Actually, it is climate change

The quote you are about to read did not come from Scott Morrison, although our prime minister repeatedly invoked the same sentiments this week, every time someone asked him about the role of climate change in eastern Australia’s unprecedented bushfires.

Firefighters from the ACT on watch and act near Possum
 Brush, just south of Taree, NSW, on Tuesday.

“This sort of response isn’t helpful. Families are mourning. Offer a prayer and temper your desire for politics …”

Nor is this next quote from New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who deemed it “inappropriate” to talk about the causes of climate change while her state was burning: “This is a time for people to grieve, to mourn, and to heal. This is not a time for political discussions or public policy debates.”

Those words aren’t attributable to Barnaby Joyce or Michael McCormack, or John Barilaro, or any of the other advocates of a bigger Australian fossil fuel industry. Nor was it Joel Fitzgibbon, or other “coalies” on the Labor side.

Actually, the quotes come from the United States’ National Rifle Association. The first was in response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, in which nearly 60 people were killed and more than 400 were injured. The second came after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 died and 17 were wounded.

Read the story from The Saturday Paper by Mike Seccombe — “Actually, it is climate change.”