Drought doubts.

Is Labor’s drought “war cabinet” its answer to conflict fatigue? Can Australians trust Joel Fitzgibbon, who wants to lower Opposition ambition on emissions reduction, to work with the Coalition’s climate deniers – particularly among the Nationals – and come up with a rational drought policy? The idea is riddled with contradictions. Bipartisanship cannot be an end in itself, especially when the federal government is full of bad faith. The Future Drought Fund remains unspent. The promise to build more dams – whether or not one agrees with it – has been broken. The Murray–Darling Basin has been trashed. A handful of irrigators hold gigalitres in storage while rural towns and rivers run dry. As drought envoy, Barnaby Joyce delivered diddly squat. Minister for Water Resources David Littleproud is all over the shop when it comes to climate change. The final report of drought coordinator-general Stephen Day remains hidden, while the government prays for rain. Who could bipartisan with that?

Shadow minister for agriculture Joel Fitzgibbon.

The National Farmers Federation yesterday called for a drought committee and a drought forum to come up with measures that will build on COAG’s National Drought Agreement and end the reactive drought policy cycle. NFF President Fiona Simson said on ABC Radio’s RN Breakfast this morning that the NFF was calling for, in a word, “planning”. Getting nearer to the nub of the issue, Simson said the country should be planning for regular droughts, adding “if you think of climate change they could well be much worse and exacerbated by those impacts”. Simson stopped short of calling for the government to raise its ambitions on climate, however.

Minister for Water Resources David Littleproud followed up with his own circular Joh-speak, telling RN Breakfast that “our response has been one of being responsive to the situation as it evolves”. Right. Littleproud went on to blather about the government spending millions to help farmers adapt to climate change, which makes no sense when the government is also subsidising the fossil-fuel industry to the tune of billions to make the climate change faster – and is also helping farmers embark on a land-clearing spree that will do likewise, as Guardian Australia reports today. Adaptation without real mitigation is idiotic.

Read the story from The Monthly by Paddy Manning - “Drought doubts.”