Sometimes, the subject for a column just leaps out of nowhere and punches you right in the face.
And sometimes, that assault overrides fundamental criteria; a yardstick that says what I write must have some identifiable connection with Shepparton, the Goulburn Valley and, most importantly, this newspaper’s readers.
Well, with regard the latter, my interest (some say my “obsession”) has long been about climate change and that, as the ever-growing evidence illustrates, is, or should be, of unquestionable interest to all readers.
My ‘punch in the face’, my trigger, came when a fellow who had a huge impact on the lives of Goulburn Valley people and who had been, was and is, a climate change denier, nailed his colours to the mast, so to speak.
Scott Morrison had been, until recently, Australia’s Prime Minister, and so pulled all the levers that determined the wellbeing of people in the Goulburn Valley and never hid the fact he was a Pentecostal Christian.
His belief in God made it difficult, if not impossible, for him to believe that humans had the power to influence what he saw as God’s creation and so influence, and reshape the climate.
And just last Sunday week, our former PM gave a sermon at a Western Australian church at which he declared: “We trust in Him (God). We don’t trust in governments.”
I was aghast, as here was a man who for years sat at the controls of our country and didn’t believe that anything he said or did had any impact; it was his God, he believed, who was calling the shots.
It is tragic and immeasurably sad that the fortunes of Australia, Australians and, of course, you and me here in the Goulburn Valley have rested with the former PM’s fanciful giant teapot in the sky.
Well, if Mr Morrison has such a belief that God will provide, how about he hand back what he was paid as PM, that we immediately cut off the generous former PM pension arrangements, he resign from Federal Parliament and along with that, arrange with God to make amends for all the tragedies arising from the Millennium Drought, the 2019-20 bushfires and the floods that have ravaged parts of NSW and Queensland.
And while in discussion with his omnipotent God, Mr Morrison might also ask why is it that nearly all the world’s climate scientists say the world is in deep trouble and salvation can only be found in an immediate reduction of our carbon dioxide emissions.
Mr Morrison and his cohort will argue, or course, that what is happening on Earth is the product of humans not adhering to “God’s way”, and climate change is simply a manifestation of our failure to adhere to God’s values.
Christianity is something of a ‘Johnny come lately’ in relation to Australia’s First Nations cultures, and they survived beautifully for thousands of years with no knowledge of Mr Morrison’s God.
That too can be argued away by the Morrison cohort, but that is something with which is impossible to debate, as baseless beliefs and facts have always been, and always will be, uncomfortable bedfellows with the blunt reality of facts.
Belief in the imaginary great teapot in the sky and the facts of science is something around which it is impossible to have a rational and reasonable discussion.
So where do we stand now?
We have absolutely zero evidence that Mr Morrison’s God will deliver us from the difficulties we face and yet unequivocal, unassailable evidence tells us the climate crisis is unfolding far quicker than ever anticipated and that we must take note of the science and act accordingly.
And just last week we heard about the unsettling State of the Environment report for 2021, buried for months in the bottom draw by the former Morrison Government.
The implications of the hidden report, if we take Mr Morrison’s position, show that God has no interest in our environment and nor does he care about the science that allows us to protect it, and so our God-fearing former PM simply pays homage to profit and his re-election and, of course, his teapot in the sky.
And writing just recently in The New Daily, Michael Pascoe said: “The divine right of kings was an especially obnoxious and self-serving doctrine whereby kings claimed their power came from God and therefore they were only answerable to God.”
You might say it was all “God’s plan”.
Pascoe went on: “Never mind the sundry murders, coups, wars and invasions whereby royal families were installed — apparently that was all fine by God.
“You would think that by the 21st century we would be spared such tosh, but no.”
He added: “And we had until very recently a prime minister who effectively claims to have divine blessing for all he did and did not do.”
As electors we have all be taken for a ride; a ride Mr Morrison’s God promised would be smooth and trouble-free, but that fanciful bubble has been burst and now we are faced with repairing a nation that has been neglected for years.