Economic costs of the coronavirus and impacts of drought and bushfires for 2020 are yet to be seen but will surely be high.

While policy processes in managing pandemics in Australia and across the developed world are highly evolved, Australia is seen as having its head in the sand over the role of climate change and its relationship to events such as bushfires and drought.

We are seen as a policy backwater on tackling climate change, and there is a quickly growing consensus that as a nation, we need to do more to reduce our carbon emission footprint, the main cause of climate change.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the National Press Club last week. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

Despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison telling the National Press Club that climate action would be “driven by technology, not taxation”, technology alone will not be enough. Now is the right time to look again at a new carbon tax model - one that leaves taxpayers better off and puts downward pressure on emissions.