Net zero ticker: Despair as Coalition fails climate test
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February 11, 2021 12.05am
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Credit:Fairfax Media
I now feel a total sense of hopelessness and despair (“Net zero action: Cabinet shuns climate laws”, February 10). All sense of urgency to ensure the safety of future generations and biodiversity on this planet is being completely ignored and used as
a political plaything. What can we possibly do, as citizens of this country, to convey this utter despair to our supposed leaders? Anything?
Judy Hungerford, North Curl Curl
Just about every institution – including state governments, business, unions and farming groups – want net zero emissions by 2050 to be legislated. But the Coalition federal government still demurs. Scott Morrison is fearful that the same fate is in store for him that was meted out to Turnbull.
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More than 100 homes were damaged in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, which took a $65 million hit.
Blue Mountains Council has submitted 24 grant proposals for local projects worth $5.4 million, which have all been rejected. We lost the same number of homes as the Hawkesbury, we lost 70 per cent of our world heritage area, mayor Mark Grenhill told the Sydney Morning Herald. Fire crews were out day after day, night after night and we were surrounded by fire from three sides leaving our communities traumatised so surely Blue Mountains deserved something.
The Byron council area in the state s far north (in red) suffered a $88 million economic loss in the horror bushfires of last summer
Premium Content When its comes to dishing out bushfire recovery money, politicians should remain colour blind. Labor shouldn t just see red, Liberals shouldn t just see blue, and Greens should represent every colour under the rainbow, not just green. The Berejiklian Government is rightly having the blowtorch applied to its belly over its handling of the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery fund. Every fair-minded person would probably assume this money is dished out fairly on a needs basis. The neediest areas, after the horrendous 2019-20 bushfire season, are pretty obvious for everyone to see. While plenty of infrastructure burnt down and needs to be replaced, there s also still plenty of people living in caravans and tents waiting for money to flow.
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Three NSW council areas that suffered more than $300 million in economic damage from last year’s bushfires did not receive any funding from a state and federal program as the Berejiklian government prepares to defend the scheme by arguing the vast majority of destruction occurred in Coalition-held seats.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has also confirmed to the Parliament that the $177 million Bushfire Local Economic Recovery fund – which has been criticised for favouring Coalition electorates – was distributed without any application forms in order to “get funding flowing as quickly as possible”.
Southern NSW Map showing the impact of last summer’s bushfires on NSW electorates.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro defends his Government's handling of bushfire economic recovery grants, saying areas that missed out didn't meet the criteria.