Scotty From Marketing Admits Mistakes; Wants Royal Commission Report, Which Will Take A Year Or Two

By which time, everybody will have forgotten by the time the next election rolls around.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday conceded that his handling of the country's bushfire crisis could have been better, adding that he will propose a review of the government's response to the crisis. In a televised interview with ABC, he rejected criticism that his government did not do enough at the start of the bushfire season — but added that some responses could have been better.

"There are things I could have handled on the ground much better," he said. "These are sensitive environments, there are very emotional environments; prime ministers are flesh and blood, too, in how they engage with people."Morrison said a national inquiry was necessary, including a Royal Commission judicial review, the country's highest form of investigation on issues in the public's interest.

EDIT

Climate change "has obviously impacted on the longer, hotter, drier summer seasons," the premier said, going on to suggest for the first time that a policy change could be in the cards. Critics have slammed Morrison for his staunch support of Australia's coal industry and his previous reluctance to acknowledge the role climate change has played in intensifying the fires.

"We want to reduce emissions and do the best job we possibly can and get better and better and better at it," he said Sunday. "I want to do that with a balanced policy which recognizes Australia's broader national economic interests and social interest."

EDIT

https://www.dw.com/en/australian-leader-admits-he-could-have-handled-bushfires-much-better/a-51973336

EDIT

The point here is to simply document how these fires are affecting all sorts of aspects of our lives way beyond the terror they represent up close. And that means they are also changing our political conversation, on everything from the environment to the role of government.

The Prime Minister has suggested there might be a royal commission into all we can learn from these fires, including their causes, though of course he has not actually locked into calling one. Excuse the cynicism, but doesn't a possible royal commission — whatever its ultimate virtues — provide the perfect response in the short term for any question you don't want to answer?

For example, "well that will be a matter for the royal commission to determine".

A Government that has held on, at great cost to rational policy making, to a budget surplus now stuck together with sticky tape, will at least have an honourable reason to not meet its surplus target if it does actually start spending money because of our burning summer.

EDIT

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-11/australia-bushfire-crisis-just-dont-mention-climate-change/11857590