on faith not facts. The new climate religion, recruiting disciples every day, has little basis on fact and everything to do with blind faith.” At a ‘wind power fraud’ rally, he stated that he was not a “climate sceptic”25, which is clearly a lie as far as it goes. The epithet ‘climate sceptic’ is what all climate change deniers call themselves, in an attempt to give them some patina of respectability. It is simply polishing a turd.
Alan Tudge (Liberal, Aston) has written that the “greenhouse crusade rests on flawed logic” and rambled on about everything that depended on energy would be shut down. In 2007, he said: “Shut down our coal industry – our children’s wellbeing is at stake! This is the message from Greens’ leader Bob Brown, who argues that because burning coal emits large amounts of greenhouse gases, the coal industry should be shut down within a matter of years. Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has echoed Brown’s position, while Labor’s environment spokesman, Peter Garrett, has also singled out coal, effectively calling for the growth of the industry to be frozen.”26 He is clearly a climate change denier.
Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack (National, Riverina), who has been running around like a headless chicken since the fires first started, and late last year slammed the climate change concerns of many as the “ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies” and that “we’ve had fires in Australia since time began”27. These are common refrains from deniers, that those concerned about climate change are deranged and that this fire season is normal, despite just about everyone agreeing that this is unprecedented and is catastrophic. Subsequently, McCormack was one of those who attempted to blame arsonists for most, or all of the fires28, another tactic used by climate change deniers to attempt to deflect guilt from the government’s lack of action on climate change and its ignoring of warnings that this fire season was likely to be catastrophic.
These are just a few of the reprehensible liars in the government; life is too short to find all the lies from all these liars. What it does demonstrate is that, for Morrison to state that the government has always ‘believed’ the science of climate change is also a disgraceful lie. He clearly thinks that enough of the Australian populace are beneath contempt given that he lies constantly. I suppose that some of the populace think so little about politics that they can be lied to, and their gullibility is such that they do not notice. This technique of Morrison’s is much like that of Trump. Any lie will do to get past the interview or press conference at hand. Many journalists seem to be rather unconcerned about picking Morrison up on his lies. When they do, he gets agitated and annoyed at the journalist, refuses to answer, does not ‘accept the premise’, or ends the interview or press conference. That so many journalists are unconcerned about Morrison’s lies, is because a proportion of them are Murdoch hacks whose main aim is to keep the Coalition government in power. That is why the Murdoch media fulminate against climate scientists at every opportunity, trying to convince the gullible that climate change is only a matter of opinion. In fact, what they are trying to convince the gullible is that the opinion of a group of relatively uneducated Murdoch ignoramuses is just as valid as that of thousands of highly educated climate scientists who have been studying the climate for decades.
Sources
- http://www.blotreport.com/2019/03/24/morrison-reimagines-history/
- https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/118596151/climate-change-led-here-australian-pm-scott-morrison-says-amid-bushfire-crisis
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/09/scott-morrison-brings-coal-to-question-time-what-fresh-idiocy-is-this
- http://www.blotreport.com/2018/05/03/is-craig-kelly-the-dumbest-parliamentarian/
- http://www.blotreport.com/2019/09/09/yes-craig-kelly-is-the-dumbest-parliamentarian/
- http://www.blotreport.com/2018/12/02/turnbull-punts-morrison/
- http://www.blotreport.com/2019/03/19/more-liberal-climate-change-denial/
- http://www.blotreport.com/2019/02/25/when-a-climate-policy-isnt/
- https://reneweconomy.com.au/tony-abbott-doesnt-believe-in-climate-change-his-business-advisor-says-77562/
- https://www.desmogblog.com/2013/10/09/australia-s-new-prime-minister-surrounded-climate-science-denying-voices-and-advisors
- http://www.mattcanavan.com.au/climate_change_science_is_uncertain
- https://www.crikey.com.au/2015/11/04/meet-the-govt-climate-sceptics-who-have-turnbull-by-the-shortncurlies/
- https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/immigration-minister-peter-dutton-caught-joking-about-the-effect-of-climate-change-on-pacific-islands-20150911-gjkf0z.html
- https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/activism-cattle-and-katter/10662760
- https://www.alexhawke.com.au/node/787
- https://reneweconomy.com.au/barnaby-joyce-nails-abbott-govt-climate-scepticism-to-the-mast-58166/
- http://www.blotreport.com/2019/11/16/barnabys-lost-marbles/
- http://www.blotreport.com/2019/12/27/there-goes-another-marble/
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/16/liberal-senator-ian-macdonald-says-children-brainwashed-on-climate-change
