'Miserable ghost' Malcolm Turnbull tries to re-write his record on bushfires
Sky News Digital Editor Jack Houghton The miserable ghost of Malcolm Turnbull has been caught out trying to re-write history by penning an article in US media claiming he was the Prime Minister who held back the climate-denying political right in Australia. Mr Turnbull wrote that the deadly bushfires were proof the wicked, self-destructive idiocy of climate denialism must stop. Even as the fires rage, Murdochs News Corp newspapers and television networks have been busy arguing that arsonists or a lack of controlled burning are the real causes of the fires, he wrote. Oh Malcom, how times have changed since you were Prime Minister. It is almost as if you forgot how you overlooked how you personally responded to the horror bushfire which tore through Tathra, wiping out 69 homes in 2018. Greens Senator Richard Di Natale complained in the aftermath that a lack of renewable investment had contributed to the bushfire season become more dangerous. And how did Mr Turnbull respond to those comments? I'm disappointed that the Greens would try to politicise an event like this, he said. You can't attribute any particular event, whether it's a flood or fire or a drought or a storm, to climate change. But clearly this is an environment, we have an environment, which has extremes. Bushfires are part of Australia, as indeed are droughts and floods. Malcolm Turnbull stated as a fact that you could not blame the bushfire in 2018 on climate change. Then two years later he wrote an article claiming that comments similar to his own were the fault of the evil Murdoch family. How pathetic. How opportunistic. But Mr Turnbull was not done attempting to re-write history. As Prime Minister, I tried to ensure that our climate and energy policies were governed by engineering and economics, not ideology and idiocy, he said. Tragically, the climate-denying political right in Australia has turned what should be a practical question of how to respond to a real physical threat into a matter of values or belief. Mr Turnbull has even gone as far as to call for Australia to adopt a version of the US Green New Deal, championed by the insufferable elitist group of radical Democrats who have been dubbed The Squad. Australians no longer need to sacrifice economic growth to reduce emissions, he wrote. We must not waste this climate crisis. There are no excuses and not much time left. Australia and the world need a Green New Deal now. If only we had a leader, between say 2015 and 2018, who could have pushed for that deal. Perhaps then there would be no fires. Institute of Public Affairs director of policy Gideon Rozner said Mr Turnbull's comments from 2018 were "the same kind of denialism" he derides today. In 2020, Malcolm Turnbull says that bushfires are the inevitable reality of global warming. In 2018, Malcolm Turnbull rightly admonished Richard di Natale for politicising bushfires." he said. "He has come out of hiding to use these tragic bushfires to score political points against his old party room and media enemies. "One suspects Turnbulls conversion to born-again climate evangelism is less about genuine conviction and more about ingratiating himself with the well-heeled cultural elites whose approval he has always craved. "Scott Morrison would be wise to ignore his predecessor from now on. The extreme and sub-rational climate alarmism to which Turnbull now subscribes would, if taken seriously, cost thousands of jobs, jeopardise whole industries, and diminish living standards and prosperity for millions of Australians." Read More Our Apps