Ask Bucko

As Australia picks itself off the floor after another round of devastating floods, bushfires, duststorms, water shortages and even droughts, one wonders just how far the climate deniers in the National Party are prepared to go before they wake up to themselves.

Communities throughout the country have weathered the real impacts of climate change, in real time. The country is large, and the floods or fires can sometimes seem a long way away, but our temperature gauges are not lying to us.

The drought in Victoria has been real. Not a drop of rain for January this year, and now in early March widespread floods. One would expect the party representing rural and regional Australia to be onto the problem. You know, the big one, climate change.

Some of them even have a hobby farm, but no. They are in red-hot denial, certain that worldwide reports of the shrinking of the icecaps, both north and south, are within normal variations. Where I live, maximum temperatures during February 2026 were up 2.2 degrees. Not as bad as January though: up 3.8 degrees.

The glaciers in the high country throughout the world are melting. Greenland itself is melting. Landslides and avalanches are regularly reported, but the National Party thinks attempting to reach ‘net zero’ constitutes an existential threat to Australia’s future prosperity. It sees our efforts to transition to clean renewable energy as sabotaging our country’s future.

Another concern is so small minded as to defy belief. They think that some other countries are not trying as hard as we are to curb emissions, so we are foolish to continue trying, if no-one else is. That would be a reflection of the party’s belief that their voters are as stupid as they are.

Real farmers see the threat, real rural communities feel the anxious wait as bushfires or floods loom over their lives and livelihoods. If the best the National Party can do is to pre-select people who have been unable to move with the facts, then don’t be surprised that the party is locked in a time warp.

The 2025 election was a massive win for Labor. Not because they were so inspiring, but because the opposition was so rank, so hopelessly out of touch that hordes of voters could not bring themselves to vote for such nonsensical policies. Nuclear power anyone?

The Nationals did not lose any seats, so of course they believe that they defied the landslide. Could it be that standing still can be seen as a victory?At least the Liberals had the self-awareness to apologise and to try some tinkering with their offering to the people.

And the Liberals are mainly city based. So the Nationals believe that they are safe, seemingly unaware that the goal of a political party is to attain government, sometime in the foreseeable future.

In the wash-up of the election result the Nationals decided that what was holding them back from spectacular electoral success was the commitment to “net zero”. Notwithstanding that the party of government won one of the largest majorities in our electoral history precisely because of their dogged pursuit of the transition to net zero, and knowing at least that young people are now the largest demographic in the country.

Heating the planet kills people

The last decade has been the hottest on record. The number of human deaths caused by global heating has been increasing year on year for decades. Recent studies reported in Science Direct state that man-made greenhouse gas emissions have accelerated climate change, with the global average temperature between 2011 and 2020 reaching 1.1°C above the pre-industrial level.

A new broom? Breaking news

Overnight the totally unimpressive David Littleproud resigned as leader. Several of the old favourites were noticeable in the group of members standing behind the victorious Matt Canavan. I’m not sure, but I thought I spied a slight eye roll from Michael McCormack during Mr Canavan’s acceptance speech. One blessing is that we did not have to look at Barnaby Joyce, who has moved camp to One Nation.

Canavan’s speech did not mention the recently started illegal war in the Middle East, which was surprising. Australia has just willingly promised assistance to two war criminals, and we can expect catastrophic results.

The leaders of Israel and America are hardly clever strategic thinkers; they are more interested in staying out of jail than achieving strategic goals. Expect something akin to a worldwide depression, if we’re lucky. And remember that Putin is being rewarded for his illegal invasion, with the lifting of sanctions. China has also been provided with a blueprint for taking Taiwan.

Canavan’s speech was filtered Trump. It was a cry to “Make Australia Great”. The shame is that Jacinta Price was not there to deliver the message. She and Barnaby were busy, elsewhere. That is called abandoning the sinking ship.

On climate change, zilch. Although he did mention that we have everything we need in Australia, including people, land, humour, rain (occasionally), and barbecues.

Matt Canavan said virtually nothing. He is known as the person behind scrapping the Coalition’s net zero goal, so he is completely unelectable in any seat where there is any population centre, like a city or a large town.

One Nation is the other unmentionable. They will now split the rural and regional vote, maybe even take better than half. The Nationals might linger for a couple of years, but they have become completely irrelevant to Australians, and to our future development as a modern nation.

Message to the Liberals. You’re better off without them. They are an embarassment.