(AU) Woman Brings Remains Of Home Lost In NSW Bushfires To Parliament In Climate Protest

The Guardian - Australian Associated Press

‘We’ve got no leadership ... we’ve got nothing,’ says Melinda Plesman, who lost her house in Nymboida, near Grafton

Melinda Plesman stands with the remains of her burnt-out house, destroyed in the NSW bushfires, outside Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

A woman who lost her home in the New South Wales bushfires has brought the charred remains to Parliament House to send a message to both major parties on climate change.
Melinda Plesman and her partner, Dean Kennedy, lost their family home of 35 years after bushfires tore through Nymboida, south of Grafton in NSW, last month.
Plesman said she wanted to show Scott Morrison the direct result of climate change.
“It’s happening now and this is what climate change looks like,” Plesman said.
“I’m losing my home, whole communities are losing their homes ... and the prime minister said we’re not allowed to talk about it.

“He said he was going to pray for us. And that was the last straw.”
But she also criticised Labor for not wanting to discuss the link between climate change and bushfires.
“That is what is absolutely terrible. We’ve got no leadership, we’ve got no discussion, we’ve got no debate, we’ve got nothing,” she said.
“We need a bipartisan approach. I completely understand that the Labor party are absent in this as well.”
Plesman, who is now living in a motel room, said she didn’t know what the future held for her.
She said she wanted the government to set a price on carbon, phase out native forest logging, immediately shift Australia towards renewables and stop mining coal.
“I think it’s the job of the prime minister to bring us together and lead us forward. That’s his job,” she said.
On a sheet of corrugated iron rescued from the scorched remains her beloved home she had written: “Morrison, your climate crisis destroyed my home.”
“He’s not acting,” Plesman said.

Links

• Bushfires across NSW an ominous start to summer – in pictures
• Countries from Siberia to Australia are burning: the age of fire is the bleakest warning yet
• (AU) Media Watch: Fire Haze
• (AU) The World Burns All Year. Are There Enough Planes to Douse the Flames?
• (AU) Scott Morrison And The Big Lie About Climate Change: Does He Think We're That Stupid?
• (AU) Australia Bushfires Factcheck: Are This Year's Fires Unprecedented?