Furious NSW resident confronts Labor MP over climate change

A furious NSW resident has accused Labor leader Anthony Albanese and a Labor MP of “having a circus” as homes burn in the fires.

A furious resident has lashed out at Labor leader Anthony Albanese and Labor state MP Janelle Saffin following a press conference in northern NSW.

Climate change protesters at Nimbin stood behind Mr Albanese as he said the unfolding bushfire emergency wasn’t the time for party politics.

“This isn’t a party political point here, this is people trying to do their best,” he said.

“I’m not seeking to politicise this at all.”

Local Resident Ginger O'Brien shouts at Member for Lismore Janell Saffin in the bushfire affected area of Nimbin. picture: Jason O'Brien/AAP

Ms Saffin stepped in after Ms O’Brien confronted Mr Albanese. Picture: Jason O'Brien/AAP

As Mr Albanese walked away one resident, Ginger O’Brien, yelled “shame on you”.

Ms Saffin stepped in to try and calm Ms O’Brien down, prompting the resident to turn her anger on her.

“Your house is not burning. My house is burning down,” Ms O’Brien said.

“What are you doing? Nothing. You’re laughing, you’re having a circus, you’re playing with fire!”

Greens senator Jordon Steele-John has branded major party politicians “arsonists” as the debate on climate change and its link to catastrophic fire risk heats up.

Senator Steele-John, who represents Western Australia, let rip in the Senate on Tuesday during debate on the federal government’s proposed laws cracking down on energy companies.

“How dare any of you suggest that in this moment at this time it is appropriate to be prosecuting a piece of legislation with the aim of propping up coal,” he told the chamber.

“You are no better than a bunch of arsonists – borderline arsonists – and you should be ashamed.”

Despite objections from Labor frontbencher Murray Watt, Senator Steele-John refused to withdraw his comments, insisting they were true.

“For Senator Steele-John to refer to members of this chamber as arsonists on the very day that we are told by fire chiefs that we are seeing conditions that this country has never seen before is beyond offensive,” Senator Watt said.

He called for the Greens to reflect on “political point-scoring” they were engaging in as fires raged across Australia.

Senator Steele-John argues the so-called “big stick” laws will help keep outdated coal-fired power stations open and contribute to climate change.

He said the fires were not a natural disaster because humans were contributing to climate change by burning coal.

“There will come a time when the Australian community shall look back on this moment and ask what we were doing to help as they were fighting fires on the front,” the Greens senator said.

Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John has described the major party politicians as “arsonists”. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

His furious spray is the latest escalation in an increasingly fierce climate change debate which has been inflamed by bushfires.

Greens MP Adam Bandt has blamed the unprecedented bushfires and “catastrophic” fire risk across two states on climate change, and even suggested Prime Minister Scott Morrison is partly responsible due to the government’s lack of action.

He said “Scott Morrison bears some responsibility and must apologise to the communities impacted”.

“We’re deeply saddened by the loss of life and our hearts go out to all the families and communities impacted, as well as the firefighters tackling these terrifying scenes,” said Mr Bandt in a statement.

“But words and concern are not enough. Unless we lead a global effort to quit coal and cut pollution, apocalyptic scenes like these will not only continue but get worse in the years to come.

“Just this week former fire chiefs warned the PM on national television that the climate crisis was making catastrophic bushfire risk worse and that Australia was unprepared.”

‘I DON’T CARE WHAT HE SAID’

Earlier today NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian dismissed a request from Mr Bandt to delay a bill that would expand the use of coal, as the state focuses on battling bushfires across the state.

Ms Berejiklian was asked about Mr Bandt’s request as she was about to finish up her interview with RN Breakfast host Hamish Macdonald, who asked if he could put the specific question to her.

“Can I put that to you before you disappear?” Macdonald asked.

“Sure you can but I hope it’s about what he’s doing to support communities affected by these tragedies,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“It’s not,” Macdonald admitted, “but I do need to give you a right of reply to it because he said it on air this morning”.

Ms Berejiklian quickly hit back with “I don’t care what he said, frankly” but told Macdonald to play it anyway.

Macdonald said it was just a simple question from Mr Bandt, who delivered a personal plea to Ms Berejiklian to put a bill on hold in parliament that would expand the use of coal, while the state of emergency was in force.

In response, Ms Berejiklian said: “I would say he stick to his community, and let us get on with the job of protecting the people of NSW. He should stick to issues regarding his electorate and his state.”

Ms Berejiklian said earlier in the interview that there was also a “time and a place” to discuss climate change but her focus was about saving lives and properties.

