In the midst of the terrible bushfires that are ravaging NSW, Greens Deputy leader Adam Bandt has stooped low to extract political capital out of the devastation, by taking an opportunist tweet at Abbott.

Bandt has has to defend himself against a torrent of criticism for his opportunism and political point scoring, choosing not to retract or apologise. Greens leader Christine Milne has supported Bandt. Here is the story and video,

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-18/adam-bandt-defends-bushfire-attack-on-abbott/5030368

It is a reminder of the previous Greens leader Bob Brown, who blamed mining for the catastrophic floods that ravaged Qld, resulting in deaths and huge loss of assets, with many people still without the money to rebuild or move elsewhere. The Courier Mail has run stories on people who are still sleeping on friends' couches.

Should Bandt and Milne apologise, especially to the people of NSW?

otb,

Why is it political opportunism for Bandt to bring up devastating firestorms in mid October.....warm, warm, warm, dry, dry, dry, low soil moisture, etc

....and yet when Mr Abbott sucks political mileage out of photo ops sitting in the driver's seat of a fire truck - he's a jolly good fellow?

Hypocrisy writ large.

Poirot,

Good point, Tony Abbott is a volunteer rural fire fighter I believe and could be out there now helping. But in that case you would be insisting that he drive himself to the fire, park and have his pay docked for the privilege, of course. Maybe a black mark on his personnel history file as well?

I should add that I might be a little swayed by the actions of my previous employers who always strived to be exemplary corporate citizens and released me on full pay to travel and compete in lifesaving carnivals, and attend as necessary with the VMR and SES. Come to think of it, even the small employers of my early work experience applauded voluntary service with the University Regiment.

So, what do you say then? What proof are you seeking from your trusted source, Adam Bandt, that Abbott started those fires? Or you worry, that he might be out there now fighting a blaze and getting paid?

Then again, Adam Bandt has a public exasperated with him and the Greens -for continually grandstanding on calamity - who are intent on setting his pants on fire. He might be wishing for a voluntary firefighter to attend very soon. Would that be hypocrisy writ large?

Adam Brandt is merely following in the footsteps of other Greens; who could forget Bob Brown's famous blaming of the coal miners for the devastating floods in Queensland or the other Greens who call for more gun control of law abiding citizens after a shooting before the grieving families have had even a few hours to come to terms with their sadness?

Brandt is merely following form, crass and insensitive and certainly no gentleman.

He is now in back-peddling mode.

otb,

"So, what do you say then? What proof are you seeking from your trusted source, Adam Bandt, that Abbott started those fires?"

Are you all right up top?

Twisting and distorting anything from anyone...very cheaty.

"....Tony Abbott is a volunteer rural fire fighter..."

Tony Abbott is a volunteer self-promoter who dabbles a bit in rural firefighting.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BAIMnhBCQAAGem8.jpg:large

(That one's worth a copy and paste...firetruck, Tones and a bevy of photographers :)

".... and could be out there now helping.."

Well "jolly big guffaw" to that one. The photographers are somewhat preoccupied with the firestorm to spare time to assist with Tony's self-enhancement program.

I place no value on the rantings of greens.
However NSW is in a strange weather situation.
Past few years see first a dumping of great deal of rain in one sharp and short month or two.
Then we bake and yes the fires begin.
I do think climate change is real, and that man plays a role.
And as a 30 plus year veteran of fighting them, WARN, some are started by glory hunting fire fighters, let no honest fire fighter say that is not truth.
Records exist that show as the greens made every effort to stop winter burns,that action has produced wild fires instead of the way the bush was handled for century,s cold burning.
Those records, for the part of the state I live in and 38 years of personal observation, show rains are changing over the year patterns.
Yanderra was one of my child hood homes, it had bad fires but never this bad.
My memory's are of a small hamlet today its residents number in the hundreds if not thousands.
Climate change desperately needs our attention, not politicians squabbling for a win.
I want it noted ham radio operators join and assist these crews even building radio repeaters for them.
My service was with many brigades, not one of them did not include a fire bug.
My service ended one hot summer day when a senior officer told me he was bored and intended to start a fire.
NEVER however forget the brave folk out there right now would never think of other than stopping them.

Poirot,

You might like employers to develop a bit of mongrel and dock employees' pay for voluntary work such as for the SES, but a lot of employers would not agree with you and nor would the public.

Like Adam Bandt you are out to score political points.