- https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/institute-of-public-affairs-the-think-tank-with-arms-everywhere-20160406-gnzlhq.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2017/aug/26/institute-of-public-affairs-paper-claim-global-warming-natural-junk-science
- http://www.blotreport.com/2018/08/23/the-abbott-crusade/
- https://www.buzzfeed.com/aliceworkman/dirty-dozen?utm_term=.wwL8r9e6aX#.ialDOjLAwv
- https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2Fdb5f6838-aac3-4986-a738-656c5facebf6%2F0024%22
- https://reneweconomy.com.au/pollie-watch-angus-taylor-liberal-renewable-energy-59689/
- http://junksciencearchive.com/feb07.html
- https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/raving-inner-city-lunatics-michael-mccormack-dismisses-link-between-climate-change-and-bushfires-20191111-p539ap.html
- http://www.blotreport.com/2020/01/05/who-to-blame/
SCUMMO MORRISCUM is not only s habitual liar but he is a total fuckwit to boot. His support for proven charlatans and pedophile protectors should be more than sufficient for all to shun him, including the weldeds-on. It is an indictment on the sheeple that ANYONE still takes this grub seriously.
YM,
You don’t have to convince me. I am constantly appalled by Morrison.
Don’t forget the highly obnoxious Michaelia Cash, who, by just one of her many ridiculous statements said:
“We are going to stand by our tradies and we are going to save their utes,”
Even the SMH reported that this was, “The absurd fear campaign about electric cars hit a new level of utter shamelessness”.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-fear-campaign-about-electric-cars-has-hit-a-new-level-of-utter-shamelessness-20190409-p51ch8.html
Gordon,
Yeah, I had a go at these muppets when they hit the headlines with their stupidity. http://www.blotreport.com/2019/04/09/the-profound-stupidity-of-michaelia-cash/
Minister Spud has been surprisingly quiet.
As the Prime Monster’s feet and legs in mouth problems continue, Spud may pounce.
I’m hoping the MPs named in the following article will change things. Hoping.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/01/10/liberal-deniers-hold-morrison-to-ransom/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Saturday%20News%20-%2020200111
Warren,
I don’t think Morrison is being held to ransom by the deniers; he is one of them himself. The headline in this piece uses an oxymoron of ‘sane Liberals’ I really don’t think there are any left.
These creeps only know one thing. Which side their bread is buttered on. By the way admin, you could add the mayor of Kangaroo Island, Michael Pengilly, former state Liberal MP, to this list. Despite admitting that the island has never had fires like the ones it is experiencing, despite the extent of the disaster, despite the CFS and the BoM stating that the fires have been made much worse by climatic conditions (climate change), despite the heat and dryness that all of us in SA have seen, that is getting worse and is obviously climate change driven, he still, proudly, says that he does not believe that there is such a thing. Goose.
Mark,
I have already had a go at Pengilly (on Twitter). It seems he received so much grief over that idiotic comment, he had to change or lock his Twitter account.
It is an incredible and arrogant parochialism that spawns such magnificent and proud denial of virtually the rest of the world. We have surpassed ourselves in delusional disregard of scientific conclusions and now wiggle our burnt arses to the rest of the world declaring “ youse know nuttin! We got this in a canter” Rupert has almost majestic pride in his flatlining of Australia and does anyone have even a scintilla of knowledge regarding his endgame?
Gary,
I think the endgame is happening but it is not the one Rupert wants (which is a permanent corporatocracy). http://www.blotreport.com/2018/06/23/corporatocracy/
Just completed reading several authoritative articles of recent days re megafires. The physical and vegetative state of our continent, after these conditions of water scarcity and high heat with massive burn-offs, will be categorically different from the 200 past years people have known in Terra Australis – i.e. white/European-Caucasian populations of course. All the researchers, ecological scholars etc in my reading, agree that a change of myriad parameters within our macro-environment has taken place in merely six months of pure catastrophe; a horror story come about due to our inability to face, and inexperience with, climate emergency. I wonder where, or how, political and legislative minds can arise in this country, which have the guts and vitality to face our awful joint future. Leadership of a remarkably stronger and wiser kind will be needed more than ever. I predict only among young people will that wisdom be prominent, and when I see the Extinction Rebels on the streets, waving smartly worded placards in the face of old, cynical, purblind politicians, it gives some hope that climate change might be slowed down. May these younsters’ raw energy and idealism and awareness not diminish with age. May they do for Australia and the world, exactly what the present wan, often stupid-sounding, compromised or even corrupt pack in Canberra have abysmally failed to begin. To save the Living Earth from the easily projected eco-collapse of which our fires disaster is but a precursor.
