This is an open letter to the entitled political class in Australia, who have perfected the art of delay, deflection and quiet surrender while the world burns, floods and fractures around us.
You know the science. You have known it for decades. Your own agencies, universities, emergency services and insurers have spelled out what lies ahead with uncomfortable clarity. You attend summits, release strategies, set aspirational targets and distant promises. You speak of balance, realism and pragmatism. Yet when real decisions are required – decisions that would upset donors, anger fossil fuel lobbyists and cost political capital – you flinch.
You look away when the truth becomes inconvenient. You refuse to name injustice when it becomes politically uncomfortable. Instead of telling people what is really happening, you try to drown it out with silence, spin and the hope that no one will notice.
You distract. You muddy the water. You hide behind culture wars, procedural complexity and endless reviews while damage accelerates and accountability evaporates.
You speak of responsibility while approving new coal and gas projects. You acknowledge climate risk while subsidising the industries that deepen it. You mourn communities after floods and fires, then quietly return to business as usual. You call Australia a climate leader while locking in decades of additional emissions.
You want credit for intention without taking responsibility for consequence.
You govern a wealthy country blessed with extraordinary advantages – sun, wind, land, minerals, knowledge and capacity. You could lead the world and show what a safe future looks like. Instead, you hide behind excuses: global markets, geopolitical uncertainty, cost-of-living fears and electoral caution.
The rising popularity of figures like Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson frightens you. It exposes how thin your authority has become and how brittle your connection to the public really is.
At the same time, the President of the world’s most powerful nation openly dismisses international and domestic law, and instead of drawing a line, you rush to appease him, flatter him, and align yourselves wherever you think advantage might be gained.
You watch voters grow angrier and more desperate for change, and rather than offering honesty or courage, you let lies run free, hoping outrage will burn itself out. Many voters, hungry for certainty and belonging, swallow those lies whole, and you stand back, relieved that the noise distracts from your own refusal to lead.
The Australian Labor Government and the Opposition discussed bushfire relief in Parliament on 20 January 2026, without mentioning the emissions crisis and its escalating impacts on communities – not even once. While this is being broadcasted live on ABC, news about yet another extension of coal-fired electricity generation tick in on the screen.
‘Power of nature’ weasel words
“Australia has faced disasters before. We will face them again. Every time we are reminded not only of the power of nature, but the resilience of the Australian people. And I know that spirit will carry communities through the difficult days ahead.”
~ Sussan Ley, leader of the Opposition of Australia, speaking at question time in Parliament on 20 January 2026, citing only “the power of nature” as the issue here. This is the same polician who announced to the public on 14 November 2025 that her party no longer supports the United Nation’s goal to hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Whitlam’s legacy
Australia did once have a national leader who embodied political courage in a way that still stands out. Gough Whitlam led with conviction rather than caution.
In just three years as Prime Minister, Whitlam showed what leadership looks like when values come before fear. He ended Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War and abolished conscription. He recognised China when it was politically risky to do so. He introduced universal healthcare, removed university fees, expanded rights for women and First Nations people, and asserted that government exists to serve the public good rather than powerful interests.
Whitlam did not wait for permission. He trusted the public to handle the truth. He was prepared to lose power rather than hollow out his principles.
That courage came at a cost. His government was destabilised, obstructed and ultimately dismissed. Entrenched interests rarely tolerate bold leadership. Yet leadership was never meant to be about surviving the next election cycle.
Whitlam’s legacy shows that Australian leadership can be ambitious, ethical and brave. By contrast, much of today’s politics looks timid and hollow.
When the moment calls for courage, you say your hands are tied. You wait for consensus that will never arrive. You water down reform until it no longer threatens anyone. You frame bold action as too risky while accepting catastrophe as inevitable. You talk about natural disasters even as the climate signal becomes impossible to ignore. You protect incumbents, profits and your own careers.