It is easy for both of you where others have to take the risks.

otb,

"You might like employers to develop a bit of mongrel and dock employees' pay for voluntary work such as for the SES, but a lot of employers would not agree with you and nor would the public"

There you go again, attributing views to people which they don't hold.

I'm not talking about "genuine" volunteers.

I'm addressing Mr Abbott and his shonky habit of promoting himself and his party under the guise of altruistism...and then claiming expenses for it.

It's Mr Abbott who is politically point scoring.

I love to know how many times he's taken a risk while "volunteering" - unless you count too many camera flashes damaging his eyesight.

Lol Poirot... no wonder Abbott has a tendency to squint : )

I must say, I don't see a problem with Bandt, or anyone else, bringing up the matter of climate change during an unusually hot, dry October fire emergency.
What better time to discuss climate change than now?

It is obvious our climate is changing, if we have such an early awful fire season.
I doubt the poor victims of the NSW fires will give a damn what anyone says about climate change at present anyway.

I have lived many years in remote communities on Cape York & I have never seen houses burnt down by bushfires. The people KNOW when & HOW to back burn unlike the Green "Experts" in the South. The people in the bush don't have trees two feet from their homes.
That could account for indigenous communities not being in the same dilemma.

I found Adam Bandt's comments measured, but to the point. Will the climate change skeptics be contrite when more of these extreme weather evens are visited upon us in the future, most likely not.
It stands to reason even if one had doubts about global warming being a reality, even though the scientific evidence most definitely points the other way, and considering the consequences of being wrong are to terrifying to contemplate, would it not be prudent for society to err on the side of caution and take notice of people like Adam Bandt and act positivity to try and avert possible coming climatic disasters.

You are right Paul.
I see no reason not to consider there might be some merit in worrying about climate change. Whether this change is 'caused' by human activity is a harder concept for me.

Individual, I doubt there would be many fire problems in the far North of Australia, with such high humidity?
And yes, Aboriginal people knew how to manage fire seasons, but of course there are now far more people populating the Southern States, so it is a far different scenario these days.

I doubt there would be many fire problems in the far North of Australia, with such high humidity?
Suseonline,
It is totally & utterly tinder-dry up here & we even have fires but because there were back burns before it got too dry all fires just go out again after a while. What you have to understand is that fires are a natural part of the bush & fires only started to become a problem when people moved into areas where there have never been people & started building houses.
I'm fairly sure that many gunyas have burnt over the millenniums of Aborigines roaming the land but they were a lot simpler to rebuild & hardly any family photos or other prized possessions were lost.

<< In the midst of the terrible bushfires that are ravaging NSW, Greens Deputy leader Adam Bandt has stooped low to extract political capital out of the devastation, by taking an opportunist tweet at Abbott. >>

Not at all, OTB.

I’m not a fan of the Greens, and I don’t think Bandt did particularly well in that interview for which you provided the link in your opening post… but he’s right!!

Abbott is moving away from addressing climate change (and is just completely not addressing peak oil, population stabilisation or sustainability, which are closely related issues).

The Greens SHOULD be very strongly bringing him to task over this stuff!!

Trouble is: their concern about climate change is not holistic. They are just as hopeless on peak oil, population and sustainability as the Coalition is!

hilarous to hear the gw religious followers blaming gw for bushfires. They are usually the ones that won't allow burning in case some nearly extinct tadpole dissappears. They ignore that the fuel was helped greatly by rain where their high priest had predicted would not fall much anymore. What a foolhardy belief they hold to. To think they have the front to call their belief science.

Bill Shorten showed he hasn't learned anything from the drubbing Labor received in the election, or from the feedback he has received from Labor's rank and file, by having it half each way with the Greens.

That is not a good omen for Shorten's ability and strength of character to come up with fresh, attractive policies for Labor in the next three to six years. Shorten should know by now that playing cricket with the Greens on your team will always result in them stealing the ball at every opportunity and you wearing the bat across the head.

It was left to Louise Markus the Member representing Blue Mountains electorate affected by the fires to be sensitive and decent, saying,

< "There are people who have lost their homes. There are people who have lost everything. There are people coming to grips with what they have lost," she said. "No one could have done anything to stop the speed of that fire.

"My priority is to make sure the people I represent get everything they need to recover from this.">

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/bushfires/bandt-politicising-blazes-was-disgusting/story-fngw0i02-1226742790365

The Greens are still trying to screw some political mileage out of the tragedy of course.

"The Greens are still trying to screw some political mileage out of the tragedy of course."

But of course, they're amateurs compared to otb, who's going like the clappers to get political mileage "out of this story".

