22/12/2019

(AU) Morrison's Big Failure Is His Lack Of Leadership On Climate Change

Sydney Morning Herald - Editorial

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has admitted he showed poor judgment in trying to sneak off on holiday in the midst of catastrophic bushfires.

Saying sorry for the trip to Hawaii was the right thing to do but it is a sideshow. Mr Morrison must correct the failure in leadership on climate change policy which is the real reason this bushfire season will be damaging for him politically in the long run.
No one is saying that Mr Morrison faced an easy choice in deciding whether to go on holidays this week. This was his only chance to have a summer holiday with his children before visits to Japan and India next year.
Yet, as a politician who is obsessively focused on media messaging, he should have realised that when bushfires were polluting the skies, Australia was cooking in a record heatwave and 800 homes have been destroyed, it would look bad to leave the country and fly for 10 hours to Waikiki.
He should have known that most Australians expect him to show leadership, comforting those whose homes are under threat and supporting the heroism of fire fighters including Geoffrey Keaton and Andrew O’Dwyer, the two Rural Fire Service workers who tragically died on Thursday night.
But instead of taking responsibility for the situation, Mr Morrison simply crept out the back door without telling us Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack was in charge. It was as if he hoped no one would notice.
He looked shifty and out of touch.
Whatever brain explosion explains Mr Morrison’s conduct, it is sadly consistent with his broader media strategy which has been to play down the seriousness of the bushfires.
That may be a simple misjudgment but many believe he is avoiding the issue deliberately because it raises embarrassing questions about the government’s lack of leadership on climate change.
Mr Morrison has uttered just one sentence on the link between bushfires and climate change in which he said it was “one of many factors”.
Mr Morrison should have used the bushfires as a chance to explain what he plans to do about this new world where Australia is getting hotter and drier and bushfires start earlier in the year, last longer and spread more widely.
The Bureau of Meteorology reported that Tuesday was the highest average temperature on record and it is still only mid-December.
Australia’s failure on climate change is being noticed internationally. Fatih Birol, the director of the influential International Energy Agency, told the Herald that Australia’s climate debate had gone “off track” worse than almost anywhere in the world.
Mr Birol regretted the Coalition’s decision to ditch the National Energy Guarantee which included a pathway for emissions reduction.
Mr Birol complained that an advanced country such as Australia, which can afford to do more, should be leading the way.
Instead, Australia helped sabotage a United Nations meeting in Madrid this week that was supposed to find ways to cut emissions under the Paris Agreement.
Siding with Saudi Arabia and Brazil, Environment Minister Angus Taylor blocked agreement because other countries refused to let Australia use an accounting trick to meet its emissions reduction targets rather than take real action.
This ruse, which uses credits from the earlier Kyoto treaty to meet targets until 2030, has no basis in the Paris Agreement and is clearly inconsistent with the goal of keeping the rise in global temperatures to under 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
The government likes to say that Australia is a medium-sized country that won’t make any difference to climate change but Mr Taylor made a very big difference at the Madrid talks because he provided cover for countries that are looking for an excuse to break the rules.
The Morrison government is playing games with words and numbers but the rest of the world is well aware that Australia has failed to put in place policies needed to bring emissions down. We remain one of the top-two most polluting countries on a per capita basis.
Action on climate change is of course only one part of the response to the bushfires and it will not bear fruit for many years and then only if Australia and a coalition of like-minded countries can galvanise the world to significant action.
But Mr Morrison must step up. It will require courage to admit his failure and change direction. But he should draw inspiration from the heroism of the two firefighters who died this week. He must have a story he can tell their families.

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