07/01/2020

(AU) Bushfire Preparations Stymied By Climate Change Deniers In Government, Says Small Business Lobby

ABC News - Michael Janda

COSBOA says it is not only the small businesses destroyed or damaged by fire that are suffering. (Supplied: Lorena Granados)
Key points
  • Small business lobby COSBOA warned many businesses "will close and not reopen" as a result of the fires and loss of summer trade
  • COSBOA chief executive Peter Strong said climate change deniers in the Federal Government should "shut-up" and "go and sit at the backbench where they belong"
  • The lobby is urging governments to assist fire-affected regions to put on events once the fires are over to lure visitors back to those areas
A key small business lobby group has urged any climate change sceptics on the Coalition frontbench to quit their ministries, arguing they stymied preparations for this bushfire season.
The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) said its members who have been affected by the fires, either directly or indirectly, are generally disappointed with the Federal Government's handling of the crisis.
"What I'm hearing from my members is the fact that there should have been better preparation for what was predicted by many to be very bad bushfires, worse than normal," said COSBOA's chief executive Peter Strong.
"The preparation at the state level, I think, was very good. But at the federal level, there are people within Government who firmly believe there is no such thing as climate change or that human beings don't have an impact upon it, and they are adamant that no extra work or extra effort should ever happen because they don't believe in climate change.
"That's where the disappointment is within my membership, and we want to hear from those climate change deniers in the Government ranks that they will now shut up, they will go and sit at the backbench where they belong and they will not interfere in developing processes to respond to this situation."
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The Federal Government has faced heavy criticism around its handling of the bushfire crisis, including accusations that ads authorised by the Liberal Party were politicising the disaster and that the acquisition of extra aerial firefighting resources was too slow.
However, the Government said its call-up of 3,000 Defence reservists to assist with relief efforts is an unprecedented response to a natural disaster in Australia.
"I can understand why people are angry, absolutely. But when I look at our response as a Federal Government, we've got the ADF [Australian Defence Force] reservists out the door, we've actually deployed defence assets in a way they never have been," Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie told the ABC's RN Breakfast program.

'Businesses will close and not reopen'
Mr Strong told RN Breakfast that the scale and timing of the fires meant thousands of businesses were losing a large part of their annual income.
"In a lot of cases, they might get 80 per cent of their incomes come from this time of year, as you go through December, January, February," he said.
"It's when they make the money they need to stay open for the rest of the year."
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ABC Radio National Breakfast
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He said the summer revenue shortfall meant many will go out of business, especially in tourist areas around national parks where blackened forests may not recover for several years.
"There will certainly be businesses that will close and not reopen," he predicted.
"If you go to the bushfire affected areas, where people won't be visiting for a long, long time, they just won't be able to open because there won't be any passing trade.
"It will have a huge impact, and the impact on the businesses means an impact on the whole community as jobs are lost."
Parliament House was shrouded by a heavy haze as Canberra was blanketed in bushfire smoke. (AAP: Lukas Coch)
Mr Strong said it is not just businesses in towns directly ravaged by the fires that are suffering.
"We have areas that have been smoke affected as well — Canberra's been very heavily smoke affected — and so a lot of businesses there are not trading the way they used to because people aren't
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going out, or people are going to the shopping malls so they businesses outside shopping malls are being affected," he said.
Mr Strong said governments at all levels could assist by funding events that would encourage tourists back to affected areas after the fires have passed.
"There's all sorts of things that could be done — putting on fetes and festivals, putting on music festivals, you've still got your beaches, the beaches are still going to be pristine, there's still reasons for people to visit, but now it's up to government, local government, and businesses themselves to send a message out, 'Here's some reasons why you should visit'."

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