Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has called for Australia to respond to the bushfire crisis by “showing leadership” on climate change.
Speaking to Karl Stefanovic on Channel 9’s Today show Monday morning, the former deputy leader of the Liberal party said Australia should form a “coherent” national energy policy to address climate change.
“Countries do look to Australia for direction, for guidance, for leadership,” Bishop said.
“We should be showing leadership on the issue of climate change.
“At the international conferences, Australia should be putting forward a cogent, coherent case for an energy policy. We don’t have a national energy policy in this country and a national approach to climate change, so we are part of a global effort.
“If a country like Australia fails to show leadership, we can hardly blame other nations for not likewise showing leadership in this area.”
Bishop also addressed the criticism over Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s response to the bushfires, saying he was “doing the best he can” and that the announcement of a national bushfire recovery agency was a “very welcome” decision.
“It has to be a national effort. And I think people are feeling a range of emotions and they are angry, they are frustrated, they are fearful. And they are also fearing what lies ahead,” she said.
“So all of our leaders need to show the compassion and care to address the needs that people have, and people need to be reassured that their leaders are listening and that every arm of government is co-operating and working together.”
Greens leader Richard Di Natale told ABC Radio on Monday the bushfires “should be a wake-up call to every single member of the political establishment in Australia”.
“The reality is we’ve had a prime minister who has chosen to effectively work as a lobbyist for the coal industry at a time when he should have been keeping Australians safe,” Di Natale said.
Morrison previously claimed there is no direct link between Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and the severe bushfires.
“Climate change is a global phenomenon and we’re doing our bit as part of the response to climate change – we’re taking action on climate change,” he said in November.
“But I think to suggest that at just 1.3 per cent of emissions, that Australia doing something more or less would change the fire outcome this season – I don’t think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all.”
Ex-fire service chiefs, including former NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Greg Mullins and NSW’s first rural fire commissioner Phil Koperberg, have called for climate change to be addressed to reduce the intensity of the bushfires.
Mullins said climate change “makes the drought much worse, and we see these mega fires that we just can’t put out”.
“Mother Nature is not fooled by dodgy accounting, she just sees the CO2 go up,” he said. “It is not normal, it hasn’t happened like this before. We can’t fix the past so let’s start now and fix the base cause, which is the burning of coal and gas.
“Let’s look after the future and let’s give our firefighters and emergency services the tools to save lives and homes.”
