Scott Morrison urges calm amid bushfires, smoke haze
Scott Morrison has defended the Coalition’s policies as critics seize on the fire season to demand larger emissions cuts.
Scott Morrison has called for calm over the bushfire haze blanketing Sydney and other cities, while defending the government’s climate change policies in the face of critics who have seized on a catastrophic fire season to demand deeper emissions cuts.
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It comes as thousands gathered in Sydney on Wednesday to demand climate change action in the midst of a devastating bushfire season which has destroyed more than 700 homes and seen smoke pollution blanket much of NSW.
The Prime Minister defended the government’s response on Thursday, saying that while the haze was “unusual”, it was important to have a sense of calm as Australia was “meeting and beating” its emissions reduction goals.
“I know how unusual it is to see that haze across my city and I know how distressing that has been, particularly for young people, who wouldn’t have seen that before,” he said. “I think it is important to have a sense of calm about these matters and calm on the basis of information, which says Australia is reducing our emissions.”
Mr Morrison said Australia was taking action and getting results, while urging for conflicting voices to come together at a time of natural disaster.
“What I’m saying is Australia is meeting and beating our emissions reduction targets and our emissions are around 50 million tonnes lower on average over the term of our government than what we inherited,” he said.
“We’ll continue to meet our commitments when it comes to Kyoto. We will overexceed on Kyoto by 411 million tonnes. We have our Paris targets, which we are absolute committed too as well.”
The ongoing blazes courted controversy within the Liberal Party on Wednesday as NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean broke ranks to blame climate change for the fires.
“We’ve got to stop making climate change a matter of religion and we’ve got to start making it a matter of science and the science says that we need to reduce the impact of global warming by 2C and in order to do that we need to get to net-zero emissions by 2050,” Mr Kean told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian later said her government accepted the reality of climate change but she stopped short of linking it to the bushfires.
Liberal MP Jason Falinski took to Twitter on Thursday to throw his support behind his NSW colleague, saying “Matt Kean is right. Climate change is contributing to the fire situation. We need to take practical steps at home, and be ambitious abroad.”
@Matt_KeanMP is right. Climate change is contributing to the fire situation. We need to take practical steps at home, and be ambitious abroad. #auspol
— Jason Falinski MP (@JasonFalinskiMP) December 11, 2019
But Mr Morrison threw cold water over suggestions Mr Kean and Mr Falinski’s comments showed signs of discontent within the Coalition ranks when it came to addressing climate change.
“No. I know that all of my government is focused on taking action on climate change. Because we should be and we are.”
Earlier on Thursday Mr Morrison announced an extra $11 million for aerial firefighting efforts after coming under immense pressure to respond to the NSW bushfire crisis.
For weeks he has insisted professional and volunteer firefighters have all the resources they need.
The immediate cash injection will allow the National Aerial Firefighting Centre to buy more aircraft or extend current leases.
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