Bushfires: Scott Morrison courts states for fire inquiry

Scott Morrison will seek state support­ for an inquiry into the bushfire crisis, reopening debate over climate change policies.

The Prime Minister told his backbench in a phone hook-up on Thursday that the inquiry could take the form of a royal commission or judicial inquiry. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison will seek state support­ to convene a wide-ranging­ national inquiry into the bushfire crisis, reopening debate over his government’s climate change policies and putting the spotlight on Greens’ opposition to land clearing and fuel management in national parks.

The Prime Minister told his backbench in a phone hook-up on Thursday that the inquiry could take the form of a royal commission or judicial inquiry, but must be undertaken with state support to ensure it examined “all of the factors involved” in the crisis.

Amid international media criticism of Australia’s emissions policies, Mr Morrison also warned his MPs off interviews with overseas media outlets — a reference to Liberal back­bencher Craig Kelly’s trainwreck British TV interview in which he was attacked as a climate change denier.

Mr Morrison sought to soothe concerns over the initial response to the crisis — including a political advertisement that attracted widespread criticism — telling MPs the government was communic­ating “in the same way as we always­ have”, and that only the context had changed.

The call came after key members­ of the Prime Minister’s staff privately urged MPs not to engage in public discussions about the government’s climate change policies until the bushfires were extinguished and the recovery phase was under way.

Mr Morrison told the ABC’s 7.30 program that despite suggestions to the contrary, “Australia is doing its share” to address climate change.

“The government accepts the need to take action on climate change, and we are,” he said.

“Many have suggested that that’s not the case. I’m sorry — the actions­ speak loudly in terms of the fact that emissions under our government are 50 million tonnes a year less, on average, than they were under the government that preceded us. They have fallen in the last two years.”

However, a number of Liberal backbenchers told The Australian the scale of bushfire disaster would require a recalibration of the government’s climate change policies and rhetoric, amid a surge in community concern.

One raised the unprecedented 48.9C temperature last Saturday in Penrith, in the western Sydney Liberal-held seat of Lindsay, saying­ MP Melissa McIntosh had been confronted by constituents raising climate change as an issue.

Another said there was a view in the party that the Coalition won last year’s election “in spite of our climate change policies, not because of them”, and the party would be more vulnerable on the issue at the election due in 2022.

Any reconsideration by the government of its climate policies would risk a fresh internal battle within the Coalition, given the importan­ce pro-coal Queens­land seats played in the government’s election win.

After a backlash over his initial handling of the fires, Mr Morrison assured his backbenchers the governmen­t was doing everything it could to respond to the crisis­ that has killed 25 people and destroyed 2131 homes.

He said unprecedented resource­s were being dedicated to fighting the fires and helping those affected, and a major recovery package was being put together to get communities on their feet.

This would include an “initial and urgent” $60m cash injection into 42 bushfire-affected local government areas, including $1m per council and $18m to be spent at the discretion of bushfire recovery co-ordinator Andrew Colvin.

Announcing the move, Mr Morrison said: “Our local governments are the governments on the ground when it comes to trying to respond to these types of crises.

“They need that immediate cash injection to ensure that they can move confidently and start to respond to what is happening.”

The Prime Minister suggested earlier that he was open to a royal commission, after calls by Anthony Albanese and bushfire-hit communities. His signal that he will push for one that includes the states appears to make the inquiry inevitable, and will allow it to examine state-level responsibilities such as hazard reduction burning­, land clearing and national park management, as well as ­federal issues such as resourcing for the states and the nation’s climat­e change policies.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has begun the task of shifting the government’s climate change narrative, telling the UN climate change conference in Madrid last month that Australia felt new technology was central to achieving lower carbon emissions.

“We can only reduce emissions as fast as the deployment of commercially viable technologies allow,” Mr Taylor said. “Our long-term strategy to reduce emissions is focused­ on deploying cost-­effective technologies and we will be releasing­ a more detailed technol­ogy strategy next year.”

Domestic criticism of federal emissions policies has been fuelled by international media attacks, including­ a call by ITV’s Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan­ for Mr Kelly to “wake up” to the impact of climate change.

Mr Kelly, a key opponent of Malcolm Turnbull’s national ener­gy­ guarantee, told The Australian after Thursday’s conference call that he would refrain from further interviews with overseas outlets. “You have to listen to your Prime Minister,” the Sydney MP said.

However, he continued to argue that deeper emissions cuts would have done nothing to ­prevent the bushfires because “Australia’s man-made contribu­tion is around 1.3 per cent” of global carbon emissions.