NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has dismissed a request from federal Greens MP Adam

Bandt amid tensions over the link between climate change and the bushfires.
Mr Bandt has blamed the unprecedented bushfires and “catastrophic” fire risk across two
states on climate change, and even suggested Prime Minister Scott Morrison is partly
responsible due to the government’s lack of action.
He doubled down on his comments this morning during an interview with RN Breakfast
host Hamish Macdonald and also made a specific request of Ms Berejiklian.
Ms Berejiklian was asked about Mr Bandt’s request as she was about to finish up her
interview with Macdonald, who asked if he could put the specific question to her.
“Can I put that to you before you disappear?” Macdonald asked.
“Sure you can but I hope it’s about what he’s doing to support communities affected by
these tragedies,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“It’s not,” Macdonald admitted, “but I do need to give you a right of reply to it because
he said it on air this morning”.
Ms Berejiklian quickly hit back with “I don’t care what he said, frankly” but told
Macdonald to play it anyway.
Macdonald said it was just a simple question from Mr Bandt, who delivered a personal
plea to Ms Berejiklian to put a bill on hold in parliament that would expand the use of
coal, while the state of emergency was in force.
In response, Ms Berejiklian said: “I would say he stick to his community, and let us get
on with the job of protecting the people of NSW. He should stick to issues regarding his
electorate and his state.”
Ms Berejiklian said earlier in the interview that there was also a “time and a place” to
discuss climate change but her focus was about saving lives and properties.
“For any of us on the ground, speaking to people traumatised, speaking to people fighting
fires for weeks … know exactly what the priorities should be, and that is saving life and
property and we can have these discussions any other time, let’s focus on making sure our
communities are safe,” she said.
Macdonald also asked Ms Berejiklian to address a claim from the Fire Brigade
Employees’ Union that the NSW government had cut funding to firefighting services.
“We’ve actually provided record funding to all of our frontline agencies,” she said.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is seen during a visit to Club Taree Evacuation Centre in Taree, New South Wales, Sunday,
November 10, 2019. Picture: Darren Pateman/AAPSource:AAP

She also pointed to comments from RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons yesterday
that also dismissed the union’s claims as “rubbish”.
“Absolutely we dispute the figure,” she said.
“Is today the day for the union to make those comments? I mean I don’t want to get too
upset, but today is a day we need to focus on saving lives,” Ms Berejiklian said.
GREENS MP DOUBLES DOWN ON COMMENTS
Greens MP Adam Bandt doubled down on his comments that the Prime Minister is partly
responsible for the bushfires, saying the government had not done enough on climate
change.
Mr Bandt sparked controversy on Saturday for his comments and elicited a heated
response from Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, who accused the Greens MP
of politicising the debate amid a fire emergency.
Mr McCormack told ABC RN on Monday that it galled him when “inner-city lefties”
raised climate change in relation to bushfires.
“We’ve had fires in Australia since time began, and what people need now is a little bit of
sympathy, understanding and real assistance. They need help, they need shelter,” Mr
McCormack said.
“They don’t need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at
this time, when they’re trying to save their homes, when in fact they’re going out in many
cases saving other peoples’ homes and leaving their own homes at risk.”
However, Mr Bandt later tweeted that Mr McCormack was a “dangerous fool who is
putting lives at risk”.
In an interview on RN this morning, Mr Bandt was asked whether he had gone too far in
blaming the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister for the bushfire crisis.
“No, because the first duty of government should be to protect lives,” Mr Bandt said.
“They’re putting lives at risk, they’ve done everything within their power to make the risk
of these bushfires worse.
“They’ve ignored some pretty clear warnings and attempts to meet from some former fire
chiefs, who’ve said not only do we need to do more to cut pollution in order to minimise
the risk but we’re not prepared for these kind of catastrophic bushfires, and they wouldn’t
even meet with them.”
RN Breakfast host Hamish Macdonald pressed Mr Bandt though on whether shutting
down the coal industry today would make any difference to the current bushfire risk.
“If we came up with a plan to get out of coal in the next 10 years … then yes we would
decrease … the risk of fires like this happening,” Mr Bandt said.
Macdonald also pointed out that Mr Morrison and Mr McCormack had only been the
leaders of their respective parties for a little over a year and questioned whether they were
responsible.
But Mr Bandt the government had been in power for six years and had come up with the
“so-called policies” that had helped deliver this scenario.
“We have been told for decades now that unless we keep coal in the ground and cut
pollution drastically then the risk of fires like this is going to increase.”