Russell,
I think it is appalling that the corrupt political class have not the imagination or common sense to see what is before us, when scientists have been telling us for decades. This problem is so severe and so frightening that I feel that anything approaching business as usual, whether it be in farming, industry, transport, economics, or indeed politics, is simply out of the question.
It is so disheartening to hear my work colleagues bemoan the inconvenience (of others usually) when XR are active in the Brisbane CBD. They only seem to to have a notional, if not nominal understanding of the gravity attached to the global (by extension local) effects of altered climate. They seem to have only one source of news and information (no surprise really) and are somewhat steadfast in their attitude. Australia needs a comprehensive education strategy that addresses the dangers of misinformation and fake news, cause that’s all they are getting at moment from precisely the wrong places!
Gary,
I have had work colleagues who are totally unaware of the danger we face. It is also true of the media. Only a few weeks ago, someone in the media talked about the ‘climate change debate’. Needless to say, I went up them for their stupidity. There is no debate except about how apocalyptic the future will be and how soon that apocalypse will hit us. Education is one of the answers, but the lead time for that is years, and we do not have that amount of time.
On the matter of ignorance and indifference several things are at play I reckon. One is the habitual background of Australians’ everyday lives in the modern era, mainly since the second world war. Three, moving into four, generations have been hugely fortunate to have grown into adulthood/old age, without more than a few cataclysms affecting rich Australia. There certainly have been some severe floods, long droughts, bushfires and economic downturns, but the majority were amply cushioned, as we are a first-world/ OECD country of immense capacity to withstand or recover in crisis. Out of that “lucky country” ease emerges a certain type of decadence – moral in part, but also mental-social. Aussies tend to reject the idea that the future (as now predicted) will never repeat their ‘lazy’ past of great material wealth and continual rescue from disaster by “those others”; fire-fighters, teams of medics, government largesse (somehow). Next factor – reinforcing somnolence or mental indolence in the face of a bleak scenario climatically, is psychological isolation from the planet roundabout us. The news we get, even if not from the garbage-filled ultra-rightist Fox TV and Newscorp, seems to come from far far beyond. We are so settled and insulated most of the time, that the idea we are headed into trouble of a very lasting kind, seems bizarre. And the third factor, related to my last point, is the hardest. It’s that universal human impetus, probably biological in origin, not to confront an evil that may severely impact all lives, until it is actually manifest. It’s a “not-this-time” hope protecting us from fear. Several books treat this longstanding psycho-cultural factor – such as Jared Diamond’s “Collapse”. They elaborating on a deeply human trait now become a danger to us. Societies like ours MUST get over former complacency, must ditch short time frame behaviours and decision making. If we won’t do it, climate change and attendant socio-economic horrors will eliminate most of the species Homo from the planet. There aren’t temporary “outs” from here on. Options B or C are closing quickly at this stage. We either drown from inane avoidance mechanisms, or we hit the beach running for all Life on Earth! It’s time to get CO2, methane and global plastic pollution under max control, time to rough up these slackers in Canberra, time for you, for me, to do what top scientists say is needed – by 2030 at latest.
Russell,
Yep. The whole system needs changing, if it is not already too late.
“… the Prime Minister has baulked at revising those targets upwards, telling ABC radio again on Friday morning that “our policies don’t pursue reckless job-destroying and economy-destroying targets”. (SMH)
Haven’t seen the interview but I’d be pleasantly surprised (nay, shocked) if the ABC reporter pointed out that Morrison’s reckless deaf ear and self-interested policies have destroyed the environment, led to massive loss of animal, plant, insect and human life, have devastated lives and communities , AND caused long-term damage to livelihoods and local economies. Nothing like having an ideologically driven fool as your national “leader”.
