Can Morrison's 'she'll be right' strategy on climate work forever? | Katharine Murphy

The government has an opportunity to pivot in 2020 - to actually do something rather than pretending to

It's hot as I write this final column for 2019, the day is creeping towards 40C. It's dry. The ground is like concrete, and dust is obscuring yellowed grass on my parched suburban block. Bushfire smoke has rolled in and out of Canberra. Smoke is the last thing I smell before going to sleep and the first thing I smell as I wake up.

With the summer stretching out in front of us and no significant rain forecast before April, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, December and January promises extreme weather, burning bushland, eerie blood-red sunsets. Towns are on the brink of running out of water. Instead of resting and recharging with their loved ones, emergency services workers are spending their days toiling in a hellscape.