Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese met with the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) group of 29 former emergency services chiefs.
This is the same group that Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison pointedly refused to meet in the months leading up to the current national climate emergency and still refuses to meet.
As widespread bushfire destruction grows like a cancer across the landscape, Morrison displayed a characteristic that is becoming a feature of his prime ministership - he bolted for cover without a word of warning on the evening of 15 December 2019.
This time at some undisclosed overseas 'holiday' destination.
On that evening according to the NSW Rural Fire Service; At 11:30pm, more than 2,000 personnel continue work on the 108 bush and grass fires burning across NSW, with 57 not yet contained. One fire remains at Emergency Warning and a further two fires at the Watch and Act alert level.
On the evening Morrison slunk out of Australia, fires were also burning in Western Australia,South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland, according to official Twitter feeds of all five state firefighting services.
Statement by ELCA published in the Echo NetDaily, 17 December 2019:
Greg Mullins, former Commissioner, Fire & Rescue NSW, said the group are deeply concerned with the unprecedented scale and ferocity of the current bushfire crisis. ‘Summer has barely begun but record numbers of homes have been lost in Queensland and NSW, major cities have been shrouded in smoke and destructive fires are burning across Australia.
‘Climate change is the key driver to the worsening conditions but the Federal Government remains in denial as far as credible action on emissions goes......
On behalf of the group Mr Mullins said they feel a duty to fill Canberra’s leadership vacuum on the fires and will call our own national emergency summit after the current bushfire season to bring together a range of interested parties to look at how we can adapt to a far more dangerous environment. ‘The safety and well-being of communities, firefighters, and wildlife is on the line.
‘Our coalition of concerned leaders is growing, and we are not going away until we see action that matches the scale and urgency of the climate emergency and gives some hope for future generations,’ he said.
ELCA is releasing in full the list of recommendations it provided to Minister David Littleproud and Minister Angus Taylor in early December.....
It is also worth noting that Morrison left the country the evening before the negative MYEFO 2019 was released which clearly showed the national economy was a long way from being robust under his leadership.
Morrison was clearly enjoying himself when discovered on social media at Waikiki Beach in Hawaii.....
However his mood had obviously changed when public anger caused him to announce he was returning to Australia two days earlier than planned.....
Morrison's Hawaiian jaunt was his third holiday in 2019.
