Adam Bandt defends Jordon Steele-John’s ‘arsonists’ comment

Greens MP Adam Bandt has defended a colleague’s description of the government as ‘borderline arsonists’.

Greens federal MP Adam Bandt has defended comments likening the government to arsonists.

Greens MP Adam Bandt has ­defended senator Jordon Steele-John, who last week likened the ­Coalition to “arsonists” over its ­climate change policy, declaring the “emotional” comments were acceptable because his colleague was “terrified” about the climate crisis.

On a day of catastrophic fire danger in NSW last week, Senator Steele-John attacked Labor and the Coalition for being “no better than a bunch of arsonists” for supporting laws that could help the coal industry to continue.

Mr Bandt on Sunday told the ABC that Senator Steele-John’s comments were not out of line. “I think you should listen to the emotion in Jordon Steele-John’s voice as he’s talking there,’’ he told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.

“I think he’s the youngest member of parliament, he’s part of the generation that’s terrified and aghast with what they’re seeing with the climate crisis.

“People may quibble about the words that are used, but I would urge people to listen to the point Mr Steele-John was making.”

Greens leader Richard Di ­Natale sparked fury from both major parties last week when he said the nation’s emissions policy had caused the catastrophic fires that killed four and destroyed hundreds of homes along Australia’s east coast.

The move saw senior Coalition and Labor MPs attack the Greens for suggesting climate change policies were responsible.

Mr Bandt told the ABC on Sunday he had no regrets about inflaming tensions over the catastrophic bushfires that burnt through Queensland and NSW.

He said Scott Morrison had been “put on notice” on climate change.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson told The Australian on Sunday that someone needed to explain to Mr Bandt and Senator Steele-John that the Greens were “founded on opposing renewable energy investment in Tasmania”.

Labor senator Kim Carr said while most people in the Senate chamber found Senator Steele-John’s comments “jarring”, there was “a way of disagreeing strongly with a measure of civility”.

Quizzed about inflammatory language that earned the bipartisan ­rebuke last week, Mr Bandt said if Australia continued to export coal, global warming and lethal bushfire conditions would continue to get worse. “If we keep digging up coal at the rate of knots that we’re doing at the moment, it is going to contribute to making global warming worse,” he said.

“And that is going to make bushfires like this more likely and more intense when they happen.”

Mr Bandt called on the Morrison government to act, saying the current spate of fires had occurred with just 1C of warming when a 3C increase was expected. “Unless the government gets the climate crisis under control and reins in the use of coal, this generation is going to rise up with a fury matched only by the intensity of the fires.

“So people may quibble about the words that are used but I would urge people to have a listen to the point that Jordon was making.”

Labor frontbencher Stephen Jones on Sunday said some politicians had let themselves down during the debate. He told Sky News he wanted the opposition to remain focused on climate change, concentrating on jobs in renewable energy.

“If you talk to the fireys on the frontline, they get the fact they’ve got an emergency to deal with, but they also get the fact that our ­climate is changing,” he said.