Will Australia Become a Warning for Climate Deniers in Politics?

The words that greeted Aussie prime minister, Scott Morrison, as he addressed a crowd of worried residents of fire-ravaged New South Wales were pretty blunt - "You're not welcome, you fuckwit."

From taking a break from the wildfires to holiday in smoke-free Hawaii to refusing to acknowledge the scale of Australia's wildfire crisis, many Australians are turning against their prime minister. Morrison's goose, as they say, may be cooked.

Standing in the crowd, Zoey Salucci McDermott, 20, eyed Scott Morrisoncoolly. She and her young daughter had lost her home in the fires, so when he extended his hand in greeting, she did not reciprocate. “I’ll only shake your hand if you give more funding to the RFS [Rural Fire Service],” McDermott said, holding back tears. “So many people here have lost their homes. We need more help.” The prime minister turned away. 

Days before, two separate firefronts had swept across much of southern NSW and eastern Victoria with unprecedented ferocity, wiping entire towns from the map. When the flames arrived in Cobargo, they tore through the main street, roaring like the ocean, incinerating lives and livelihoods. 

Robert Salway, 63, and his son Patrick, 29, died when they stayed behind to defend their property. Patrick’s wife, Renee, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, found their bodies.

...Morrison has shrugged off criticism of his government’s climate change policies. Speaking at the UN in New York last September he insisted Australia would meet its emissions reductions targets “in a canter”. That same month, his government was being warned about the catastrophic fire risk presented by climate change.

Former New South Wales fire chief Greg Mullins and 22 other former emergency services chiefs wrote to Morrison outlining the potential crisis and asking for more specialised equipment to deal with hotter and longer bushfire periods. 

They were ignored. Emergency services have been asking for resources since 2016, when the National Aerial Firefighting Centre asked for a “national large air-tanker fleet” to support firefighting operations but were rebuffed. 

The consistent refusal to stump up the cash or even engage with a chorus of experts warning about a crisis has defined the conservative government’s policy since it took power under Tony Abbott in 2013.
Now, as the country faces one of the worst natural disasters in its history, a short-term, transactional austerity politics has collided with the long arc of climate change in a way that is clearly visible on the ground. 

Firefighters in some areas have been forced to crowdfund for basic equipment while until recently the federal government remained steadfast in its refusal to back-pay volunteers for their time, even as the prime minister praised their “spirit”.

Canada's petro-pols would do well to pay attention to what is playing out in Australia. It's going to become increasingly difficult - and risky - to keep pimping fossil fuels, especially the high-carbon, low value trash, in a world being swept by fires.  Conservative or Liberal, their day of reckoning could arrive sooner than they expect.