LNP turds have fortified their position:
“The Liberal Party rule change that means Prime Minister Scott Morrison won’t be knifed”
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/the-liberal-party-rule-change-that-means-prime-minister-scott-morrison-wont-be-knifed/news-story/06c7a9c440910f20cb070ef960e9f2e0
Jon,
His pivot to ‘we have always believed in climate change’ is being mirrored by the scabrous Murdoch’s The Australian ‘we have always been accurate and truthful’ editorial (compiling a rant about this as we speak). Just more lies. That is all they have. Reality has shown them to be deluded liars, so now they are saying they always knew it was real. They are denying their denialism.
If Morrison’s statement is to be believed – it isn’t, because they have given free rein to deniers like Abbott, Kelly etc for years without bothering to correct the record – then his culpability in the current environmental, human and economic disaster is further amplified.
-You supposedly believe in climate change yet you’re prepared to thwart local and international efforts to curtail greenhouse?
-You believe in climate change yet were prepared to mock those agitating for a better national response by waving a lump of coal about in parliament?
-You constantly talk about the supposedly disastrous costs to the economy of climate action and renewable energy, but failed to ever mention the cost of inaction (fire, drought, damage to the GBR etc)?
-You said nothing about Tony Abbott’s puerile comments regarding CO2 – that it was an odourless, “weightless” and invisible substance great for plants.
-You did nothing when the NAFC put in a proposal for a fleet of air tankers to mitigate the much-heightened risks of bushfires.
-You refused to meet 23 retired experts in emergency management who voiced concerns that the nation was facing unprecedented risks from wildfires as a result of global warming.
Not only is Morrison a pentecostal hypocrite who plays loose with the truth, he and his LNP mates are also culpably negligent for the current devastation of the national estate.
Jon,
Yep; precisely. This pivot of Morrison is only one of rhetoric.
Just read this piece from Jackie French. Have been waiting for someone to tell it like it is but most simply tiptoe around the issues.
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/from-fire-evacuation-rooms-diary-of-a-wombat-author-pens-her-message-to-australia-20200107-p53piv.html
Her DO NOT FORGETs are particularly apt.
Extract:
Most importantly?
DO NOT FORGET. This is most Australians’ first taste of climate change. But we are the descendants of those who have faced Ice Ages, plagues, wars, famine. Most humans died. Our ancestors did not. When times are hardest, humans are capable of the greatest kindness and innovation. The best way to survive the decades to come is by forging strong community links, because when disaster strikes, those links will stand strong.
DO NOT FORGET. Because those who make vast sums of money from businesses that, as a side effect, destroy our planet, put vast sums into PR or political campaigns so that laws are never made to hinder their actions. The politicians who denied climate change, the need for disaster planning and firefighting equipment, and who cut fire budgets by 30-40 per cent this year alone – despite warnings from their own experts that we faced catastrophes this year – will use political spin … let’s just call it lying … to try to make you forget before the next election.
DO NOT FORGET. Because the federal fire aid has only been offered now because of the rage of “quiet Australians”. You and I and every Australian who expressed contempt has achieved this. We must keep demanding what is needed. Unless we keep up the rage, the passion and compassion, our children and our children’s children will die in more climatic disasters, from winds to cyclones, floods, tornadoes, bushfires and storm surges: the “new normal’ of the Anthropocene.
DO NOT FORGET. Because long after these flames are doused, there will be traumatised kids, fireys who collapse when the adrenalin seeps away, businesses destroyed, half a billion wildlife killed, with just as many injured, starving, needing food and water stations if their species is to survive.
DO NOT FORGET. How we have worked together, fighting disaster without political leadership, leaders emerging in their own communities, from those who fought the flames to those who offered rooms, diverted traffic amidst red smoke, raised funds or simply offered all the smiles they could find. Do not forget that when we acted together we achieved miracles.
This is the comfort we must give our children: in the past weeks, Australia has been a truly great nation. We must remain one.
We must not forget.
Jon,
Excellent article. Thanks.
I would love to be as rosy, as delighted in my conclusions as the writer of the “Don’t forgets” listed by Jon. These statements are charmingly but excessively, optimistic about Australia and Australians’ conduct toward each other. I have seen this “cheer-up-and-carry-on” stuff many times, usually from people who are naturally upbeat thinkers, and never read many philosophers’ and rationalists. The latter have often take dimmer view of human behaviour under massive stress.
