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AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER Scott Morrison has said that his government will consider opening a commission of inquiry into ongoing bushfires in the country, amid sustained criticism of his handling of the crisis.
The announcement came as it emerged the months-long crisis has claimed another victim, a 60-year-old who died fighting a blaze in the south of the country.
The fires have flared up in the southeast of the country over the last number of months, killing nearly half a billion native animals in New South Wales alone, scientists estimate.
While bushfires are common in Australia’s arid summers, climate change has pushed up land and sea temperatures and led to more extremely hot days and severe fire seasons.
Australia experienced its driest and hottest year on record in 2019, with its highest average maximum temperature of 41.9 degrees Celsius recorded in mid-December.
Speaking today, Morrison suggested that a public inquiry could be held into the blazes.
“I think that is what would be necessary, and I will be taking a proposal through cabinet to that end,” he told public broadcaster ABC.
Morrison acknowledged anger about the climate-fuelled fires, which have burned an area the size of South Korea and shrouded Sydney in smoke again on Sunday.
The prime minister – a supporter of fossil fuel industries – said emissions targets would “evolve” but ruled out curbing Australia’s vast exports of coal.
“In the years ahead, we are going to continue to evolve our policy in this area to reduce emissions even further and we are going to do it without a carbon tax, without putting up electricity prices and without shutting down traditional industries,” he said.
Earlier, news emerged that the death from the bushfires had risen to at least 27, as firefighters attempted to take advantage of cooler conditions to conduct backburning and strengthen containment lines.
Chris Hardman, chief fire officer at Forest Fire Management Victoria, said a firefighter from Parks Victoria was “involved in an incident while working on a fire in the Omeo area resulting in a fatality”.
It is believed he was struck by a tree.
Authorities have warned that although the blazes are set to ease this week, the crisis is far from over.
Haven’t bought a newspaper in 6 months. Why ? News freely available online at any time night or day.
Without agendas. Good day for democracy when print media is gone.
The problem with the web is that it does facilitate an insular viewpoint. In the States, Democrats read the left leaning Huff Post & Republicans read the right orientated Drudge report. People aren’t exposed to opposing viewpoints like they would be in a national newspaper so they think everyone agrees with their worldview and become more extremist. If the Journal was your only source of news you could be excused for thinking Ireland is a quasi-communist left wing nirvana, for example. Full of hippies with long hair.
Free news won’t be around for ever though.
Sure. What’s the point in buying a hard copy. Electronic copies are user and environmental friendly!
Sunday Independent numbers rising???
That explains the Fianna Fáil poll rise so.
It’s an awful rag. Who buys it? Will anyone here admit to it?
I blame thejournal.ie
Haven’t bought a paper for years. The amount of web-based info is truly staggering. I
Nor have I but I actually nearly bought the local rag (Wicklow People) today.
The Journal is my daily paper these days
It’s genuinely depressing to see the tabloidisation of what was once a great national institution, the Sunday Independent yielding a dividend for INM.
I stopped buying the Sunday Independent due to Denis O Brien s ownership. I rarely listen to Newstalk or Today FM for same reason. The control of public opinion by banking / Bilderberg interests is sickening. Not everyone has access to alternative news sources like the Journal – where the commentary is more informative than the article on many occasions.
Sir anto o’reilly was just as annoying.
I should add that it’s equally depressing to see an Ireland hating paper like middle England’s Mail On Sunday getting nearly 100,000 readers. Shame on you all.
Indeed a great ‘national institution’ ….great centenary coming up this year….How W.Martin Murphy and his organ helped, in a very significant way to defeat Jim Larkin in the lockout of 1913 and put us back in our place. Look forward to the celebrations!!
The Irish Times must be particularly disappointed with their -8% decrease, especially when you considered all the money they spent (The story of why!) on marketing and the redesign of the newspaper.
It probably means that more people are reading newspapers online. It’s been quite a while since i bought a newspaper , most information can easily be accessed on line through iPhone or laptop.
newspapers are ink on dead trees….
Turning forests into lies.
Newspapers will not last much longer.
