PM’s ‘appalling’ comments on LA slammed

As Los Angeles still burns — claiming lives, homes and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee — Anthony Albanese has taken a swipe.

Anthony Albanese has declared “climate change is real” in the wake of the devastating LA fires, declaring the incident “an extreme weather event”.

Conservative political leaders and actors including James Woods have insisted that political leaders – not climate change – is to blame for the fires, calling out Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

“This fire is not from ‘climate change,’ you ignorant a**hole,” Woods said. “It’s because liberal idiots like you elect liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass.

“One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management, and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs.”

But Australia’s Prime Minister said that the wildfires in winter were just another example of an extreme weather event that people can expect to see more of around the globe.

He also took a swipe at Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s pledge to build nuclear power plants saying it was about delaying action on climate change.

“Climate change is real,” Mr Albanese said.

“It doesn’t mean every event that occurs, which is an extreme weather event, is because of climate change. What it does mean is that the science tells us there’ll be more extreme weather events and they’ll be more intense.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke in Perth on Friday. Picture: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

“And that is what we are seeing playing out over recent, not years, but decades.

“We’ve seen the hottest years on record being reached year after year, and we’re seeing as well, more extreme events. I think these scenes are horrific.”

But the Liberal Party has slammed Mr Albanese for using the tragedy to make a political point.

“LA is burning and Australians are worried about fire risks here at home, and the best the Prime Minister can do is have a crack at Peter Dutton and the Coalition’s future energy plan,” Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Ted O’Brien told news.com.au.

“This is coming from someone who won office campaigning to reduce emissions, only to reverse the Coalition’s track record of consecutive year-on-year emissions reduction and instead he’s been driving emissions up.

“To politicise the LA fires by criticising the Coalition’s future energy policy is an appalling reflection of the Anthony Albanese’s character.

“He hungers for a fight on why climate change matters, but the debate has moved on - it’s no longer about ‘why’ act on climate change but ‘how’, and this is where his government is failing on every front.

“The Coalition’s plan for a balanced energy mix of renewables, nuclear and gas works and we know this because it’s working the world over.”

The LA wildfires have been described as a worst-case scenario – unusually powerful and prolonged – but were not unexpected.

“Entirely foreseeable,” Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis and history at Pomona College, told NBC.

“We have been building homes deep into the fire zones. We know they’re fire zones, we know they’re dangerous, and yet City Hall and county government has constantly greenlit development in places of greater and greater risks.

“All of the factors you don’t want to see combined (being) combined.”

Residents ride their motorbike past a burning liquor store during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County. Picture: Josh Edelson/AFP

According to mapping from the LA Fire Department the risk of wildfire to homes in Los Angeles County is higher than in 99 per cent of counties in the US with Pacific Palisades, the Hollywood Hills and Altadena having a “very high fire hazard severity” rating.

“It was not if, it was when” said Joe Scott, the chief fire scientist at Pyrologix, a wildfire risk consultancy.

“But this is at the high end of what could have happened.”

Mr Albanese conceded the fires might be “triggering” for those who experienced the bush fires of 2019-2020.

“It is a strength to put your hand up and say, ‘I need help with this. I’ve been triggered’,’’ he said.

“And these are worrying. You’ve seen a significant loss of life, an enormous loss of property and assets on the west coast of the United States. It is true to say this is not the normal period.”

More than 1,000 buildings have burned in multiple wildfires that have erupted around America's second biggest city. Picture: Josh Edelson/AFP

He noted that while traditionally the US and Australia sometimes shared expertise when tackling bushfires the fact fires were raging in the US during our summer was a concern.

“Historically, what we’ve got is had an exchange of assets and personnel between the Southern Hemisphere and the Northern Hemisphere, whether it be the United States or Canada, with Australia,’’ he said.

“And you’ve had assistance going both ways. If the seasons are increasingly extended – and bear in mind that the 2019 events began earlier, they didn’t begin in January or over the Christmas period.

“They began much earlier and then built up. What we have here is an event that is unseasonal and it is something we need to be conscious of.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has promised a nuclear power plan if elected. Picture: NewsWire / Roy VanDerVegt

Mr Albanese then took a swing at Mr Dutton’s nuclear power plant plan as simply being about kicking the can down the road addressing on climate change.

“It’s why we can’t afford to say, ‘stop acting, don’t do anything until the 2040s and we’ll build you a nuclear power station down at Collie’,” he said.

“That makes no sense in terms of what we need to do.

“Most importantly, it makes no sense in terms of the economics of Peter Dutton’s nuclear reactive plan. Here in WA, they have a policy of renewables plus gas. That’s quite consistent with what my government’s policy is going forward as well.

“The idea that you can just dismiss that impact on the economy is not right. The economic cost of rebuilding in areas impacted by extreme weather events, whether it be the bushfires of 2019-2020, whether it be the flooding that impacted here in WA.

“Action on climate change is not only good for the environment, but it’s good for the economy and good for jobs as well.”

Originally published as PM’s ‘appalling’ comments on LA slammed