Antinuclear

The politicians talked about a great many things. But if you watched it on TV, the subtitles were about only one.

As Labor cycled through its list of grievances against the government, and the government rehashed its self-congratulatory talking points, the news crawl across the bottom of the screen announced a non-stop series of fire alerts.

Did the two worlds connect? At no point in an hour-and-a-quarter did the politicians discuss the most obvious and pressing concern for most of the people they represent.

The disconnect was emblematic of the week. Indeed, it’s an emerging motif of the Morrison government. There is no emerging crisis so big that the government cannot find a way to look past it.

Australia, parched, baking, burning, is heading into an anxious Christmas and a joyless new year. The Prime Minister sends his best wishes but he wants to get on with talking about his real priorities.

The final showcase moment for Parliament for the year only managed to showcase political self-absorption.

It’s just that it was all business as usual in Parliament. As if there were no accelerating national emergency. The disconnect is that it’s not business as usual for the rest of Australia……..

The government, having campaigned for re-election on a minimalist platform, wants to govern with a minimalist agenda. It seeks to deliver its promised agenda to its “base”, while ignoring other demands unless — and until — they become politically overwhelming.

The fires are a national emergency. They are an invitation to national leadership. And, therefore, they are an opportunity for Morrison to look beyond the 30 to 40 per cent of voters who constitute his “base” to making common cause with the other 60 to 70 per cent of the community. Besides, even “quiet Australians” are increasingly anxious ones. ……

The entire pyro-hydro complex of problems and solutions does lead, inevitably, to that most delicate political question of climate change mitigation. Morrison will have to brace his party to deal squarely with this, too. At the moment, he is in frozen immobility on this because he does not want to upset the internal Coalition truce on climate and coal. This will require of him active management. It will test his skills.

But this is all big and bold and demanding and, above all, risky. It’s far from the minimalist and incrementalist prime ministership that Morrison has kept to so far. More likely, he’ll just continue to preside over an unfolding disaster armed only with grudging, inadequate responses and an unending list of excuses and talking points. ……

We don’t need subtitles to explain the subtext. The country is in crisis and the national government is in denial. …https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/fire-what-fire-it-s-business-as-usual-in-morrison-s-canberra-bubble-20191206-p53hom.html