For years, Australia’s Liberal prime ministers have denied the need for action on the climate crisis and then delayed taking it. Last Saturday, it helped propel them to one of the worst election defeats in Australian political history.
Guardian Australia’s editor-in-chief, Lenore Taylor, tells Michael Safi that while it was not the only issue that led to Scott Morrison’s downfall as prime minister, his inaction on climate change was a major factor.
The nearly two-decade fight over how Australia should deal with global heating has been called the climate wars. On the one hand, there have been scientists and campaigners raising the alarm, arguing that the freak weather we’re seeing isn’t an accident. On the other, Australia’s powerful fossil fuel industry – and politicians unwilling to stand up to it.
But recent years have seen ever more serious bushfires, droughts and floods, forcing global heating to the top of the political agenda. Now, thanks in part to gains by independent and Green candidates, the Labor party has the chance to reset Australia’s climate policy and end the climate wars for good.
Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty Images
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