I'm doing what the Australian government won't – telling the truth about the climate crisis

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. This must have come as a surprise to his deputy, Michael McCormack, who in November called those who credit climate change “inner-city raving lunatics”; to Matt Canavan, the resources minister who in December dismissed climate change as a “bogeyman”; and to Morrison’s backbench colleague Craig Kelly, who just a few days ago mocked meteorologist Laura Tobin as an “ignorant Pommy weather girl” after she criticised the government’s handling of climate change on Good Morning Britain. But here’s the rub: either climate scientists are correct, in which case the wildfires are exceptional, even for the Australian summer; or the government is right, and this is normal Australian summertime weather. Viewed in the harsh light of the fires, the PM’s refusal to address an urgent request for new water tanker aircraft back in April, or New South Wales ’s reduction of the Rural Fire Service budget by some $26 million in spite of numerous warnings, appear less like acts of responsible government, and more like thunderous negligence. The government has also claimed repeatedly that emergency services are states’ responsibility, not the country’s – a claim that, while technically correct, was rejected by the political scientist and journalist Peter Van Onselen who, in an understandably frustrated tweet, pointed to Canberra’s fiscal control and historic tendency to intervene at will.