Steve Price: Climate activists leveraging floods misery shows Australia’s new political reality

A small group of activists is seizing on the misery of thousands to try to make a loony political point. Welcome to Australia’s shameful new reality.

When John Howard lived in Kirribilli Avenue in the Prime Minister’s Sydney harbourside residence, he used to walk along the street for exercise every day.

He would head around the path under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, past the amusement rides at Luna Park, and back through the Kirribilli village where there was an Indian restaurant with his picture in the front window.

His security detail was discreet, almost invisible, and locals would wave as Mr Howard strode along listening to his favourite breakfast radio show hosted by Alan Jones.

Even at the height of national political dramas — such as The Tampa and children overboard — he was rarely, if ever, confronted at the front gates of his borrowed house by protesters.

Australians used to treasure this about our politics, where unlike the heavily guarded US President and his motorcade, or a guarded Number 10 Downing St in London, we were a much more relaxed nation.

I lived on that street after Mr Howard left office, and used to drive past the front gates late at night after finishing on radio. Not once did I see any police activity, aside from a light on and an AFP van parked out front.

Former Prime Minister John Howard never missed his morning walk. Picture: Kerris Berrington

It comforted me that we mainly had a sensible, courteous political discourse in our nation.

Putting your finger on when that all changed for the worse is difficult.

Kevin Rudd took over from Howard and rode in on a wave of misplaced optimism that Australia was electing some modern miracle maker.

His first stint in office didn’t attract public protests but his own party couldn’t stand him, so they threw him out and installed Julia Gillard.

For reasons I still don’t fully understand, Australia’s first female PM attracted angry crowds. She was once forced to evacuate a Canberra event, along with her eventual successor, Tony Abbott, under police guard.

Abbott himself attracted angry, shouty critics, including one disgraceful moron who headbutted him in a public street.

Only Pauline Hanson has had to endure more constant venomous and violent public protests.

As social media took hold, it was much easier to wrangle up a rent-a-crowd and groups like Extinction Rebellion were formed to create public nuisance that borders on criminal.

Outside Kirribilli House on Monday, this week a group of nine protesters tried to park a truck loaded with flood damaged debris from the floods in Northern NSW at the gates.

Police were tipped off they were coming and blocked off the street. Kirribilli Avenue is one way. These self-appointed voices of a flood-ravaged town then decided they would drag their soggy carpets and broken toys along the street.

Climate activists at the gates of Scott Morrison’s Sydney residence. Picture: Damian Shaw

Let’s be very clear here: this was not a protest by residents of a town destroyed by a one-in-100-year flood. It was a climate change protest.

In Lismore, when the PM visited the day after getting out of isolation with Covid, these same people were loudly protesting and waving around banners written on the reverse sides of Greens candidates’ election banners.

How dumb do these people think we are to not see a Greenie-led minority group using a natural disaster flood to push their climate change agenda, when we see one?

Driving a diesel-fuelled truck all the way to Sydney while flood survivors spent the day scooping pungent mud from destroyed homes made it worse.

Then this – a bloke at the back, holding a protest poster which read: “Your climate inaction killed my neighbour”.

The main banner, created for media attention, read: “Morrison your climate mega flood destroyed our homes”.

And this crowd pretends it was angry about the PM not meeting with them when he toured their ravaged town. Why would he when you make irrational false claims blaming the bloke you want to meet for a flood nobody could have stopped?

One of the banner-wielding group, Kate Stroud, said she had sheltered inside the roof of her house for six hours before being rescued by a local on a jet ski. We feel for her loss but not one thing Scott Morrison could have done, or can do, would have prevented it.

Scott Morrison and future leaders must contend with a far less sensible political discourse. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

She complained the PM slipped through back doors in Lismore to avoid locals. No, he didn’t. His security staff prevented him being ambushed by people accusing him of being culpable of killing people.

I’ve said publicly he should have walked the main street talking to real locals while green protesters were kept away. It was a mistake but remember, his visit there tripled the compensation paid to victims.

Then Australia’s most-deluded politician, Greens leader Adam Bandt, felt he needed to weigh in and use the misery of the flood disaster to make a political point demanding the government immediately cease the use of all coal and oil.

Adam probably doesn’t realise outboard motors run on two stroke petrol to power the tinnies used in the rescues and the front-end loaders clearing the tragic mess are diesel-powered.

Using a national natural disaster to push a loony left green agenda is bad enough but to accuse our elected leader of being complicit in the awful death of a neighbour is outrageous.

This was a small group of climate change activists seizing on the misery of thousands to get a political point across when they should have been back home helping in the recovery.

Shameful.

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