Yesterday's driving rain was a reminder that a wetter than average summer was forecast for central Victoria.
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The development of a La Nina weather pattern in the second half of 2020 offered some hope of milder weather this summer, but hot conditions have still featured prominently at times.
Thankfully what this summer has not featured so far is the catastrophic bushfires that blighted the opening weeks of last year.
Those fires put climate change very firmly at the top of the political agenda.
Related story: Bendigo MP set for Canberra return
In the time since, those problems have retreated from view to a large degree because of the all-consuming nature of the coronavirus pandemic.
But the return of the federal parliament gives politicians - particularly those on the opposition benches - the opportunity to get the other great crisis of these times back into the headlines.
Labor has already done so to an extent, inadvertently, with its frontbench reshuffle raising questions about the party's commitment to action on climate change.
"Climate is an issue Bendigo cares about and Labor remains committed to its policy of 50 per cent emissions by 2050," Lisa Chesters said before departing to Canberra for the next round of parliamentary sittings.
The government's policy stance has been well known for years, and plenty has been written about the ALP's difficult relationship with the climate issue over the past decade or more.
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Surely the time has come for Labor to embrace even tougher carbon emission targets and make the front-running on the issue.
There is also an opportunity for the party to link carbon reduction to the economic recovery that needs to happen once coronavirus is firmly under vaccinated control.
As the Democrats are showing in the early days of the Biden administration, it is possible to make a compelling argument - even to communities where coal production provides employment - that climate action can generate jobs.
Labor would need to be brave to be bolder on this issue, but the community is ready to support that level of ambition.
