Australian Greens leader Bob Brown again has linked the coal industry to the summer's natural disasters, including the Perth bushfires.
The industry was a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists had linked to "more severe weather events".
"The coal industry has to face it and take responsibility," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday, adding the bushfires had been more severe because of climate change.
"We simply can't say, due to a new political correctness, that it must not be on the agenda".
Senior Liberal Eric Abetz accused the Greens of a beat-up.
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"All the scientists are agreed that you cannot pick on one weather event and link that to climate change," he told reporters.
"To try and link them to climate change is political cynicism at its worst."
