Australian Bushfires
Australian bushfire victims still suffering six months on
By Cheryl Crisp, 20 July 2020
Hundreds of people who lost their homes are living in tents, caravans or shipping containers in what is now the dead of winter.
Australian bushfire inquiry examines the terrible impact of smoke inhalation
By John Mackay, 2 June 2020
The number of deaths caused by smoke was more than ten times the number killed directly by the bushfires.
Australian bushfire inquiry: Damage-control, cover-up and a push for military powers
By Mike Head, 27 February 2020
The central purpose of the royal commission is to absolve the federal and state governments of responsibility for the disaster, and to introduce unprecedented national emergency powers.
Recession warnings fuel political instability in Australia
By Mike Head, 12 February 2020
The bushfire and coronavirus disasters have had an enormous economic and social impact.
Australia: Balmoral fire captain labels government response a “national disgrace”
By our reporters, 8 February 2020
Balmoral residents are becoming frustrated by the lack of promised assistance for the urgent tasks of clearing dangerous trees and providing clean water.
Australia: Bushfire survivors point to lack of funding for firefighters and recovery effort
By our reporters, 3 February 2020
Residents from New South Wales’ South Coast and Blue Mountains areas praise volunteers, and describe the struggle to rebuild after the fires.
Australia’s fire crisis continues while flash floods hammer northern Queensland
By Martin Scott, 1 February 2020
Australia’s catastrophic summer escalates, with heavy rain in the north and bushfires in the south.
Australian government calls for national emergency powers
By Mike Head, 30 January 2020
Under the guise of dealing with bushfires and other disasters, Prime Minister Morrison is seeking to boost the powers of the state apparatus to suppress unrest.
Australians suffer violent hailstorms, flash floods and ongoing fires
By Martin Scott, 25 January 2020
As bushfires continue to burn, Australian communities have been ravaged by other extreme climatic events.
Australian workers to pay as bushfire disaster intensifies slump
By Mike Head, 24 January 2020
Continued wage stagnation, job losses and social spending cuts are predicted for 2020 and beyond.
Tasmanian premier’s resignation highlights political discontent across Australia
By Mike Head, 22 January 2020
Under successive governments, both Liberal and Labor, the island state has become a microcosm of the financial and social devastation being inflicted on millions of people throughout the country.
Australia: Thousands protest government inaction on bushfires and climate change
By our reporters, 22 January 2020
The organisers of the Melbourne demonstration provided no way forward beyond the confines of the capitalist system that has led to environmental destruction.
Lack of action on climate change leads to warmest decade ever recorded
By James Cogan, 20 January 2020
For all the proclamations by corporations and governments that they accept the need to reduce fossil fuel use, carbon emissions rose to the highest ever level in 2019.
Bushfire scientist warns that Australia’s disaster is “a wake-up call”
By Frank Gaglioti, 20 January 2020
“If nothing is done to address climate change this wildfire season will be a preview into our future.”
Australian Labor Party closes ranks with Morrison government in bushfire crisis
By Oscar Grenfell, 18 January 2020
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has largely refrained from criticising the inadequate government response on the grounds of ensuring “national unity.”
Smoke haze from Australian bushfires pose serious public health threat
By John Mackay, 18 January 2020
The fine particulates in smoke from fires has been known to contain a toxic mix of chemicals that are a concern to public health.
Australian fires leave tens of thousands in financial hardship and stress
By James Cogan, 17 January 2020
The fires have most severely affected low-income workers and welfare recipients, self-employed contractors, small-business owners and family farmers.
Australia: Balmoral firefighters say they were “abandoned” and demand better resources
By our reporters, 17 January 2020
“Governments are definitely not looking after us—there’s too many hidden agendas—and things are not being done to make sure we’ve got adequate power or water.”
Australian bushfire crisis highlights sweeping emergency powers
By Mike Head, 16 January 2020
By proclaiming “emergencies,” state governments can override any law in order to suppress rising social unrest.
Australia: NSW bushfire victims condemn inadequate planning and government responses
By our reporters, 16 January 2020
“Volunteers are dwindling in numbers and the average age is increasing. You can’t go flogging these people for 11 weeks of fire fighting.”
The Australian fire crisis and the necessity for socialism
the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 11 January 2020
That the Australian prime minister denied any link between the fires and global warming epitomises the organic incapacity of the ruling classes internationally to address, let alone resolve, the climate crisis.
“It’s the big companies that are responsible for this”
Mass climate change rallies held amid Australian bushfire emergency
By our reporters, 11 January 2020
One protester, whose family has been hit by the fires, said: “The rich and those in power have their own houses, their own air conditioners. They can fly away to Hawaii. They’re not impacted.”
“Everyone is saying this government has to go”
Australia: Victim of East Gippsland bushfire voices anger over government negligence
By Margaret Rees, 10 January 2020
“The amount of money they spend on submarines and fighter planes. It should be spent on internal water bombers and resources.”
Australian bushfire catastrophe exposes the contempt of the ruling elites for working people
By James Cogan, 8 January 2020
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will go down in history as the political leader who secretly went on holiday to Hawaii while the country burned.
After another weekend of devastation, Australia faces weeks more of unprecedented fires
By James Cogan, 6 January 2020
A discernable shift is underway in how masses of people view the political parties and institutions that have downplayed or denied the reality of climate change.
Ruling class bereft of answers while catastrophic fires escalate across Australia
By James Cogan, 4 January 2020
The criminal indifference of the Australian ruling elite to the threat of climate change has its parallels around the world.
Australia: Climate change and the bushfire crisis
By Frank Gaglioti, 4 January 2020
“Long-term climate change in Australia is an undeniable reality.”
As Australia burns, anger turns on climate change-denying Prime Minister Morrison
By James Cogan, 3 January 2020
Morrison’s reception in the town of Cobargo was only one indication of the outrage that exists toward federal and state governments.
Fires create hellish conditions across Australia
By Mike Head, 31 December 2019
An unprecedented mass evacuation order for an area half the size of Belgium gave tens of thousands of residents and holidaymakers just hours to pack up and leave.
Australian fires bring growing global climate crisis into stark relief
By James Cogan, 23 December 2019
The catastrophic fires in Australia follow blazes that have engulfed large areas of California, Siberia, Borneo and the Amazon.
Australia: Thousands attend climate change rally in Sydney
By Martin Scott, 13 December 2019
While bushfires ravaged the state, workers and students gathered to protest government inaction on climate change.
Youth demonstrating in Australia speak out against climate change and war
By our reporters, 9 December 2019
Students attended climate change protests in major cities in solidarity with rallies organised globally on November 29.
Australian bushfire emergency worsens but government denounces climate change warnings
By Mike Head, 12 November 2019
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack caused outrage by attacking “raving inner city lunatics” for linking global warming to the bushfires.
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