The arse-covering and blame-shifting in the wake of Australia’s catastrophic summer continues with unseemly haste. It goes without saying that the odious Greens were first out the gate, trying to exploit the fires for grubby political advantage, even as forests, houses, wildlife and people were burning. Now, politicians and bureaucrats on all sides of the political fence are busily engaged in their own, desperate political backburning.
Two senior NSW government ministers have accused their own environmental agencies of not conducting enough hazard reduction burning in the lead-up to the bushfire season, with Deputy Premier John Barilaro blaming green ideology for allowing forest fuel loads to build up.
Mr Barilaro said the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service was “ideologically opposed” to hazard reductions.
In a separate interview, NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey suggested it was wrong to blame climate change for the recent devastating bushfires when there were more practical solutions that could be deployed.
But state governments in Australia are responsible for managing national parks, so, in a real sense, Barilaro as Deputy Premier shares at least some responsibility. Still, he is almost certainly right in most respects. Governments come and go, but bureaucracies fossilise in place and zealously guard their little fiefdoms against interference by mere elected representatives.
“I genuinely do believe we have agencies within government that, over decades, haven’t actually honoured their commitments for fuel reduction because of ideological positions, especially in national parks. We just lock them up.”
Pavey is also absolutely right: climate change almost certainly had sod-all to do with these fires.
But, someone with even more direct responsibility for national parks is NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean. Guess who’s desperate to pin the blame on climate change?
The comments of Mr Barilaro and Ms Pavey — both Nationals — are at odds with that of their cabinet colleague, NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean, who is advocating for a greater focus on renewable technologies to bring down the state’s carbon emissions. He has not ruled out increasing hazard reduction burning.
Mr Kean sparked a furore this week after he alleged some senior federal government MPs were uncomfortable with Scott Morrison’s stance on climate change, and that they wanted more drastic action to be taken, prompting a backlash from fellow party members.
Still, while it has lagged behind hazard reduction targets for years, NSW at least made the effort to reach its targets last year. Not so Victoria, which has never once met its targets – even though its targets are far below what the Black Saturday royal commission recommended.
So it’s no surprise to see who’s getting all defensive, and trying to blame climate change.
Victorian Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, also from Labor, would not say whether she supported Mr Morrison’s proposal but did defend the state’s record on hazard reduction…
Queensland’s Acting Minister for Fire and Emergency Services, Di Farmer, criticised the Prime Minister’s call for a national standard for bushfire hazard-reduction burns, saying his lack of action on climate change was “an international embarrassment”.
theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/bushfires-nsw-ministers-blame-green-ideology-for-lack-of-hazard-reduction/
Queensland: also a Labor state, just like Victoria.
Fancy that. Surely it’s not like they’ve got any reason to shift blame…?
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