“I think it’s a load of BS”: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has denied climate change has had any effect on the bushfire crisis.

Pauline Hanson has backed a royal commission into the Australian bushfire crisis but in the same breath said to “throw bloody climate change out the window”.

The One Nation leader unleashed when she appeared on Today this morning for her thoughts on the latest Newspoll, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s plunging approval rating.

“I am actually disappointed in him myself,” Senator Hanson said.

“When he was immigration minister I predicted then that he would actually go on to be Prime Minister of this country and I have been dismally disappointed with him.

“He is not the strong leader he was then. I feel that a lot of the time he is fence-sitting.

“He is trying to appease a lot of people without just getting and making those tough decisions and going ahead and doing it.”

She said it cannot be denied that “the factors of government legislation” – whether it be local, state or federal – have put the country in the “predicament” it is in.

“When the forest floors have not been allowed to be cleared or the fire breaks done or the RFS (Rural Fire Service) allowed do to do their job effectively or people building houses can’t clear the trees because of the legislation, it is ridiculous,” she said.

“It is a build-up of the fuel over a period of time, 30 plus years that it has come to this stage now.

“If you are going to have a royal commission into it, throw bloody climate change out of the window and let’s look at the pure facts of why we have had the bushfires, how they were handled, what we can do better to stop it happening again, lowering the emissions as they are dead set on doing.

“If you are going to charge people more tax, how on earth is that supposed to reduce the Earth’s temperatures? I would like to know.”

Senator Hanson’s spiel continued.

She said people in pubs in small towns have told her the approach “is killing them” and they can’t afford a price hike for electricity.

She also questioned climate change and global warming predictions for 50 to 100 years’ time when “they can’t even get my weather right and tell me it is going to rain” for the next week.

“I think it’s a load of BS and making a lot of people rich over this,” she said.

Mr Morrison is working on a cabinet submission for a royal commission into the bushfires.

If the states agree, the inquiry would look at operational issues, and co-operation between federal and state governments as well as the impact of climate change.

“If you’re going to have a royal commission, then open it up. Let’s have the true facts,” Senator Hanson said.

Today host Allison Langdon asked: “So you don’t think that climate change has played any role in the bushfire crisis?”

Senator Hanson conceded “the climate is changing” but said taxing people and putting up electricity costs wouldn’t change the climate.

She said carbon emissions from transport should instead be the focus.

“The climate is changing pure to nature itself and our relation to the sun,” she said.

“If you are fair dinkum about climate change, you think it is having a big impact on us, then take all of the aeroplanes out of the sky. Don’t fly aeroplanes, don’t drive cars.

“Let’s really be serious about it if you’re going to be and not destroy people’s lives and jobs and industries and manufacturing because that is where we are headed.

“Climate change is happening, naturally, and that’s how the general public feel about it as well, not to be hoodwinked and lied to. Let the true facts come out.”

The reaction to her comments has been mixed.

Pauline Hanson. Still less than coherent, still an intellectual minnow. And a flat-out climate change denier. Shame on you @TheTodayShow — Scott Fitzgerald (@ScottFitzG) January 12, 2020

Pauline Hanson just said the smartest thing about climate change: "If you're serious about climate change, let's take planes out of the sky, don't drive cars" - don't tax & charge struggling working poor people within an inch of their already strained lives & destroy livelihoods. — Tash (@tashwil06) January 12, 2020

FIRES IN AUSTRALIA: PAULINE HANSON & I HAVE THE SAME OPINIONS. FIRES ARE CAUSED BY ARSONIST, UNCONTROLLED BACKBURNINGS, & NEGLIGENCE NOT CLIMATE CHANGE. WE HAVE TO BE HONEST TO MAKE US HUMAN AND BRIGHT. I HAVE NOT COME ACCROSS YET A BRIGHT GOV'T WHO HAVE GOOD STRATEGY TO STOP IT — Lydz Mendez (@LydiaMExcell) January 12, 2020

Make no mistake, it's because of Pauline Hanson, Scott Morrison, and other politicians who outright deny science-based evidence that the climate crisis will continue to cause significant bushfires, farm droughts, floods, and other Australian disasters until they're voted out. — Michael Ramos (@MRamosDC) January 12, 2020

I agree with her 100 per cent. The climate changes naturally and if the greens let the @NSWRFS do there job and clear some land we wouldnt have had the biggest fire ever. #ClimateChangeHoax — George Karakatsanis (@georgekara89) January 12, 2020

I didn't realise she had a degree in environmental science... — Nicole Leedham (@BlackCoffeeNic) January 12, 2020