Australia’s rightwing government weaponised climate change – now it has faced its reckoning

PM Scott Morrison has been dumped by electorate fed up with inaction on emissions and eager for change

When Scott Morrison won Australia's federal election in 2019, it seemed like the country would never emerge from the climate wars that had begun a decade earlier.

Morrison had taken the prime ministership late in 2018 after conservatives in the ruling Liberal-National Coalition deposed Malcolm Turnbull, in part, for his attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia's energy sector.