Australian governments gave $14.9 billion in spending and tax breaks to fossil fuel corporations in 2024-2025, according to The Australia Institute.
Choosing short-term comfort over long-term struggle for survival reflects a collapse of moral judgement.
Government ignores its own assessment
What Australians are living with today is not the result of a lack of knowledge, but of a long-running failure of political courage.
A recently released Cabinet minute from August 2005 makes the failure of Australian leadership even harder to defend. Two decades ago, federal Cabinet was formally briefed that the climate was already changing, that some impacts were happening faster than expected, and that Australia’s human, natural and economic systems were vulnerable:
This was not rhetoric from climate activists and protesters. This was the government’s own assessment, based on “the best available current and historic scientific analysis”.
The document is just one of many examples that political leaders were not in the dark. They understood the risks, the trajectory, and Australia’s exposure. Yet decade after decade, governments of both major parties chose delay, minimalism and political safety over meaningful action. Emissions have kept rising when they should have been going down. Climate impacts have intensified year by year. The gap between what leaders knew and what they were willing to do grew wider and wider.
You, today’s policial leaders, also understand the problem well enough to discuss it confidentially, but not well enough, or bravely enough, to act publicly and decisively.
Doing what is necessary
Across Australia, young people are stepping forward with clarity and courage. They organise, strike, volunteer, rebuild after disasters and speak openly about the future they fear they may never inherit. Year after year, they are met not with leadership, but with timidity and weasel words from people who see the danger clearly and still choose not to act.
There is a word for that.
Cowardice.
You are not leaders. You are cowards.
Leadership means acting when delay becomes the most dangerous option of all. Britain’s WWII-leader Winston Churchill once said that courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, and also what it takes to sit down and listen. “It is no use saying ‘we are doing our best’. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary,” Churchill also reminded his colleagues in Parliament.
No cost-benefit analysis can replace moral judgement. No modelling can measure courage.
Australia likes to tell itself stories about mateship, fairness and giving everyone a fair go. Yet what fairness is there in handing our children a more dangerous world because today’s leaders lacked the spine to confront powerful interests?
What mateship is there in abandoning Pacific neighbours as seas rise? What responsibility is there in exporting damage while claiming virtue at home?
Lead, lie, or hide
If you cannot find the resolve to act on what you already know, then make room for those who will. Australia does not need more managers of the status quo. It needs leaders willing to tell the truth, take risks and defend the future, even when it costs them.
I say this without apology. I feel ashamed when I have to explain your cowardice and wrong decisions to my children. I refuse to accept that you cannot be held accountable and shown the way to the door so a new generation of responsible leaders can step forward.
Australia can do better. This moment demands better. History will remember who chose to lead, who chose to lie, and who chose to hide.
A shortened version of this letter was sent on 16 January 2026 to the following five Labor ministers whose decisions carry profound moral and historical consequences and whose actions stand in clear contradiction to the responsibilities of their offices:
Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia
Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Defence
Murray Watt, Minister for Climate Change and Energy and Minister for the Environment and Water
Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy
Catherine King, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
OPEN LETTER – BY GREENPEACE:
“Reclaim the moral compass: a call for courageous leaders”
Open letter joining the urgent call for peace, justice and a healthy future: “We need to turn the volume up on a better set of morals which leaders everywhere, in government, businesses or institutions must be judged by.”
To leaders at all levels of government, business, and institutions:
We write from many places, in many languages, with one shared hope: to live in a world where peace is the norm, the climate is stable, and our children inherit a future that is brighter than our present.
You have a responsibility to reclaim the moral compass.
Peace is not a prize, it is a human right. True leadership is built on solidarity, not threats. A healthy society isn’t measured by the profits of a few, but by the well-being of the many. Success isn’t about who wins, it’s about who thrives. We are defined by what we save, not what we take.
Donald Trump has said “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me”. He and his circle of emboldened autocrats backed by polluting empires and their billionaire owners threaten our shared future.
