There’s a myth that Australia must choose between jobs and fixing our position as a global carbon rogue state. It’s a convenient story for the coal industry, sitting pretty as it suffocates entire, far bigger business sectors.

Thermal coal mining employs 38,000 people in Australia. Tourism employs 924,000. Climate-driven fires mean endless hotel rooms sitting empty, cafe meals not eaten, tours not taken. The business mortality rate from this non-holiday summer will be savage.

Illustration: Matt Davidson Credit:

These small-town business operators don’t have lobbyists in Canberra. They’ll be forgotten as the news cycle moves on. They’ll be letting staff go, then quietly shuttering their businesses as hope and cash run out. People below retiree age move out of town because there’s no work. Once-vibrant towns wither.

As just one example, Kangaroo Island’s globally renowned Southern Ocean Lodge is gone, taken by fire. Who would build a new hotel in bushland anywhere in the country now? When I talk to other business owners, there’s increasing anger at the back-scratching mates’ club bias toward the government's coal donors, at everyone else’s expense.