‘The Australian way’: the gendered and racial logics of Scott Morrison’s climate change narratives

Abstract

Scott Morrison’s government was consistently accused of taking inadequate climate change action, despite facing sustained domestic and international criticism. However, there has not yet been sustained scholarly attention paid to the relationship between Morrison’s championship of the coal industry, the specific masculinity of Morrison’s leadership style, and the ways in which climate change was narratively constructed by Scott Morrison as Prime Minister. This research argues that gendered and racialised logics underpinned the climate change policy and rhetoric of the Morrison Government. This is demonstrated through an analysis of three narratives that were consistently articulated by Morrison, demonstrating Morrison’s unwavering defence of fossil fuel industries and the specific Australian exceptionalism of his climate inaction. This paper further recognises that specific expressions of political masculinity may continue to hinder meaningful climate change action in the future.