(Of course, Poirot is bringing up the rear, getting political mileage out of otb's political mileage....it's a vicious circle)

Is Poirot Adam Bandt ? She could be by the way she defends it.

OTB started this thread to score political points have no doubt about that.
Then telling one with opinions other than his that is their crime.
Like me or loath me a true is hidden here.
Greens and the mention of them are of little use in conservation/climate matters.
Far to many of us shut the minds door when issues we should be very concerned about are mentioned by the greens.
If scoring points is our target let us all look at Abbott,s refusal to tell us what is taking place in t5he refugee/boat arrival areas.
Based on his refusal to share information it seems Labors policy, the one he uses still, has slowed the boats but upped the bad handling of the arrivals.

The last thing Abbott and his ilk want is anyone linking their do nothing policy on climate change to a disaster like the NSW bushfires. These so called skeptics know that the consequences of them being wrong on the issue is nothing short of horrific weather events in the future which will impact on the lives of millions of people. These fools much prefer, to firstly peddle their false sympathy for the immediate victims. Nothing like compassion and concern to win a bit of popularity with the plebs. Then if a messenger should step forth and state the obvious and question their falsehoods and culpability, these fools fly into a hateful rage of indignation against the messenger, calling upon all "right thinking" people to rise and smite the blasphemer, all along deflecting any possible scrutiny of their failure to act on the very cause of these cataclysmic evens. Like Nero these cretins much prefer to shed false tears for the poor victims of their folly, while all alone masking their real concerns for money and profit.

hey Canberra had its coldest winter morning for October recorded a few days ago. Abbott of course is to blame. The science is settled.

Paul1405,

Your reasoning ref. the crass and unfeeling remarks of Bandt are as far off as your history; Nero was in fact a hero when Rome was partially destroyed by fire, he was not in Rome when the fie started but hurried back, took part personally in rescue operations, opened his palace to the homeless and distributed food.

But he did make political capital out of the disaster by blaming the Christians.

I, as I'm sure do many others recall quite vividly how the lefties used to blame Joh for everything from weather to feeling queer. Everything was his fault. Now they're blaming Abbott. Some things will never change. What happened to the billions upon billions we've spent on education since the big Goaf ? Is utter stupidity all that australian education can come up with ? Perhaps we should let the boat people in just to get some new blood with the faint hope of a couple of intelligent genes making their way into our society.

It must be dreadful to realise you have been sold a pup, backed the wrong horse, been totally conned, & arguing a faulty argument for some years. It must be hard to not only realise, but actually admit you've been a fool.

That is probably why those who have got it wrong grasp at any straw, leap at any possible chance that they may not be wrong. They progressively become more rabid in the rubbish they will use in an attempt to avoid making that final admission.

The Greens are the worst. Not only can't they admit to themselves they are wrong, but to do it publicly will cost them votes. Hence we get this disgusting crap from people like Bandt who will do anything to try to perpetuate the fraud, that keeps them on the gravy train.

Ludwig and others;
Whether you are interested in peak oil or global warming here is an
article for you all.
A couple of interesting figures I gleaned from it;
The price of oil is rising by 14% a year since 2005 yet production is
rising by 0.25% a year. Oil is therefore price inelastic.

The IPCC,s IR2 scenario SRES AR2 is based on oil consumed by the SRES
emission scenarios range up to 325 mb/d (for scenario A1G AIM)
in 2100, with an average maximum of 126 mb/d [Hook et al, 2010.
unquote

http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/References/Bruce/Peak-Oil-and-Energy-Independence-July-2013-EOS.pdf

I looked to see who would be the minister for Energy & Resources
but could not find a name. Also does Labour have a shadow for Energy ?
We really do have a problem with the politicians being deaf dumb & blind on this matter.
From the end of next year we will import 100% of our diesel & petrol.

Bazz,

It is away from the subject of the thread, but I would be more concerned about the claimed 2 weeks reserve of fuel. Not the best situation in case of emergency.

Back to the thread.

