Australia’s PM defends climate stance amid wildfire disaster

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Australia’s embattled prime minister defended his government’s climate policy on Monday, as authorities warned that the wildfires ravaging the country’s most populous state could fester for months.

Around 200 wildfires were burning in four states, with New South Wales accounting for more than half of them, including 60 fires not contained.

The disaster has led to renewed criticism that Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government has not taken enough action on climate change.

Morrison rejected calls to downsize Australia’s lucrative coal industry.

Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas.

“I am not going to write off the jobs of thousands of Australians by walking away from traditional industries,” he told Channel Seven.

Morrison made the rounds on several Australian television networks Monday morning in the aftermath of his much criticised family vacation to Hawaii during the wildfire crisis.

He eventually cut short his vacation and returned to Sydney over the weekend before visiting evacuation and emergency control centres and the families of two firefighters killed battling blazes last Thursday southwest of Sydney.

“We all make decisions. You do as a parent, I do as a parent. We’ll seek to balance our work life responsibilities and we all try to get that right,” Morrison told Channel Seven.

Video posted on Facebook by firefighters in South Australia state and shared with The Associated Press shows a firefighter giving water to a thirsty koala Sunday as fires raged in Cudlee Creek, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Adelaide, the state capital.

More than 3 million hectares of land has burned nationwide during a torrid past few months, with nine people killed and more than 950 homes destroyed.

About 850 homes have burned in New South Wales, which last week was paralysed by a seven-day state of emergency amid catastrophic conditions.

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