Tropical Cyclone Alfred and the politics of ‘keeping politics out of it’
Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred has finally dissipated after rampaging across south-eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales for days. It has caused significant flooding, destruction to homes, widespread power outages and, tragically, the death of a 61-year-old man near Dorrigo.
Last week, as the cyclone approached the Queensland coast, Peter Dutton had his “Scomo moment”. He fled his home electorate north of Brisbane to the relative safety of a Liberal Party fundraiser in Sydney. Held in the deluxe mansion of billionaire Justin Hemmes, whose Merivale Group was recently sued by its staff over $129 million in alleged unpaid wages (roughly the value of Hemmes’ house), Dutton’s flight was a reminder that the rich live by different rules to the rest of us. In the face of disaster, they can use their money and connections to keep themselves safe. Most of us cannot.
Anthony Albanese was keen to emphasise that politics should be left out of these disasters. When asked about the possibility of calling an election this week, he responded that “this is not a time for looking at politics”. In the context of a warming world though, where the increasing frequency of extreme weather is intersecting with issues like growing inequality, housing insecurity, and the steady erosion of essential public services, these events are thoroughly political—whether politicians like Albanese admit that or not.
The exact development and path of Cyclone Alfred cannot, of course, be attributed to climate change—cyclones have struck south-east Queensland before. But the growing frequency of such disasters on a global level can be. Increases in ocean temperatures are supercharging cyclones and increasing their occurrence further from the equator. They are lasting longer, moving more erratically, and dumping more rain. Whatever the exact balance of “normal” and “climate change-fuelled” in Cyclone Alfred’s impact, governments like Albanese’s that fail to act on the climate crisis should be seen as sharing some of the blame for it.
The calls to “keep politics out of it” are part of an effort to conceal this reality, and the fact that instead of doing anything about climate change our leaders are bent on further fuelling it. Last September, Labor Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek approved three new extensions to coal mines in Queensland and New South Wales. The mines will now operate until at least 2070. By then, global average temperatures could be at 7.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Economic Forum. Such a rise in temperature would make large parts of the world uninhabitable.
Then there’s the massive Scarborough gas project, soon to be constructed off the coast of Western Australia by one of Australia’s premier polluters, Woodside Petroleum. Labor approved the project even though, according to Greenpeace, it will lead to up to 1.6 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions over its lifetime. This would make it the worst single emitter in Australian history.
In addition to bringing the climate crisis to the fore, extreme weather events like Cyclone Alfred expose other failures and crises of capitalism. One of these is the chronic underfunding of government services. A worker involved in the Queensland government's Community Recovery program, who spoke anonymously to Red Flag in the days before Alfred made landfall, said the state was still scrambling to provide support to victims of the recent North Queensland floods. "There are people in Townsville who’ve lost almost everything”, they said, “and [they] are still waiting for government grants”.
More frequent flooding means less time for communities to recover before the next disaster hits. In the northern New South Wales town of Lismore, which saw devastating flooding only three years ago in February 2022, up to 1,200 people were still living in emergency or temporary accommodation as of last December, according to the Canberra Times. Others are still homeless or have been forced to return and squat in ramshackle houses in flood-prone areas. No effort has been made to permanently house or relocate these people, who now face another round of flooding.
Residents of towns in south-east Queensland, such as Logan, face similar issues, as many there also lost their homes in 2022. Now parts of Brisbane are flooding again, raising the possibility of homelessness for thousands more people.
Labor under Albanese has done nothing to fix the housing crisis for anyone, let alone flood victims. What little remains of public housing stock in Australia is being demolished, rents have skyrocketed, and developers and landlords have been given free rein to make massive profits. Rather than spending more money on things—like more secure housing built away from flood-prone areas—that might actually help in a disaster, Labor has other priorities.
Shockingly, subsidies (aka. handouts) to fossil fuel companies increased by more than 31 percent in 2023-24 to $14.5 billion, according to the Australia Institute. This money could have gone towards emergency services, or investment in renewable energy, housing or welfare. Instead, it went to lining the pockets of fossil fuel bosses.
On current trends, we can expect the frequency and severity of disasters like that of Cyclone Alfred to increase in coming decades. Unless we get organised and fight back against the likes of Albanese, Dutton, and the fossil fuel bosses they serve, it will be the working class and the poor that continue to bear the brunt of them. Whoever wins the next election, we need to bring back the climate war. Only this time we should see it, and fight it, as the class war it fundamentally is.