Leave the forum for 5 minutes and like ants at a picnic the conserves get in posting their pesky drivel.i shall deal with them in order.
Runner has completely debunked the global warming argument with "Canberra had its coldest winter morning for October recorded a few days ago." Considering all the hot air that been blowing around Canberra since Abbott got elected in September I find that amazing.
Is Mise, I too watch this History Channel, Nero was just misunderstood, your kind of guy. You did say at the end "But he did make political capital out of the disaster by blaming the Christians you could have added; AND FED THEM TO THE LIONS." Doesn't Abbott profess to being a so called christian, if Nero was around today he could be very useful.
Indi, Joh Bjelke Petersen, now there is a blast from the past. Probably the most corrupt politician Queensland has ever seen, and they have seen some beauties. Joh's side kick Russ Hinze wasn't bad at the corruption caper as well along with a swag of Nationals both in and out of the government at the time. old Joh played the buffoon all awhile masking the sinister undercurrent of corruption within his government. Fortunately the old codger is now dead never to be seen or heard from again, we hope, although Barney Joyce does a rather good impersonation of Old Joh, don't you think?
"it must be dreadful to realise you have been sold a pup, backed the wrong horse, been totally conned, & arguing a faulty argument for some years.
I don't know Hasbeen I can't get inside your head on that one, and as for;
"It must be hard to not only realise, but actually admit you've been a fool." No its been easy for you, just by reading the constant clap trap you post gives you away, you prove that line time and time again, you should realise it by now.

No way you can convince a rock it is wrong Paul.
Love humor so why not just laugh your way around the ideas put here.
Climate change, read hasbeen, is a proven lie!
Indy and runner use the wet rock on a string thing along with a blindness to world wide effort to get the climate put before profits.
Laughter is fun.
Brant both causes worse firers and wants to use his efforts to flog all others, every village deserves its idiot.

Not really off thread Beachy agw is what the thread is about and the
article shows the connection between the two.

<<Like Nero...>>

Quite apt that you bring Nero into the discussion, Paul1405.

Nero (or, at least the Hollywood version of him) would have made a great Green.

He was all for huge spendings of public monies on multicultural shows and circuses.

He would have fitted in well with the Green platform.

Actually, I kinda envisage most high level Green meetings --not the low level stuff the plebs are allowed into --but where the real policy formulation occurs would (Nero like) feature Bob, Christine, Adam and Sarah Hanson sloughing on their chaise longues in their togas sloshing tankards of wine.

Sloughing s/r slouching
(Now I'm writing like I've been to one of those high level Green meetings!)

SPQR, "Actually, I kinda envisage most high level Green meetings --not the low level stuff the plebs are allowed into --but where the real policy formulation occurs would (Nero like) feature Bob, Christine, Adam and Sarah Hanson sloughing on their chaise longues in their togas sloshing tankards of wine"

Here is a video showing the lunar Greens debating Bob Brown's Australian Greens proposal for 'world government'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0FmFOGnf10

Bob Brown sought to be the first president. - He was oblivious of the simple fact that the form of world government he proposed would see Australia with its tiny population totally swamped out of any representation by countries with teeming populations, such as China and India.

Honestly, you couldn't invent that stuff.

OTB

<<Here is a video showing the lunar Greens debating Bob Brown's Australian Greens proposal for 'world government'>>

Unbelievable. I'd wager that most Green voters haven't really thought this through.

A room full of authoritarians who are only prevented from clawing one another to death by their short-term pre-occupation with making rules for everyone else on the planet.

All of their leaders without exception get very bent out of shape and hot under the collar indeed if their opinion does not prevail. Here is Bob Brown dropping that uncle disguise that has served him so well,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OydmiPg6j9M

There are many, many videos of the Greens' 'Girls' scolding and dominating interviewers.

SPQR I failed to mention Nero with his fascination for fires was the first President of the Roman branch of the Liberal Party. Please don't insult the memory of Nero, he a bit of a hero, Nero the hero, that rhymes, to Is Mise.
OTB Those videos are so old they've grown whiskers
I do like this one of your man Abbott answering a question. Maybe he can give the same answer to the victims of his climate change policy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyY-xI6zgfk

Paul1405,

As it was originally and with Bob Brown, the Greens offered a different perspective.

Just watching a documentary of the Sun's gradual demise & it's impact on Earth. Temperatures on Earth will reach hundreds of C&#8304;. I'm listening as closeley as I can but thus far no mention of Tony Abbott or the Coalition although we're still five minutes from the end of the program.

OTB

<< All of their leaders without exception get very bent out of shape>>

LOL

So you noticed that too!

I thought come-on SPQR you're being unfair.

But it's true.I am sure that all groups have people who look odd but the Greens have such a preponderance of them.

Have a look at this: http://ycan.org.au/2010/08/green-vote-surge-in-federal-election/
Note the guy at the back eying Bob's neck!
Where in the cinema have we seen that look?

And this:http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YwlRDI7-q5k/TiC-4Yiz-8I/AAAAAAAACl4/GtHbou-9bR8/s1600/Bob%2BBrown.jpg
Bob Brown envisaging a Green future ...or just what he looks like before his morning coffee?

