Turnbull knows better than to deny fire weather link to climate change

Raising the issue of the role of climate change in extreme weather events is always a delicate matter for families battling grief over lost homes and emergency service teams managing the aftermath.

Malcolm Turnbull visit burned out homes in Tathra on Monday.

But that doesn't mean the rest of us can't have a discussion about the issues. If not now, when?

Malcolm Turnbull echoed the comments of his deposed predecessor Tony Abbott when he visited Tathra, the NSW south coastal town hit with huge fires amid record-breaking March heat.

Abbott in 2013 declared in the wake of Blue Mountain bushfires that destroyed 200 homes that "these fires are certainly not a function of climate change, they're a function of life in Australia”.

Unlike Abbott, though, Turnbull is not a denier of climate change, having taken personal efforts to school himself in the issue with scientists from the University of NSW well before becoming Prime Minister.

Read the comment by Peter Hannam from The Age - “Turnbull knows better than to deny fire weather link to climate change.”