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The Prime Minister’s Hawaiian vacation may have been an ‘ill-timed smoko’, but it’s what we asked for, writes Joshua Dabelstein.
This is what we deserve.
People are dead and towns have been levelled.
We elected a party that promised to ignore anthropogenic climate change, and then we collectively howled in frustration as the Prime Minister fulfilled his mandate and literally went on holiday while we all came face-to-face with what happens when you pretend that an economy built on the destruction of the planet results in exactly that.
While the fires rage, the Coalition government has representatives at international climate conferences bartering for more lenient emissions reductions targets.
The country is on fire because the voting public made an informed decision to vote for this. This is a parliamentary democracy, not a tyranny presided over by a government we have no choice in.
It was only six months ago we elected these people; it was only six months ago we, as a nation, gave Scott Morrison the green light to behave exactly how he has behaved.
We elected a government that promised to do nothing, and although mocking the Prime Minister for going to Hawaii while half the country combusts has been good sport, it would be wildly dishonest of us as a nation to proclaim to have expected any more.
This man promised us a government that would do NOTHING about climate change, so why are so many of us so surprised, disappointed, and angry? So many people who voted for the Coalition seem to be shocked, and honestly, I’m shocked that they’re shocked.
We crossed our fingers and hoped it wouldn’t be like this, despite decades of evidence telling us to expect exactly what we’re now facing. Sure, Bill Shorten’s a bit wooden, and sure the Greens are a bit of a wank, but if you voted for the Coalition last May andare now being affected by the fires, I have no sympathy for you.
None at all.
You can’t play the ‘how could I have known’ card. I don’t care if your house burns down, because this was not just reasonably foreseeable, this was what we were all warned WOULD happen.
I’m prepared to cop the flack that saying what I’ve just said will earn me, just as you should have been prepared for the repercussions of voting for people who make a point of doing nothing about the health, wellbeing, and safety of this country and its inhabitants.
How anyone could, after these fires, still consider voting for any party that does not prioritize a shift towards renewable energy resources, is beyond me.
You’d have to be deluded to deliberately ignore the correlation between government policy and the health of our land. You’d have to be deluded to think that Morrison’s return from his holiday over the weekend will actually help the situation.
Even in his own press conference, Morrison let us know that he ‘won’t get on the end of a hose’.
His presence back in our country is merely symbolic. Coalition voters: this is your bed, now lie in it.
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