Note the guy at the back eying Bob's neck!
SPWQR,
That's priceless ! It does tell all doesn't it ? Is that Paul1405 or Suseonline ?

With no women allowed, it must get rather crowded in the showers after a Liberal Party meeting. My advice is don't drop the soap.
Lads please don't peek at this, you might get too excited'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-evCwsJJunQ

Paul, an excellent video.
Thanks for a good laugh : )
The budgies were very cute anyway....

It's obvious by Tony's preference for cool, skimpy attire that he expects the weather to warm up...

Paul1405,

You smooth operator! From the girlish titillation of Suseonline who was fidgeting on her seat and gushing with delight, that is just the low level bawdy smut that could pull some lonely women at the bingo in the local Labor Club come pension payment day. Later, you could write a book, "50 Shades of Grey Jaguars".

Of course any who go outdoors and happen to enjoy water sports would instantly recognise Speedos as the iconic Aussie brand popular world-wide. No surprise there because Speedos were designed expressly for sea swimming and rescue work. They are very practical.

Men and women lifesavers find it convenient to wear Speedos and have done so for many years. No-one bats an eyelid at that, least of all the youth members we treasure in the lifesaving movement.

Paul

I'd love to see Christine Milne in speedos.

Bet you, we wouldnt even need to doctor the photo to get a laugh!

SPQR,

:(

I am not thanking you for that image of plucked turkey flesh and sideburns that would stall a Honda brushcutter.

The time will come now we are set on a course to ignore AGW when despite Abbott in lycra Speedo fire-fighter gear, we will have to consider building our Mac mansions underground to have any chance to survive.
The other alternative and no doubt it will appear enticing to some, is to clear fell all the trees and bushes on the whole of Australia to be safe.

There are already underground homes in the Blue Mountains and they are not only comfortable and energy efficient but they don't burn; there are also above ground homes that don't burn but very few people are interested in them, least of all councils.
The homes that have been burned will, no doubt, be replaced by equally at risk structures ready to burn next time.

The tree clearing that needs to be done is to remove highly flamable eucalypts from around homes and to remove all trees that are tall enough to fall across and block roads during a fire.

Nah, underground homes or underground anything else will never catch on, particularly for the greens.

It's too hard to hold your hand out from 6 feet down.

Come off it Paul, it's the lefty shower room that you'd have to keep your backs to the wall. That's the lot with all the homo members, not the Libs.

Of course there were those who tried to make green political capital out of the 2003 fires that razed some suburbs of Canberra and at an estimated damage bill of $450 million was the second to the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires that affected Victoria and South Australia. In the Canberra fire 2000 businesses, homes and vehicles were damaged, of which 470 homes were completely destroyed.

Had Bandt been around in 1983 and 2003 he could have blamed the governments at the time for 'global warming' - confusing weather, other natural occurrences with it and disregarding, where later found apparent, the contributions of poor fire prevention and control.

As the Canberra experience showed, it doesn't require lots of trees for a fire to get out of control. What Australian city might not be similarly devastated by fire, especially with the amount of (politically correct) native trees, shrubs and mulch, dry weather and the wind in the right direction?

The Greens simplify complex causes to a simple headline. Regrettably the media and particularly the publicly-funded national broadcasters, have ever given the Greens and their policies anywhere near the scrutiny they should be receiving.

Adam Bandt won headlines. He and leader Christine Milne are ecstatic at the free publicity and unrepentent. The Greens are a protest party that delivers plum jobs to some well placed politicians It is all care and no responsibility. Maybe not much care either.

'ever' in second last para should be 'never'.

I asked this in another thread.

Does anyone have any information of serious bushfires of similar magnitude erupting in mid October in the same area of the continent?

It appears significant that fires of this number and intensity have broken out this early in the season.

The Rural Fire Service describes the situation thus:

"The Rural Fire Service has called the bushfire threat an "unparalleled" emergency, and warned a potential mega-fire could stretch hundreds of kilometres."

This may be aberration or it may be a portent of things to come.

We should be able to examine the issue without being abused.

Poirot we have now had 2 consecutive years where we have had rain exceeding our annual average by the end of June. This has given us a huge stand of high & now dry grass & brush. This has been followed by the usual dry period through winter.

This is really dangerous in timbered areas, & is just asking to promote crown fires, the most dangerous. Fortunately in more open grazing areas, much of this stuff has now been trampled down by stock looking for fresh green pick, making somewhat less dangerous, as a fire will advance more slowly, making it easier to contain.

