Australia’s PM wants more powers as bushfires threaten capital

Australia’s prime minister has asked for greater federal powers to fight raging bushfires in the country, amid official warnings that the blazes are about to brush through a national park near the capital, Canberra.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday that he wanted to establish a “legal framework that would allow the Commonwealth to declare a national state of emergency” before the next summer bush fire season, pointing out that the existing jurisdictions of federal and state governments were not conducive to the proper tackling of the fires.

“It has long been the case that state and territory governments have primary responsibility for protecting the life and property within their borders,” said Morrison, who has been criticized for vacationing in the US state of Hawaii during the earlier stages of the bushfire crisis. “The scale of the bushfires this season, not least their simultaneous reach across many borders, has demonstrated to me the limits of these arrangements.”

Morrison had initially stated that Australia’s eight state and territory governments had the main oversight during natural disasters.

While he offered no details about the new plan, it appears to be an effort by the conservative prime minister to avert further criticism for acting too slowly when the gravity of the country’s worst bushfire season in a generation became apparent late last year.

In the face of intense criticism following his return from Hawaii, Morrison mobilized nearly 3,000 Australian Defense Force reservists to help the regional communities impacted by the blazes.

Australia’s PM admits partial guilt in bushfire response

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison admits partial responsibility in inadequately responding to the bushfires scorching land and killing people and wildlife across the country for months.

The Australian bushfires have killed 33 people and an estimated one billion animals since last September. Additionally, more than 2,500 homes and a wilderness area the size of Greece have been destroyed, prompting critics to accuse the prime minister of not doing enough to slash the country’s carbon emissions and thus contributing to global warming.

Morrison, however, has argued that Australia should adapt to changing weather patterns that would make bushfires more frequent, and “when it comes to practical safety of people living in bushfire zones, hazard reduction is even more important than emissions reduction.”

Meanwhile, authorities have warned people residing just to the south of the capital to stay away from some regional areas due to a 10,000-hectare forest fire nearby, although no suburbs of Canberra itself were under threat.

Moreover, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has warned that Canberra will be at the center of a heat wave that will put the city’s temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius for several days.

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