An Australian ‘let it rip’ climate strategy is taking a terrible toll on communities, the Climate Council says, as people on the Northern Rivers reel from recent flood disasters.
Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie says Prime Minister Scott Morrison completely failed to address the issue at the heart of the unprecedented disaster when he visited Lismore on Wednesday.
‘Our Prime Minister stood in front of the people of Lismore, in front of the country’s media and spoke about “unprecedented natural disasters” and a “national catastrophe”, Ms McKenzie said via a media statement.
But the PM failed to even mention the term ‘climate change’.
The connection wasn’t lost on protestors outside the Lismore City Council chambers in Goonellabah, where the heavily policed media conference was held.
Members of the Greens and other environment advocates held placards with messages such as ‘will coal and gas pay for this?’.
‘Australia ranks dead last out of major developed nations when it comes to cutting emissions,’ Ms McKenzie said, ‘no amount of spin can change that’.
Coalition’s abysmal climate action record
The Climate Council CEO said the Liberal-National Party had an abysmal track record on climate change.
Ms McKenzie recounted the coalition government drastically slashing funding for climate science and dismantling the Climate Commission.
‘There’s been no meaningful climate action in eight years,’ Ms McKenzie said.
‘It’s not good enough, the next parliament must work harder to see emissions plummet this decade.’
Minister for emissions reductions promotes more fossil fuel
Ms McKenzie pointed to signs the government wasn’t taking climate change seriously, even in face of the flooding disasters in Queensland and New South Wales.
While the prime minister was speaking to a carefully restricted crowd in Goonellabah, the federal minister for industry, energy, and emissions reductions, Angus Taylor, was saying he wanted to accelerate oil and gas.
‘Australians are paying a high price for the lack of meaningful national action to tackle climate change and our elected leaders must be held accountable,’ Ms McKenzie said.
Pressure on next government to take climate action
The Climate Council was calling on all federal political parties and candidates to tell Australians what concrete steps they would take to prepare emergency services and communities for inevitable climate-fuelled disasters.
The council also wanted the same politicians to ‘actively’ acknowledge the destructive role climate change was playing in driving worsening disasters.
A public plan in the next term of federal parliament for rapidly reducing emissions and rapidly scaling up readily available renewable energy was needed, the council said.
Ms McKenzie said the next government would need to make sure towns, cities and communities were rebuilt to be climate change resilient.
‘It’s time to show leadership and step up to the most critical issue not just of our time, but all time,’ Ms McKenzie said, ‘we have everything to lose, the time for action is now’.
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