We, the people, across generations and borders, call on leaders everywhere to reclaim the moral compass:
– Choose cooperation over domination: find security through solidarity, not violence or threats.
– Choose the common good over private profit : measure success by how many people thrive, not how few people win.
– Choose care over exploitation: build the future through what we save, not what we take.
This is the responsibility of true and courageous leadership in our time: to resist the billionaire takeover of our culture and future, to rise above the hateful rhetoric of division, and to renew our commitment to decency and each other. We, the people, rally behind leaders who are brave enough to reclaim the moral compass.
→ You can add your voice to this important call.
OPEN LETTER from Farmers for Climate Action:
These are the signals of climate change
Open letter to the Prime Minister, Federal Opposition Leader, State Premiers, State Opposition Leaders and all Members of Parliaments across Australia:
“We need strong, decisive action to drive down emissions this decade and protect farming families and our food supply. The scale of our collective response must match the scale of the climate challenge.”
→ Read and consider adding your name to the letter
“Why do we accept the worst in politics?”
“We have clear, measurable standards for Australian honour recipients. The Order of Australia has explicit criteria assessed by an independent council. Outstanding achievement. Sustained service. Positive impact. Going above and beyond. We have nothing remotely comparable for the people who govern us. That gap is destroying our democracy.”
~ Sue Barrett on Substack
→ Sue Barrett on Substack – 26 January 2026:
We Reward Our Best with Honours. Why Do We Accept the Worst in Politics?
“On Australia Day, it’s time to demand a Representative Standard we can hold every politician to. They’ve forgotten what they’re there to do.”
‘Safeguard humanity from climate and ecological collapse’
“Are you prepared to keep gambling on a model that is already failing on its own terms? Or are you willing to protect the biophysical foundations of the global economy and expand opportunity for the majority? We urge leaders to choose the latter — a shared prosperity path that transforms wealth into wellbeing, and power into partnership, in service of stewarding Earth’s safe and just space.”
~ Open letter from 20 leading economists, businesspeople and scientists
→ Earth4all – 16 January 2026:
Leaders must choose shared prosperity over fossil-fuelled growth
“Open letter from 20 leading economists, businesspeople and scientists urging world leaders to move beyond narrow economic metrics and reject an outdated model of “fossil-fuelled, extractive growth,” which accelerates ecological breakdown, worsens inequality, and increases geopolitical instability.”
“Overwhelming financial case for climate action”
The financial case for climate action is now overwhelming: inaction is more expensive than transitioning away from fossil fuels, an economist tells the ABC.
New global climate data confirms that the world has now experienced three consecutive years above 1.5°C of warming, sharply increasing the risk of extreme weather. For Australia, this is already translating into escalating floods, fires, heatwaves and rising economic costs.
New data from Europe’s leading climate agency shows that 2025 was the third hottest year on record globally, just 0.13°C degrees short of becoming the hottest year ever recorded. The annual global climate summary from the Copernicus Climate Change Service also shows that the Earth’s average temperature over the past three years has risen above 1.5°C degrees of global warming. Scientists warn that crossing this threshold dramatically increases the risk of extreme weather and harm to people.
“Australians can barely blink and get over one disaster and we’re on to the next one. Last year was a particularly bad year.”
~ Nicki Hutley, Climate Councillor and economist
Joining the discussion on ABC News is Nicki Hutley, climate councillor and economist.
In this report, the climate economist explains that the financial case for climate action is now overwhelming: inaction is more expensive than transitioning away from fossil fuels, while renewables are already the cheapest option.
Without rapid action, these impacts will intensify, but there are early signs of global momentum, with emissions falling in major economies such as China and India.
Asked about temperatures in Australia last year, Hutley explains that the country experienced its fourth hottest year on record. She cautions against any sense of relief, noting that nine of the ten hottest years have occurred within the past twelve years. This clearly shows a rising and deeply concerning trend, one that is being accompanied by an increasing number of natural disasters.