“For any of us on the ground, speaking to people traumatised, speaking to people fighting fires for weeks … know exactly what the priorities should be, and that is saving life and property and we can have these discussions any other time, let’s focus on making sure our communities are safe,” she said.

Macdonald also asked Ms Berejiklian to address a claim from the Fire Brigade Employees’ Union that the NSW government had cut funding to firefighting services.

“We’ve actually provided record funding to all of our frontline agencies,” she said.

LIVE: Emergency warning as fires across NSW and Queensland spread

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is seen during a visit to Club Taree Evacuation Centre in Taree, New South Wales, Sunday, November 10, 2019. Picture: Darren Pateman/AAP

She also pointed to comments from RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons yesterday that also dismissed the union’s claims as “rubbish”.

“Absolutely we dispute the figure,” she said.

“Is today the day for the union to make those comments? I mean I don’t want to get too upset, but today is a day we need to focus on saving lives,” Ms Berejiklian said.

GREENS MP DOUBLES DOWN ON COMMENTS

Greens MP Adam Bandt doubled down on his comments that the Prime Minister is partly responsible for the bushfires, saying the government had not done enough on climate change.

Mr Bandt sparked controversy on Saturday for his comments and elicited a heated response from Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, who accused the Greens MP of politicising the debate amid a fire emergency.

Mr McCormack told ABC RN on Monday that it galled him when “inner-city lefties” raised climate change in relation to bushfires.

“We’ve had fires in Australia since time began, and what people need now is a little bit of sympathy, understanding and real assistance. They need help, they need shelter,” Mr McCormack said.

“They don’t need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at this time, when they’re trying to save their homes, when in fact they’re going out in many cases saving other peoples’ homes and leaving their own homes at risk.”

However, Mr Bandt later tweeted that Mr McCormack was a “dangerous fool who is putting lives at risk”.

In an interview on RN this morning, Mr Bandt was asked whether he had gone too far in blaming the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister for the bushfire crisis.

“No, because the first duty of government should be to protect lives,” Mr Bandt said.

“They’re putting lives at risk, they’ve done everything within their power to make the risk of these bushfires worse.

“They’ve ignored some pretty clear warnings and attempts to meet from some former fire chiefs, who’ve said not only do we need to do more to cut pollution in order to minimise the risk but we’re not prepared for these kind of catastrophic bushfires, and they wouldn’t even meet with them.”

RN Breakfast host Hamish Macdonald pressed Mr Bandt though on whether shutting down the coal industry today would make any difference to the current bushfire risk.

“If we came up with a plan to get out of coal in the next 10 years … then yes we would decrease … the risk of fires like this happening,” Mr Bandt said.

Macdonald also pointed out that Mr Morrison and Mr McCormack had only been the leaders of their respective parties for a little over a year and questioned whether they were responsible.

But Mr Bandt the government had been in power for six years and had come up with the “so-called policies” that had helped deliver this scenario.

“We have been told for decades now that unless we keep coal in the ground and cut pollution drastically then the risk of fires like this is going to increase.”

Mr Bandt also rejected claims that The Greens had increased the fire risk due to the party’s objections to hazard reduction burns and backburning.

“We support hazard reduction,” he said. “We support effective and sustainable backburning strategies guided by the fire authorities, we will listen to what the fire authorities say is necessary,” he said.

Flames burn at Half Chain road at Koorainghat, part of the Hillville fire near Taree. Picture: Darren Pateman/AAP

However, he avoided questions of whether fire authorities were having difficulty accessing national parks for hazard reduction, saying it did not seem to be their “primary problem”.

Mr Bandt said fire authorities had made the point in recent days that it was harder to do effective backburning because fire seasons were getting longer due to climate change.

Backburning was becoming impractical because of increasing drought.

Mr Bandt noted that The Greens were not in power in the NSW Government and if people like Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce had issues with backburning, they should direct them to the Liberal Government.

While many people use the terms interchangeably, hazard reduction is done ahead of bushfire season to reduce the intensity of fires if they do happen, while backburning is done as a last resort to stop a fire that’s already burning.

WARNING LETTER IGNORED

A letter that tried to sound an urgent warning about the “grave danger” Australia was facing ahead of the bushfire season is at the centre of a row about the government’s response to climate change.

The correspondence has emerged as huge bushfires in two states — which have destroyed hundreds of homes and claimed the lives of at least three people — has ignited debate about the link between climate change and extreme weather.

Greens MP Adam Bandt suggested on Saturday the Prime Minister bore some responsibility for the bushfires because of what he perceived as a lack of climate change policy.

But Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack told ABC RN on Monday that people didn’t need the “ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at this time”.

Mr McCormack said it galled him when “inner-city lefties” raised climate change in relation to bushfires.

But RN Breakfast host Hamish Macdonald pointed out that it wasn’t just “inner city greenies” who were raising concerns, and said the Mayor of Glen Innes as well as a group of respected emergency service workers had also sounded the alarm.

Former commissioner of Fire & Rescue NSW Greg Mullins is one former emergency worker who is now part of a group called Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, which has been seeking an urgent meeting with the government since April.

Letters released to the ABC show the group’s frustrations as its meeting requests were ignored and delayed.

In an opinion piece published on Monday in The Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Mullins said the group, which includes 22 other retired fire and emergency service chiefs, felt they had a duty to tell people how climate change was “super-charging our natural disaster risks”.

“I wish we were wrong, but we’re not.”

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These are the letters sent by former NSW Fires Chief Greg Mullins and 22 other former emergency chiefs to the Prime Minister in April and September predicting a bushfire crisis and requesting a meeting. #nswfires #auspol pic.twitter.com/djhHjHknAe

— Zoe Daniel (@zdaniel) November 9, 2019

The first letter addressed to the PM from the group, which was sent in April, requested a meeting within three months to discuss how the Federal Government could help Australia better respond to climate change and prepare for growing national disaster risks.

A follow-up letter sent in September describes the group’s frustrations after Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor failed to get in touch, as promised by the PM’s office.

“Unfortunately, there was no contact from Mr Taylor’s office until last week when the matter of a meeting, coincidentally, was raised in parliament and the media,” the letter said.

Mr Mullins said that while Mr Taylor did eventually offer to meet the group on October 2, there were further delays when the minister later revealed he had not coordinated with Natural Disaster and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud, and suggested the group contact Mr Littleproud themselves.

“The Minister appears at best to be disinterested in what the Emergency Leaders might have to say,” Mr Mullins’ letter states.

“We are entering uncharted territory with worsening extreme weather; my fellow emergency services leaders and I are deeply concerned that we are not adequately prepared, and that our brave emergency services personnel and communities are in increasingly grave danger.”

The Climate Council has confirmed to news.com.au that the meeting still hasn’t taken place.

A spokesman for Mr Taylor issued a statement about the meeting saying: “Emergency Leaders for Climate Action were offered a meeting with Minister Taylor to raise their concerns. That offer to meet still stands”.

While many leaders have suggested it was not the right time to talk about climate change and the focus should be on the emergency response, Macdonald pushed back against Mr McCormack’s comments that it was not the right time for the debate.

“You are saying (that) now is not the time to talk about climate change and it’s connection with the fires,” Macdonald said.

“But it seems that April this year wasn’t, it seems that September this year wasn’t.

“When is the right time to have that conversation?”

DeputyÊPrime Minister Michael McCormack speaks to the media in Queensland Queensland on Sunday. Picture: Rob Maccoll/AAP

Mr McCormack said it was up to Mr Littleproud to organise the meeting.

“At the moment he’s going around the countryside making sure that people know that there is help, there is shelter, there is cash assistance available,” he said.

He added that some groups were “quite frankly … a front for something else” although he said he was “not discounting this group at all”.

“Sometimes you do meet them, these groups, and honestly, all they want to do is waste your time.”

On Sunday Mr McCormack described Mr Bandt’s comments “stupid and callous”.

“This is despicable,” he said.

“The fact is, the government does take climate change very seriously. The fact is we are meeting our international obligations and will continue to do so.”

Mr Bandt labelled Mr McCormack a “dangerous fool” who was putting lives at risk.

“Thoughts and prayers are not enough, we need science and action too,” Mr Bandt told reporters.

“They’ve done everything in their power to make these catastrophic fires more likely.

“When you cuddle coal in Canberra, the rest of the country burns.”

Labor senator Penny Wong said the immediate focus should be on firefighters battling the blazes, people at risk and those grieving lost loved ones.

“When we get through this, it is a responsible thing for us to focus on how we plan to keep Australians safe,” she told ABC radio.

“Warnings about a longer bushfire season and more intense fires have been on the table for a long time.”

Emergency Services Minister David Littleproud also said the climate change debate should wait.

“Let’s have those conversations in the cold, hard light of day after the event,” he said.

In NSW three people have been killed and 150 homes destroyed, and there are still 47 fires burning in Queensland.

Firefighters across Sydney and NSW are bracing for “catastrophic” conditions on Tuesday, with a state of emergency declared.

— With AAP