They remind me of that blow up doll I got when I was sixteen, full of glamour and promise but in reality fake, grubby and ultimately disappointing.
:(
We need to start a fund to help out the struggling Denis O Brian.
“The man ( or woman ) who reads no newspapers at all is better educated than the man who does” – Thomas Jefferson. Can apply that to the tv media as well. Good riddance.
The papers are €1.80 per day & €2.80 at the weekends… At least the IRISH TIMES is… I just can’t afford it anymore… I loved the feeling of sitting down with a coffee/tea and physically reading the paper..but @ €14.60 p/w? I can think of other things to do with that now…. BILLS!!!
Good, the sooner the INM shower with their FF mouthpiece the sindo are gone the better.
It’s gas. For years the Indo was viewed as a FG paper.
Majority of Irish Papers are just pr spin for business lobby and government propaganda like an Irish Pravda
Not surprising that figures are falling.
I always thought newspapers were good value but the standard of writing and editorialship has declined a great deal. I am turned off when I read articles by journalists like Niam Horan in Sindo or reading the latest about some model and her relationships. Totally boring stuff.
The Examiner is good quality the odd time I have read it but the size of it is a big turn off.
Like many I find it easier to use my phone now in a cafe or around the house.
With free wifi now available across Dublin city centre and free wifi being rolled out on the buses, these falling figures are no surprise. Like the music industry, the newspaper industry is being very slow to adjust to the new methods of accessing news.
The problem is that there is still a lot of money in selling paper or music on plastic. A newspaper can put all of it’s output on the web but the ad revenue is only a fraction what the daily paper will make. So really the old world is, at the moment at least, subsidising the new media world. I think we’ll be seeing more pay walls.
I agree with you to some extent but it is also true in saying that currently the newspapers are working in an unsustainable way. Most of the papers in the state have mountains of debt in their name.
All the good papers are gone, The Irish Press, Ireland on Sunday, Sunday Tribune..
A lot of folk haven taken to doing a Sunday shop in Dunnes buying the paper whilst there . Noticed only the Sindo available there on Sunday. Are other supermarkets contractually obligated in the same way or is there more choice elsewhere? Not that I’d read that rag. Used to enjoy the Times on a Sunday like a poster above but the €2.80 can be better spent now when every cent matters.
I had a Playboy subscription for that very reason ;)
Dunnes Threw out most of the papers because they wanted better ‘terms’. That’s a euphemism for ‘lube up’ – we what more money!
They didn’t throw any of the Indo titles in the skip, funny that. But not so as well, when you cant get a selection of papers on Sunday
Bump….
“The man ( or woman ) who reads no newspapers at all is better educated than the man who does” – Thomas Jefferson. Can apply that to the tv media as well. Good riddance.
Martin – are you and Derek the same person? Lol! Exact same post!
Never bought newspapers have always used the Web since I got on the net in the mid 90s.
Gave up buying magazines as I found I’d also get the info sooner, an example is focus magazine… By the time you read something in it it’s 2-3s weeks old
I get my news on Google News. It has a wide variety of viewpoints. I then make my decision.
Gave up Sunday Newspapers over 10 years ago, when reading another article about CJH I inadvertently found myself checking the date to see if I had bought the previous weeks edition by mistake, I hadn’t! Gave up the IT on Xmas eve when the price went up to 2euro. The increase only applied to the ROI with no increase for their UK customers? Imagine in a dwindling market and the worse recession in generations they increase the price? Like the publicans they seem to think that the Law of Diminishing Returns did not apply to them. Get all my news word wide on line via laptop and tablet.
Where are you going with the Sunday Indo figures?
Dennis, Is that you…..!!!
They are down 5% and heading south with the rest of the gang
http://www.ilevel.ie/media-blog/print/102468-sunday-newspapers-abc-july-dec-2012
C
It’s all the fault of thejournal.ie
meh. The Sunday Sport was great for the articles too :)
How’s the farmers journal doing ?
I buy the paper on the odd occasion however today for instance got a link on face book to an article and continued reading so I agree totally there is a lot of web based news only issue is what’s correct and what’s not
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