When asked about the impact of rising temperatures on climate and disasters, Hutley says Australians are barely able to recover from one event before the next strikes. She notes that last year was particularly bad for floods, and that this year has already begun with both fires and floods occurring simultaneously in different parts of the country.
Hutley stresses that it is not only headline-grabbing disasters that matter. Increasing numbers of extreme heat days above 32°C degrees are affecting people’s health, their ability to work and agricultural productivity. Alongside this, Australians are dealing with coastal inundation, rising sea levels and coastal erosion. These chronic, slow-onset impacts sit alongside what Hutley now describes as climate-fuelled, and increasingly unnatural, disasters.
Turning to the economic costs, Hutley says that insured losses in 2025 were around $2 billion, making it one of the most expensive years on record, though not the worst. She emphasises that this figure only captures insured losses. Many homes and businesses are uninsured or underinsured, and the number does not include the billions of dollars spent by state and federal governments on disaster recovery.
She points to recent government announcements providing financial assistance to uninsured households and adds that there are many additional, often unmeasured costs. These include extra pressure on the health system and lost business productivity.
Hutley notes that in the first quarter of last year, Australia’s GDP was around 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points lower than it otherwise would have been. While this may sound small, in a $1.5 trillion economy it equates to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost economic opportunity, and that only reflects what can currently be measured.
Asked how these costs compare with investment needed to combat climate change, Hutley says the economics of climate action have changed dramatically over the past 15 years. Renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels, even when firming and storage are included, and this is before accounting for climate damage costs. Once those costs are included, the economic case becomes overwhelming.
She argues that these realities must be considered whenever new fossil fuel projects are approved. The broader economic impacts can no longer be ignored. According to Hutley, the evidence now clearly shows that inaction is more expensive than taking action towards net zero. She says tipping points are already being reached in the energy sector, while transport and some industrial sectors will require additional support. Mechanisms such as the safeguard mechanism are designed to help drive change in these harder-to-abate industries, but reducing fossil fuel use as quickly as possible remains essential.
Finally, Hutley is asked how concerned we should be that global average temperatures have remained above 1.5°C degrees for three consecutive years. She says this is deeply worrying. As confronting as current headlines may be, both in Australia and globally, the reality is that climate impacts will continue to intensify if emissions are not rapidly reduced.
She emphasises that Australia has the means to act, with cheap and abundant solar energy, and that global action is also accelerating. For the first time, emissions in both India and China fell in 2025. Even without leadership from the United States, movement from two of the world’s largest economies is critically important, and a sign that change, while late, is beginning to happen.
Australia’s climate reality
Our children inherit a more dangerous world because our elected leaders lacked the spine to confront powerful vested interests.
“Natimuk fire offers a glimpse into a new kind of bushfire fuelled by our changing climate.”
→ ABC News – 17 January 2026:
Facing ‘a new enemy’
“The Natimuk blaze shows how climate-fuelled grassfires are outrunning warnings, defences — and time.”
→ The Independent – 17 January 2026:
‘Climate change is here’: Experts warn environmental crisis is decades ahead of forecasts
“Drought, heatwaves, hurricanes, and wildfires are arriving sooner than we imagined according to scientists.”
→ ABC News – 23 January 2025:
Seven-day heatwave to engulf south-east states, raising bushfire danger
“Australia’s ‘heat engine’, the northern inland of Western Australia, has generated temperatures of close to 50C.”
→ ABC News – 23 January 2026:
Climate change increased the chance of intense Australian heatwave fivefold, study finds
“The intense heatwave in south-eastern Australia in early January was made five times more likely by human-caused climate change, a new international analysis has found.”
The Victorian Labor Government recently decided to open approximately 2.5 million hectares of offshore waters off Victoria and Tasmania under the 2025 Otway Basin acreage release; areas that include whale migration routes, parts of the Great Southern Reef and waters central to coastal life, tourism and livelihoods.