I think you may be right that this is a particularly early season. Our rural fire brigade stopped doing burns at the beginning of the month, where they would be usually just be stopping now. This compares to last season, when we had virtually no fires, despite the big fuel load.

One of our biggest problems is with ex city retirees, who don't like either safety burns or agricultural burns. Fire has always been an important tool in controlling woody weeds in grazing country. Pastoralists now feel restricted by thousands of new acreage lifestyle blocks that have popped up everywhere, with residents who complain madly about the smoke.

One 86 year old neighbor, born on his property tells me he sees the district disappearing under garbage regrowth, as farmers retire, & the kids aren't interested in working hard enough to take over. This regrowth is highly flammable.

The loss of farmers fuels the subdivision into a combination of hobby farms & regrowth, & a more flammable district, & worse access for the rural fire brigade.

Thank you, Hasbeen,

I'm still interested in whether bushfires of this nature have been recorded before.

I'm interested in changing weather patterns and the effect they have on preparedness.

In the south of WA we have had much rain, most of it seemed to come down in September. It is still raining regularly (Sunday it rained all day)

No doubt we can expect huge undergrowth because of the late and sustained rains, and the fact that those rains have precluded back-burning.

Be interesting to see how the fire season pans out over here this year as a consequence.

Not that it matters but "Sunday" should have read "Saturday".

Poirot,

The devastating fire at Waterfall. NSW, in 1980 burnt 1,000,000 ha and occurred on the 3 November 1980. Five firefighters lost their lives and 14 homes were destroyed.

Only 3 days stopped it being an October fire and the current fires are only two weeks + earlier than it.

There are so many variable factors that make up the necessary conditions for a major fire that to single out climate change/global warming as a reason for the current fires is simplistic.

The worst fires occurred in 1851, although later in the season.

Poirot, I think we can safely say we haven't had such hugely devastating fires in October before, despite any other similar weather conditions etc.

The question remains though, that if the climate IS changing, then is it because of human activity or is it because of the usual climate changes the world sees over the years?

About 95% of scientists say it IS because of human activity.
The other 5% believe only an invisible god can do this, OR, would prefer to just ignore the facts and continue on like they always have...doing nothing.

What I want to know is, who will be worse off if we are in the camp of those believing in GW , or those who do not, if in fact it IS found to be true?
I, for one, am not willing to take the risk that the 95% of scientists might be wrong...

I especially believe these scientists because they are academics, and not just any Joe Blow out there telling us what he reckons!

Adam Bandt is a weevil in the flour of Australian politics.

Why is everyone up in arms about political "point scoring"? Quite honestly I would prefer that people would discuss what they think the reasons, causes and contributing factors are, at least then we may learn something from it and prevent something like this happening again.

Is Mise, show me where a Green poly has singled out as you said.
to single out climate change/global warming as a reason for the current fires is simplistic.
What is being said is two fold, climate change will be a major contributing factor in future, if its not already, to devastation on a large scale world wide by catastrophic climatic events. The plant has in the past suffered from such events. What is being said is if significant action is not taken now, these kinds of events, and others, will occur more often an be more severe than they have been in the past. The vast majority of climate scientists agree with that.
As for the bushfires at present in NSW, it is being said that these are a warning of the type of event that will occur more often and be more severe, unless action is taken, no one I know of is saying "the present bushfires in NSW have totally been caused by climate change."

A great effort by the Fireies and other volunteers yesterday, their hard work paid off in saving people and their homes in the Blue Mountains and other places.

Is Mise; Your last comment about Adam Bandt, is a typical "kill the messenger" comment. your entitled to your opinion, and any politician is fair game. So say what you like.

My last comment, Paul, about Bandt being a weevil in the flour of Australian politics was what is known as a typically "smart-arse comment"; something that you should recognize.

Bandt's sin was in jumping in to score a political point whilst the devastation was occurring, had he waited till things, and embers, had cooled off a bit then there would have been no cause for criticism.

He was criticized for crass insensitivity not his message.

"smart-arse comment" Is Mise, I wouldn't know, I certainly wouldn't make such a comment myself, even though they come thick and fast from some on here of the conservative ilk, directed at myself and other progressive thinking people, along with Green polys. I suppose that is the norm for a political forum.
I must say your comment was original.

How about...

Adam Bandt is the speck of gold amidst the river of sludge that defines post-election contemporary Australian politics.

and just as worthless, not worth the cost of recovery.