NSW and SA fires live: volunteer firefighters call for support as Australia’s bushfires crisis continues – latest | Australia news

Hello, this is Helen Davidson taking over the blog from Calla Wahlquist.

Prime minister Scott Morrison will be addressing media from South Australia soon.

In the meantime, here is a round up of what fire authorities expect to happen next, state by state.

More than four million hectares of Australia have burned and nine people have died since September in the “unprecedented” start to the summer fire season.

Emergency Victoria has issued an updated watch-and-act alert for the Marthavale-Barmouth Spur fire at Tambo Crossing.

The Great Alpine Road – the only way in and out without going around the mountain – remains closed between Ensay and Bruthen and there is heavy smoke throughout Tambo Valley. The fire is being monitored through aerial patrols and ground crews are in the area, though as reported earlier they are not attacking the fire directly because it is too dangerous to send crews into that terrain.

Residents are warned that their water supply “may become contaminated with debris, ash, soot, fire retardant or dead animals”, which is unpleasant.

Here’s an extended clip of the ‘not my prime minister’ exchange

And it does seem that Jacqui was simply correcting Scott Morrison as to her citizenship.

If you’re going camping between Christmas and New Year, Forest Fire Management Victoria, which handles all bushfires on public land, has provided a guide to safe camp fire management.

Remember: if there is a total fire ban you cannot light a campfire.

Dr Geoff Goldrick, a scientist, educator and volunteer firefighter, has written a critique of Scott Morrison’s “marketing strategy of a boldfaced lie” on Australia’s emissions reduction efforts.

He writes:

We know that Morrison’s patronising response to this catastrophe only confirms that he doesn’t understand the question Australia is asking.

Australians aren’t asking for miracles – we’re begging for leadership.

We are begging for leadership on the national stage. This must start with an honest acknowledgement of the problem. An unqualified admission that we are facing a climate crisis and that we must act.

Federal energy minister Angus Taylor will attend the reopening of the Tahmoor coalmine with Sanjeev Gupta today, the Illawara Mercury reports.

Simec Coal Tahmoor, bought by Gupta’s GFC Alliance in 2018, was evacuated on Thursday as the Green Wattle Creek fire approached Bargo. Like much of the area affected by the Green Wattle Creek fire, it’s in Taylor’s electorate of Hume.

The Mercury reported that Gupta would donate $250,000 to the local community at the reopening today.

But environmental groups have criticised Taylor for attending the reopening of a coalmine while his electorate was battling unprecedented bushfires.

Here’s Andrew Bray, national director of the Australian Wind Alliance:

It is deeply ironic that while renewable energy is the only part of the economy delivering sustained emissions reductions, the minister for emissions reduction has chosen to double down on coal, the primary driver of emissions increases. At a time when homes and lives have been lost to the devastating climate-fuelled bushfires in his own backyard, this stunt comes across as some kind of sick joke.

Bray said Taylor had not attended the opening of any of the three windfarms that began operation in his electorate since he became an MP. There are six windfarms in Hume employing 62 people, Bray said, and windfarm construction will create 420 jobs over the next two years. Simec Coal Tahmoor employs 400 people.

Jamie Hanson, the head of campaigns for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said Taylor was “misreading” the public mood.

The Morrison government’s misreading of the mood remains astonishing. We are living through national trauma – and their response was first a jaunt to Hawaii, and now the weird sight of Angus Taylor reopening a coalmine in the literal midst of this climate emergency.

He continued:

Good firefighting and luck ensured that the community dodged a bullet with Tahmoor – if it had burned, the Picton and Campbelltown areas may have been polluted with the toxic pollution for weeks from burning coal, including carbon monoxide, toxic fine particles and mercury.

Unlike the Hazelwood coalmine which caught alight in bushfires in Victoria in 2014, Tahmoor is an underground mine. That doesn’t mean it was not at risk of catching fire, but the risk is not the same.

I hope Dean and his small furry friend are doing well.

Scott Morrison has responded to Jacqui, the woman from the RFS operations centre in Mudgee yesterday, who responded to being introduced to the PM yesterday by saying, “He’s not my prime minister.”

Apparently, this is simply an issue of citizenship – Jacqui is British, the prime minister said on Twitter today. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Not sure Morrison’s clarification will help. Jacqui and #NotMyPrimeMinister are the top two trending topics on Twitter in Australia this morning.

Our photo editor Jessica Hromas was near Bilpin in areas affected by the Gospers Mountain megafire on Saturday.