Nationals senator Matt Canavan compares tackling climate change with Taliban retaking Afghanistan
Former cabinet minister Matt Canavan has sparked outrage by linking more ambitious goals with the taking over . The Taliban seized the capital Kabul almost two decades after US-led forces ousted the Islamist group from power following the September 11 attacks. Between 2001 and 2013, 41 Australian troops were killed as part of the longest-ever American war against militant fundamentalists, who oppose girls getting an education and systematically rape and enslave women. The Taliban also executed gay men and blew up the sixth century Buddhas of Bamiyan statues during their time in power between 1995 and 2001. On a dark day for the liberal, free world Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan, a cabinet minister until February 2020, likened climate change mitigation plans with Islamist insurgents. 'Does anyone know whether the Taliban will sign up to net zero?' he tweeted. Former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Michael McCormack described Senator Canavan's comments as 'disappointing, insensitive and unnecessary'. 'To compare climate policy with the bloodshed on the streets of Kabul is out of place and unworthy of a member of the Australian Parliament,' he tweeted. 'Our thoughts today should be for the Afghan people & the families of our brave fallen Diggers.' Senator Canavan, a former resources minister and Productivity Commission economist who supports the coal industry, also sparked broader social media outrage. 'This is a disgraceful comment you should remove this,' one critic said. An offended woman said: 'How dare you.' But one man saw the funny side about the Taliban seizing control in South Asia, where Buddhism was once the dominant religion. 'There's a good chance they'll take the country back to the pre-industrial age,' he said. US President Joe Biden in April announced troops would be withdrawn by September 11 but on August 16, the Taliban seized control of the Presidential Palace in Kabul. A Taliban commander claimed he spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay in a triumphant speech from inside the Presidential Palace as the militants declared an Islamic state of Afghanistan after the country's president joined thousands of Afghan nationals in a mass exodus. Taliban fighters marched into the ancient palace on Sunday and demanded a 'peaceful transfer of power' as the capital city descended into chaos, with US helicopters evacuating diplomats from the embassy in scenes echoing the 1975 Fall of Saigon which followed the Vietnam War. There were chaotic scenes at Kabul airport where thousands of desperate Afghans are gathering in an attempt to flee the country. Fighting and stampedes broke out between passengers before commercial flights were stopped and only military planes departed the terminals which are now guarded by US troops. The Al-Jazeera news channel livestreamed the press conference from inside the palace, which showed a group of Taliban fighters sitting at the President's desk before a fighter claimed he was a former inmate of the US-controlled Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba. US-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country for Tajikistan, effectively ceding power to the Taliban and bringing the 20-year Western occupation of Afghanistan to an end, while thousands of Afghan nationals rushed to the Pakistan border in a bid to escape Islamist rule. Mr Ghani said in a Facebook post that he escaped Afghanistan to 'prevent a flood of bloodshed', claiming 'countless patriots would be martyred and the city of Kabul would be destroyed' if he had remained. He did not disclose details on his current location. Foreigners in Kabul were told to either leave or register their presence with Taliban administrators, while RAF planes were scrambled to evacuate 6,000 British diplomats, citizens and Afghan translators, and the British Ambassador was moved to a safe place. The US and French Ambassadors have already been evacuated as the US rushes to rescue more than 10,000 of its citizens. President Biden, 78, won the November election promising net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom, led by Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have similar goals, which is diplomatically putting pressure on Australia to formally adopt similar targets. China has a net zero by 2060 ambition. Senator Canavan's central Queensland electorate office is in Rockhampton within the federal seat of Capricornia, which delivered an 11.7 per cent swing to Nationals MP Michelle Landry. In central and north Queensland, Labor was resoundingly defeated in polling booths that vote ALP at a state level after former federal Labor leader Bill Shorten promised a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.