Sometimes the Firefighter; Sometimes the Arsonist

Albo took five days to get to the synagogue fire, but was at the Grampians faster than you could say "Climate Change"

Anthony Albanese says disasters have become “more intense” and “more frequent” in Australia during his time as prime minister.

Well he ought not be surprised. He leads a disaster prone government.

Oh wait … he meant natural disasters have become more frequent.

As opposed to the Bowen, Giles, Chalmers, Wong and Plibersek-induced disasters which seem to occur on an almost daily basis.

The PM was flying over the Grampians Sunday where fires have burned through 76,000 hectares of Victorian national park.

Albanese told journalists …

“We live in a country which has harsh conditions.”

Well that’s true. Housing is unaffordable, electricity is unreliable and hospital beds are regularly unavailable.

Oh wait … he meant we live in a country which has naturally harsh conditions. As opposed to those created by his hapless government.

Well sure. Australia has always been a harsh land. Dorothy MacKeller said the same thing in her famous poem, My Country, back in 1908.

But then Albanese added this …

“It has always had fires, it has always had these extreme weather events, but the truth is they are becoming more frequent and more intense and that has been something that I have (seen) as Prime Minister for two and a half years.”

If extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense since Albanese has become Prime Minister, all the more reason to vote him out!

But is he right?

Exploring Australia's east coast in 1770, Captain James Cook described the land as “a continent of smoke” and noted that “we saw smoke by day or fires by night wherever we came”.

This week’s fire in the Grampians is significant, though nowhere near as bad as previous fires dating back to the 1800s.

The Forest Fire Management Victoria website lists major fires occurring in the area in …

2019, 2015, 2013, 2009, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002, 1998, 1997, 1985, 1983, 1980, 1977, 1972, 1970, 1965, 1962, 1952, 1944, 1943, 1942, 1938, 1932, 1926

And that’s before we talk about Red Tuesday on February 1, 1898 when fires burned 260,000 hectares, killing 12 people and destroying 2000 buildings.

Or worse. What about Black Thursday in February, 1851, when fires covered a quarter of what is now Victoria (about five million hectares). Those fires killed 12 people along with one million sheep plus thousands of cattle.

Natural disasters such as that in the Grampians this week have not become more frequent or intense since Albanese became Prime Minister.

That stats don’t lie.

Albanese, however …

To be clear, I’m not saying this year’s fire is nothing to be concerned about. I’m just pointing out that the Victorian Government’s own records show this fire is not particularly unique, nor historically intense.

Nevertheless, a forest catches fire - as forests in Victoria have done for centuries - and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is immediately on the scene.

But there was another fire in Victoria recently - at a Jewish synagogue.

And Prime Minister Anthony Albanese waited five days before turning up to that one.

The national park fire helps Albanese. It serves as a welcome distraction from his government’s ineptitude AND it assists in ramping up fear over climate change - a necessary ingredient for support of his renewables push.

The synagogue fire, however, only served to highlight his government’s ineptitude when it comes to maintaining social cohesion.

The irony, of course, is that the PM has little ability to stop fires such as the one in the Victorian high country. As Anthony Albanese himself said, it’s a harsh country. Bush fires happen.

But synagogue fires haven’t happened in this country before.

Australia has always been a safe country for Jews. And Australia still can be - if the government was serious about hosing down anti-semitism and if Penny Wong would stop inflaming opinion against Israel at the United Nations.

But they don’t care about anti-Semitism and they rage hot against the Middle East’s only democracy.

Sometimes the Albanese Government wants to be the fireman, and sometimes they want to be the arsonist. And always, it’s self serving.