Sure, in some places, in some traditionalist, more integrated communities, one finds selflessness, mutuality in a crisis. Not so much within the ruthless, alienated, neoliberal societies we suffer from these days. My own suspicion is that when this raging monster of climate change gets into serious swing, a different scenario (in general) will be experienced. I don’t want to go into the gory unpalatable details, but I warn against the smile-emoji belief that people will all go to each others’ aid when the situation becomes apocalyptic. This will not be a local limited crisis, but a civilisation-wide one, unprecedented in human history, a gigantic collapse. I am assuming sadsack politicians and mindlessly greedy, suicidal capitalist goons ruling the economies of the planet, will not fully rise up to the challenge – I may be wrong there, trying be positive about our masters. Humans won’t behave in a pretty way. Simple rural neighbourliness won’t be very meaningful by the time the giant hurricanes, droughts and social breakdowns of our children’s futures hit us. Let’s first face reality, then kick arse hard with the useless Liberal Party that thinks it is governing so dandily. Oh yes, they would think so, with all that self-deceiving bull, and lies, cant and propaganda that Liberals spew out. The Scomo mob are mental- ethical trash we need to cast into a fiery pit next election.
Russell,
In the medium term, I think you are probably right. The wealthy and others of the ruling class will look after themselves and will use the police and the armed forces to keep the rest of us quiet and cowed, as the world we inhabited disappears. I have read almost all of the IPCC reports over the last 30 years and the single universal take-away from all of them is that they underestimate the speed and the severity of the change affecting us. I cry for my children and grandchildren, but I am also implacably resolved to make the bastards pay.
Climate Council has exposed a few more of Morrison’s lies in the Speers’ interview.
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/fact-check-pms-interview-with-insiders-host-david-speers/
Morrison: ” This has, I think, created an environment where people for the first time I think, arguably, have wanted to see a more direct involvement of the Federal Government in responding to these national disasters. Now that’s relatively new.”
FACT:
The idea that the Federal Government should be involved in disaster response is not new. Federal Government involvement goes back decades as is made clear by the existence of a National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework.
The requests for assistance in the lead up to the fire season were not solely concerned with defence force allocations. Groups such as the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) clearly requested additional funding for national aerial firefighting equipment well before this bushfire crisis. By the time the Prime Minister finally decided to provide funding for this equipment, four months had passed and 2.7 million hectares had already burned.
Employing defence force resources in responding to bushfire crises is also not new. As former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pointed out, the Defence Force was involved in responding to Black Saturday in 2009. The Defence Force also responded to a bushfire crisis in the mid-1980s when Kim Beazley was Defence Minister.
And in 1985, the Liberal Party’s David Connolly suggested the Federal Government should expand its role and show leadership in managing bushfires.
MORRISON CLAIM #2:
“This is obviously affected by the broader changes in climate. There is no lack of acknowledgment of that.”
FACT:
While it is a step in the right direction that the Prime Minister is now acknowledging the link between bushfires and climate change, his government has repeatedly failed to acknowledge, and outright rejected, this link in the past.
Here are a few examples:
In November 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack told the ABC that it was “pure, enlightened and woke capital-city greenies” and “inner-city raving lunatics” trying to “get a political point score” who were raising the link between climate change, drought and bushfires.
In December 2019, Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie called attempts to acknowledge the role of climate change in the current bushfire crisis ‘irrational’.
Just last week, in an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Coalition MP Craig Kelly refused to acknowledge the role of climate change in the current bushfire crisis.
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Further fact: my father and some of his colleagues in the RAAF helped fight fires in the Brindabellas more than half a century ago. RAAF personnel also helped during floods around Wagga in the 60s. PM Rudd called the services into action in the 2009 Victorian fires. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/kevin-rudd-slams-pm-for-claiming-first-ever-call-out-of-reservists-during-bushfires
All the preparation and spin-doctoring in the world prior to the interview couldn’t cover the chasm between reality and Morrison fantasy. They say history is written by the victor – somehow I doubt Morrison’s narrative will be the history of this calamity.
Jon,
We cannot let it be the narrative. If it is, we are doomed.
…2009 Vic bushfires
Jon,
Corrected.
7.41am? It’s 6.41pm. The above is a correction to my comment awaiting moderation