Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused of politicising LA fires

The Prime Minister has been accused of politicising the California wildfires by using them to attack the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan as Los Angeles continues to burn.

Wrapping up a whirlwind trip to WA on Friday, Anthony Albanese said that while not every extreme weather event could be linked to climate change, the science was clear that extreme weather disasters would become more frequent and severe as a result.

“We’ve seen the hottest years on record being reached year after year, and we’re seeing as well, more extreme events. I think these scenes are horrific,” he said in Alkimos, in Perth’s north.

“It’s why we can’t afford to say, ‘Stop acting, don’t do anything until the 2040s and we’ll build you a nuclear power station down at Collie’. That makes no sense.”

The Coalition has proposed to build seven nuclear power plants, including at the site of the Muja coal station near Collie, as part of its energy plan, which it expects will cost $331 billion to 2050. However, that cost excludes Collie.

The modelling suggests it will be $263 billion cheaper than Labor’s renewable-focused blueprint.

Shadow Climate Change and Energy Minister Ted O’Brien slammed Mr Albanese’s remarks, saying: “To politicise the LA fires by criticising the Coalition’s future energy policy is an appalling reflection of the Anthony Albanese’s character.

“LA is burning and Australians are worried about fire risks here at home, and the best the Prime Minister can do is have a crack at Peter Dutton and the Coalition’s future energy plan,” he added.

“This is coming from someone who won office campaigning to reduce emissions, only to reverse the Coalition’s track record of consecutive year-on-year emissions reduction and instead he’s been driving emissions up.

“He hungers for a fight on why climate change matters, but the debate has moved on — it’s no longer about ‘why’ act on climate change but ‘how’, and this is where his government is failing on every front.”

Mr O’Brien said the Coalition’s plan for a “balanced energy mix” that included renewables, nuclear and gas, was working all over the world.

The Prime Minister also referenced the one in 100-year flood event triggered by ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie that caused extensive flooding throughout the Kimberley in December 2022 and January 2023, destroying homes and businesses and cutting off access to communities.

The Fitzroy River Bridge at Fitzroy Crossing was damaged beyond repair and had to be replaced.

“The economic cost of rebuilding in areas impacted by extreme weather events, whether it be the bushfires of 2019-2020 (on Australia’s east coast), whether it be the flooding that impacted here in WA,” Mr Albanese said.

“I visited Fitzroy Crossing and those communities impacted, the knocking out of that bridge meant that that had an extraordinarily strong impact on productivity as well, because it just cut off that road route through that part of Western Australia.”

The devastating fires in Los Angeles are occurring during the US winter.

Mr Albanese acknowledged an extended fire season in the northern hemisphere would make it harder to exchange resources with the southern hemisphere during the off season, and vice versa.

“What we have here is an event that is unseasonal and it is something we need to be conscious of,” he said.

The press conference was Mr Albanese’s last public engagement on his 27th visit to WA, which began in Kununurra, ahead of an election that can be held no later than May.