Michael McGuire: Scott Morrison’s real crisis isn’t climate change — it’s rogue MPs
The Prime Minister’s biggest challenge is not just tackling the burning issue of climate change, it’s reining in sceptic party members, writes Michael McGuire.
Rendezview
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rendezview. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The big question now is, after all the fear, the worry and the destructive obviousness of the danger posed to Australia by climate change in recent months, whether a real corner has been turned.
Or, if by some stroke of fortune, we manage to stumble through the rest of the summer unsinged, that the memories fade, at least for those who didn’t lose homes, or loved ones, or farms, or businesses, and everything just returns to the old normality. A normality that will remain until the next utterly predictable firestorm razes giant swathes of the country.
You can sense from some that option B is the preferred way. The path of least resistance being the dominant political principle of the age.
Take Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. That Morrison is currently peddling furiously to make up for his ineptitude is obvious. That holiday, the sight of him forcing people to shake his hand, and his dumbfounded uselessness until it dawned on him that he was being hurt politically and had to do something that might make him look vaguely competent. And not like a bloke who thought achieving the position of Prime Minister was an end in itself and his work was done.
The last few weeks must have at least demonstrated to Morrison that the post of Prime Minister is not purely ceremonial. It comes with certain demands. Leadership, compassion and vision to name but three qualities Morrison has shown no evidence of having.
But he’s at least smart enough to understand the country has been badly shaken by these fires.
So, the bloke who fondled a lump of coal in parliament is now claiming his Government has always believed in the reality of climate change and has been acting upon it. He must think the electorate has turned a little Rip Van Winkle and just woken up after a 20-year snooze.
But he’s been talking a lot. Not saying anything, but certainly talking. Not committing to any real change, but talking a lot. Not admitting to any past mistakes, but talking a lot.
Talking to the ABC on Sunday about whether his Government would commit to deeper cuts to emissions targets, he said: “What I’m saying is we want to reduce emissions and do the best job we possibly can and get better and better and better at it. And I want to do that within a balanced policy which recognises Australia’s broader national economic interests and social interest.’’
To translate: “I’m going to do as little as possible, preferably nothing, and hope this all goes away’’.
He’s started telling Australians they must become more “resilient’’. He’s started using words such as “adaptability’’, which is some top-notch trolling.
If Morrison has proved one thing in recent months it is that “adaptability’’ is not his strong suit. A PM who is adapting to changing circumstances doesn’t whinge about cutting short his holiday because he doesn’t “hold a hose’’.
Morrison is mouthing some of the right words. But he’s a drag artist, miming, not singing.
When he holds on to some of his old tropes, such as “we’re 1.23 per cent of the world’s global emissions’’ to imply that it’s pointless for Australia to do anything, it’s hard to take him too seriously.
MORE FROM MICHAEL MCGUIRE: Being a prime minister calls for delicate judgments
It’s such an intellectually barren argument entirely devoid of leadership or aspiration.
And meaningless. Close to one million Australian men and women served in World War II. Or about 1.7 per cent of those who fought on all sides. Should we not have bothered?
Morrison’s problem is the wing nuts in his own party who object to science and don’t accept the reality of climate change. From any rational perspective it’s bizarre. But when you are so deeply embedded in a cult, facts don’t matter. Reason doesn’t matter. All that matters is this little belief system you have invented for yourself to explain the world.
Until Morrison takes on these elements within his party and does more than just make mealy-mouthed statements about Australia’s “new normal’’, then it’s pretty hard to take him seriously.
Michael McGuire is a columnist for the Adelaide Advertiser.