The world is talking about us. A summer of unprecedented bushfires has given our little old antipodean politics and policies the kind of global media attention normally reserved for knifing sitting prime ministers.
Even then, coverage of our apparent love of political assassination tends to pass in a day or so. The fires — and the climate policy debate surrounding them — has kept Australia top of mind for weeks.
Here is what the global media and opinion makers have been saying.
A coal-loving leader
When Scott Morrison brought a lump of coal into parliament in 2017 to wave at the opposition benches, it was dismissed as a cheap question time stunt.
But, two years later, it’s been widely used by foreign outlets as evidence of the prime minister’s deep fealty to the coal industry and his failure to challenge the dangerous reality of climate change. The Washington Post, for example, led a recent article with the question time anecdote, calling Morrison a “coal-loving leader”.
Morrison’s poor performance, including an ill-conceived Hawaiian holiday, has been the subject of scathing foreign coverage.
A Financial Times editorial labelled him a “cheerful volunteer in the divisive climate battles” and condemned his “regrettable lack of leadership”.
The Irish Times editors accused the prime minister of perpetuating “environmental fraud”, and attacked his “distinct form of climate science denial”.
Morrison’s approach to climate has also drawn unsavoury comparisons to other world leaders in the American media. The New Yorker called him a “Donald Trump-like figure”. New York Magazine suggested his denialism was akin to that of Trump or Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
International reporting has also focussed on the relationship between the coal industry and conservative politics in Australia.
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle called Australia the canary building the coalmine, and claimed politicians are blinded by mining fortunes. Scientists, meanwhile, are “looking aghast at the politics of climate change in Australia”, BBC environmental analyst Roger Harrabin wrote.
The role of the Murdoch press — in spreading climate disinformation and providing unflinching support for the Coalition — has also been the subject of detailed coverage in the The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. The Daily Beast meanwhile broke a story on rifts in the Murdoch clan over denialism.
The Coalition v the world
The attacks on Morrison continued from quarters that might once have been sympathetic. British TV host Piers Morgan, who is pro-Brexit and chummy with Donald Trump, attacked the Australian prime minister for his handling of the crisis, and later grilled rogue backbencher Craig Kelly on his morning show on the same topic.
Even the Daily Mail, known for its right-wing editorial stance, turned against Morrison, declaring the prime minister’s handling of the crisis to be a “trainwreck”.
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, politicians from both sides of the aisle, including several Tories, criticised the Coalition’s position, and urged the UK government to guide Australia towards greater action on climate.
The Morrison government’s big opportunity to reclaim the narrative came at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, where the bushfire crisis has put climate change centre stage.
But attendees were already using the forum as another opportunity to attack the government. On Tuesday, filmmaker Lynette Wallworth used a speech at the forum to call Morrison a “dinosaur ally” over his support for fossil fuels.
Australia’s involvement at Davos, however, was meant to be minimal. According to Politico, which called Australia the world’s “the latest climate villain”, the WEF did not initially invite Finance Minister Mathias Cormann to its panel on the bushfires.
Eventually, Cormann did get an invite, and tried to correct the record, arguing the idea Australia doesn’t pull its weight on climate change is “an assertion that suits the narrative of some commentators”.
But after months of fierce media criticism, and with everything from Morrison’s deep commitment to coal to his Hawaiian holiday subject to international reporting, Cormann’s reassurances appeared too little too late.
I submit the reason Morrison took the coal into Parliament was only partly to mock Labor and the Greens. His other motivation was to establish/ reinforce his credentials as a safe pair of hands to the LNP right wing conservatives who had made plain their dissatisfaction with Turnbull.
Morrison was right when he stood in the parliament, lump of coal in hand. We need not fear coal, it’s just a lump of fossilised remains, a lump of solid carbon. No, indeed, do not fear it. Fear instead the man whose hand it was in, and the men and women who sat behind him with gleeful faces uttering glib support. Oh, yes, fear them for they can wreck havoc upon you, your children and your grandchild. A simple lump of coal cannot.
So the rest of the world is on to Scotty, eh?
Damn! That means we can’t even give him away …
Ah yes, Cormann on Trump’s speech at Davos “… I thought it was fantastic.”, he actually said. Well it was fantasy anyway, just like the idea that Cormann is a competent finance minister.
Leo, you spelt Mathias last name wrong, its CONMAN, not Corman
Thank you Darius Horsham.
morrison may not last, either, despite his cunning.
Recall that in 2015 leading US power lobby group Council on Foreign Relations was of the view that abbott was then the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy:
“abbott’s policies have been all over the map, and the lack of coherence has often made the Prime Minister seem ill-informed and incapable of understanding complex policy issues … He also looked completely baffled on climate change issues at the G20 summit in Australia last year. abbott has proven so incapable of clear policy thinking, so unwilling to consult with even his own ministers and advisers, and so poor at communicating that he has to go … “
Contrast morrison with abbott.
morrison’s policies have been extraordinarily narrow, and the refusal to engage on so many issues has often made the Prime Minister seem in utter denial and contemptuous of understanding complex policy issues … He also looked so arrogantly disdainful on climate change issues when he went on his secret holiday to Hawaii while Eastern Australia was burning. morrison “has proven so contemptuous of clear policy thinking, so unwilling to consult with even his own ministers and advisers, and so wilfully blind to the national interest that he has to go … “
Do not confuse media adulation of scummo, nor even his ruthlessness and cunning, as guaranteeing permanency. morrison’s very very deliberately offensive condescension simply continues the years of domineering aggression to which our media has grovelled – but now we are all very openly seeing the real him.
Morrison is on borrowed, time a dead P.M walking, Dutton was and is Murdochs preferred P.M and any intelligent onlooker knows in the coalition what Rupert wants Rupert gets, news ltd and the 2GB shock jocks will soon get their orders from news H.Q to start the undermining of Scomo and the Humanising of Dutton, that’s when we will know the end is nigh for Scomo, tic toc, clocks ticking
How can you ‘humanise’ Dutton???? He has won the ‘Arsehat of the year’ so often now that last year he was not even considered for the title as no-one else then had a chance!!