Australia was once — just a few months ago — a carefree nation abundant with wildlife and bushland. Now, we are the nation on fire. And the world is watching on in horror.
Just how are we perceived abroad — and what effect will the bushfires have on our economy?
Concerts cancelled and campuses closed
Australia is known for its large-scale sporting events, world-renowned universities and epic music festivals (well, everywhere outside NSW at least).
But events have been cancelled en masse: revellers have been left disappointed after Falls Festival, Rainbow Serpent and Lost Paradise music festivals were all cancelled due to extreme weather. The World Rally Championship was axed, a Big Bash match abandoned, and the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge called off.
In NSW, more than a dozen local agricultural events have been called off for the first time since World War II.
At Sydney Festival, acclaimed theatre production Opening Night was cancelled due to poor air quality from the smoke (a decision made not by Sydney Festival but by the play’s French production company).
Australian National University (ANU) campuses in Canberra were also closed for several days over the Christmas break, to “ensure the safety of the ANU community” and “minimise the number of people on campus as it faced the ongoing challenges of smoke and intermittent power outages”. An ANU spokesperson told Crikey they had received queries from international agents about the fires and smoke.
Sydney University also issued a statement, reassuring students the fires were not affecting the city directly. “The situation in Sydney is fundamentally safe and we look forward to welcoming you to our community,” the statement read.
Where the bloody hell are the tourists?
In the last financial year, tourists spent a record $44.6 billion roaming the country. But international ministries have started to update their travel advice, with Singapore advising travellers to “exercise vigilance” and the US state department warning travellers to “exercise increased caution”.
Meanwhile, Tourism Australia has indefinitely paused the $15 million “Matesong” ad running in the UK, with shots of pristine beaches and verdant bushland at odds with the hazy reality.
Margy Osmond, chief executive of Tourism & Transport Forum says tourists — both domestic and international — have already started to cancel their plans to visit.
“I hear that from our Tourism & Transport members that the knock-on effect is happening in terms of cancellation. It isn’t straightforward at this point to quantify the impact,” she said. “We see this in terms of bookings across our membership sector.”
While Osmond stresses travellers stay safe and heed government travel advice, she says planning a holiday is more important now than ever.
“What we need to do now is support those who have been affected as well as support those who are still open for business,” she said. “We are looking at so many small operators here which both themselves and their staff depend on their regular weekly paycheck.”
Developers and investors not fazed by the haze
While foreign ownership of Australian land is a contentious issue, there’s no doubt it brings in the big bucks. Chinese developers alone purchased 31% of total sites sold in 2018, worth $1.3 billion. Foreign investment peaked in 2015-16 at $72 billion (but hit a near-decade low in 2017-18 at $13 billion).
According to Marc Giuffrida, head of real estate advisory firm CBRE, the fires won’t affect these numbers. “There has been no mention of the bushfires affecting Australia’s attractiveness as a destination for our real estate investors,” he told Crikey.
“Whilst investors have different drivers, the common theme is that they are attracted to Australia’s economic and political stability and growth prospects relative to their home market and other destinations.”
But from upset party-goers and concerned students to inconvenienced holiday-makers and stranded tourists, in the eyes of the globe Australia is moving away from being a land of milk and honey to a land of ashes and denialism.
The industries not feeling the heat in this crisis are the miners and oil and gas sectors. While the PM has an open cheque book for those affected by the fires, the fossil fuel companies can continue spewing carbon and methane without any price signal on their pollution and its consequences. Instead the taxpayer is funding Australia’s pathetic carbon pollution reduction program while the fossil fuel industries wallow in public subsidies.
Let’s get on with it, it’s clearly the best option. Any politicians that are attempting to block it should be kicked out
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“Australia has been burning in an apocalyptic fashion consistent with the “earlier, for longer” bushfire seasons that climate science predicted a decade ago. That’s as close to a physics room experiment as we are going to get on this in Australia.”
https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/the-carbon-tax-that-will-work-20200115-p53rmk
Let’s get on with it, it’s clearly the best option. Any politicians that are attempting to block it should be kicked out
➖➖➖➖➖
“Australia has been burning in an apocalyptic fashion consistent with the “earlier, for longer” bushfire seasons that climate science predicted a decade ago. That’s as close to a physics room experiment as we are going to get on this in Australia.”
https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/the-carbon-tax-that-will-work-20200115-p53rmk
Just on Kangaroo Island, tourism will struggle. There are basically no tourists there right now, not surprising when there are still 6 noteworthy hot spots. Fires burned to the edge of Kingscote airport.
They have to fully put the fires out and for that significant rain is required (not likely anytime soon).
Once that is done, there is the eastern (Penneshaw) end of the island which is unaffected. While it has some beautiful areas, it’s not something tourists will travel thousands of km to see.
The western end needs some to a lot of infrastructure rebuilding. A little damage close to Kingscote, a fair bit at Parndana, a great deal at Vivone Bay, and completely trashed at Flinders Chase NP.
Arguably tourists could return to Seal Bay, Admiral’s Arch, and the Remarkable Rocks once this is done. Sadly though, the National Park is currently a wasteland, and land wildlife has basically disappeared. If we are lucky, in 10 years flora and fauna might rebuild to scenic numbers. It looks like in some cases though extinctions will follow.
Residents mostly still have homes, but many depending on tourism will lose businesses and jobs. Even businesses such as fishing charters are struggling right now.
Agriculture has been hit hard as well. Excepting those in the east, farmers are lucky if they have lost less than 3/4 of their stock.
Runaway global heating has tipping points, some environmental, some political, some economic. For Australia, the apocalyptic fires that the denialists are still trying to wave away are the tipping point for them all. No-one disputes that while something remains to burn, they will recur every year. Never mind, too, the summers of smog, have we forgotten that Sydney may face a 1-in-100 year flood event almost every day well before 2100?
Abandonment of those marginalised through global heating is the natural capitalist reaction. Decades of class warfare by the filthy rich has greatly strengthened that approach, yet it is ultimately suicidal for us all. Internal climate-change refugees are occurring only on a small scale at the moment (e.g. Grantham in Qld was relocated after the 2011 floods); but as is being spectacularly demonstrated by the current gross failures “our” Misgovernments are deeply hostile to facing up to any positive action, let alone the bigger crises.
Assisting potential climate-change refugees to stay where they are has big benefits.
Firstly it forces our ruling clique to allow the adaption so necessary to do so, an adaptation to which morrison’s utter hostility to any financial support is simply the most official example.
Secondly destitute climate change refugees would unavoidably destabilise less threatened regions as they drift to the fringes of the cities. They would not yet be treated with the same hatred and contempt as boat refugees.
Thirdly, financing them to develop adaptive sunrise industries would retain their economic capacity as well as that of their region. It would also provide a model; no wonder the Right loathes such positions.