Breaking the drought(s)

To Malaysians still celebrating a change of reign following a six-decade drought of good, honest government, the breaking, or at least bending, of the long drought afflicting my Australian state of New South Wales is hardly likely to constitute headline news.

Especially since Malaysia suffers more frequently from a surplus rather than a shortage of downpours, or in other words flash-floods rather than seemingly endless droughts.

But as an Australian, as I sit here trying to type my way out of my latest literary dry-spell, I’m elated at the fact that it’s bucketing down outside.

And not just here in Sydney, but all across this dangerously desiccated state.

Out Broken Hill way, for example, and on the neighbouring South-Western plains region that’s customarily so dry it’s commonly known as ‘Hell, Hay and Balranald’, they’ve had more rain in the past two days than in all the previous months of this year.

Of course, the farmers will need more follow-up rainfall, but at least the 50 to 90 ml they’ve received so far will go some way towards germinating pasture for starving stock, irrigating drought-stunted spring crops and replenishing dams that have long dwindled to nothing but dry mud.

Another boon to people outside the towns and cities is that all this moisture will have extinguished any of the recent bushfires that may still have been threatening their properties and delay if not prevent the outbreak of others.

And I’ve noticed that even my fellow city-dwellers haven’t started complaining about the rain thus far, as aware and as sympathetic as they are to the dire effects of the long drought on farmers and graziers, not to mention on the prices of the milk, meat, grains, fruit and vegetables they’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to produce.

As for myself in the most personal sense, I love the feeling of snugness indoors out of the rain; the deliciously soothing and sleep-inducing pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof and the sense of satisfaction at the sluicing of the streets, the refreshment of the parks and the deep soaking that the few walking-stick palms and other favourite plants I’ve been able to fit into my meagre garden.

But to turn from the personal to the political, rain or no rain, I’ve been delighted to see that the drought has given a good many farmers and rural groups free rein to complain about one of the key policies pursued by the National Party, formerly the Country Party, partner of the Liberal Party in Australia’s currently-reigning coalition.

Or, as I’ve written many times before, COALition, given that it stupidly and stubbornly persists in its denial of any human contribution to climate change in order to justify its support of coal and other fossil fuels over solar, wind and other sources of renewable energy.

Destructive activities

This state of denial is increasingly alienating and angering voters in the agricultural sector, long traditional supporters of the National Party in particular and the COALition in general, on two grounds.

Firstly, that coal-mining and coal-seam-gas-fracking corporations are constantly threatening to extend their destructive activities into the nation’s most productive agricultural areas.

And second and simultaneously, growing numbers of farmers and graziers, faced with what they very accurately perceive as hotter seasons and more severe and protracted droughts, are rejecting the climate-change denial of the members of Parliament who claim to be representing their best interests.

Or, to put this another way, while rural voters have traditionally tended to be both socially and economically conservative in their views, they are fast realising that they have been and are still being conned by the COALition.

One of whose most prominent members recently had the effrontery to make the preposterous claim that fossil fuels have made the most significant contribution, not to causing climate change, but to combat it.

What alleged evidence he and his COALition colleagues have for this bold and barefaced falsehood I have no idea.

Nor can I guess who Australia’s latest COALition prime minister, Scott Morrison (main photo, top), thought he was kidding with his recent lie, in direct opposition to contrary evidence that his government kept secret for seven weeks before its deliberately low-key release, that Australia would achieve its Paris-Accord-agreed greenhouse-reduction targets “in a canter”.

In fact, as everybody is aware by now following media coverage of this outrage, Australia, on its current trajectory, has no way of achieving these targets in a fit.

But that’s absolutely fine by me as the more blatantly Scott Morison, known to his colleagues and supporters as ScoMo but to those of us who detest both his policies and prevarications as ScamMo or ScumMo, subjects Australia to a drought of true, honest-to-goodness government for the good of the nation and its people rather than the opposite for the benefits of himself and his COALition cronies, the better.

Or, to put this another way, the harder and longer he and his conservative colleagues continue to rain on their own parade by keeping on conning the populace, the more likely they are to have their reign cut short, Umno/BN-style, at the fast-approaching next federal election.

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DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he coaches and mentors writers and authors and practises as a writing therapist. Published compilations of his Malaysiakini columns include "Mad about Malaysia", "Even Madder about Malaysia", "Missing Malaysia", "1Malaysia.con" and "Malaysia Mania”. - Mkini