On Wednesday 21 january 2026, radio host on 94.7 The Pulse Rob Cameron invited director of Centre for Climate Safety and The Sustainable Hour co-host Mik Aidt into the studio for a chat about the recent bushfires, the growing emotional toll of repeated climate disasters, and what people are feeling right now across communities in and around Geelong.
What followed became a discussion about grief and anger, about political failure stretching back decades, and about where meaningful change is actually likely to come from.
Mik talked about the long history of climate warnings in Australia, the consequences of delay, and the danger of getting stuck in anger without turning it into something constructive. From there, the conversation naturally moved towards community power – including the rise of Community Independent movements, the question of representation in electorates like Corio, where a Voices of Corio group is now being inaugurated, and why many people are beginning to look beyond the major parties in search of integrity, accountability and leadership grounded in lived experience.
The recording of their chat captures that unscripted exchange as it happened on air. It is conversational and honest – a snapshot of two broadcasters reflecting on climate, democracy, community anger and the possibility of a different political future.
→ More radio interviews by Rob Cameron
TRANSCRIPT
Rob Cameron:
…[At 11 o’clock] there will be a show called The Sustainable Hour. Mik Aidt is the man that runs that show. He is actually with me in the studio this morning. Mik, good morning.
Mik Aidt:
Good morning!
Rob Cameron:
It be good to have you to come in and bit of a chat and talk about what’s happening. But before we get on to what’s happening, let’s just debrief the conversation with Warren Davies that you were talking about, the sadness and grief and misery that’s through these areas where the fires have been. And that’s always the thing that follows these disasters, whether it’s flood, fire, wind, storm, it doesn’t matter, it leaves people in convenience sometimes without home and lost possessions and in the case of the farmers lost their lifestyle.
Mik Aidt:
People are hurting. Luckily not so many people died this time around, but we see these things happening all over the planet. In Chile now: another emergency situation there and dozens of people killed. It’s happening almost every day somewhere on the planet. We are losing lives.
Rob Cameron:
Yeah, we seem to be getting… Seems to be having those once in a hundred year weather events every couple of
Mik Aidt:
Now, once-in-500 years, I saw a headline the other day, you know, what happened in Lorne, and so on. I think people are beginning to notice that there’s something changing, and what I want to point out here is that back in 1988, scientists here in Australia from CSIRO actually told everyone what would happen unless we started cutting our emissions, stopping burning fossil fuels, basically.
This was, you know, out there in the open and politicians were debating it and they were actually at the time saying okay so then let’s make a goal of reducing our emissions by 20 percent until 2005. This was back in 1990. That was 15 years… Did they do that? They did not. What happened? The fossil fuel industry is sitting, you know, saying: “We’re making good money here. Don’t interrupt us please.”
You know, and that’s history now. But it began right there. And what we’re happening today is not some mystery. It’s not the force of nature, as we hear the politicians saying all the time as they’re handing out, you know, bushfire relief, some petty, you know, few million dollars here and there to repair on something that is basically a responsibility of theirs. Maybe not that person, that politician right now, but the politicians 20 years ago, 30 years ago, who just let it slip.
Rob Cameron:
Yeah, there’s a lot to answer on. We’ve seen it with the tobacco industry when science said that this can’t be sustained and the propaganda and nonsense. We’re seeing it with the gambling industry now we’re certainly seeing it in this particular space.
What I’m noticing in community, Mik, is people are getting angry and they’re getting angry on both sides because there’s lots of would-be scientists who still say that it’s all a hoax and we just continue the Trump method, ‘drill baby drill’, ‘burn baby burn’, ‘we’ll carry on, there’s money to be made, get out of the road, we need to make it’, and there’s supporters of that argument, but there’s a lot of people who now have probably always been in your camp and been in the 1988 scientist camp, but there’s a lot more that have now started to realise, ‘Hang on a minute, I was wrong about this. The scientist were right. That’s the only way I can explain these ridiculous, unusual weather events that are now becoming the norm rather than the unusual.’
And interestingly dealing with that anger is something you’re going to touch on today, I hear.
Mik Aidt:
Well, we have a woman in a program today, Barbara Lepani, who I believe is one of the really wise elders we have in this country, She speaks very wisely, in my opinion, how we… yes we can get angry about that some people have failed us – politicians really have failed us – but that anger doesn’t really lead to anything positive and constructive, and what she has is a bit of a recipe for how we take that anger into a different kind of action. And I think that’s worth listening to. I’m a big fan of Barbara.
Rob Cameron:
It’s a very good point that needs to be dealt with because I’ve been through it myself. You get frustrated, angry, you sit down and watch politicians or business leaders speak about the subject and you know they’re telling you lies and there’s frustration. So you can write a letter to your local politician, you can throw things at the television, but ultimately to stop, reflect, and work out, well how am I best going to deal with this emotion that’s really getting hold of me at the moment, and that sort of clarity is good.
Mik Aidt:
I think where I’m at today after 13 years as a climate activist and also as a person talking every week here on the sustainable hour about these topics. Where I’m at today is… I’m actually going back to something that I was told when we did an interview in 2016 where we talked about we need a ‘Climate Churchill’. We need somebody who can really take us into that sort of mode that Churchill did in 1940 where he got the British people mobilised for war.
And he said, “It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be nice, but we need to do it.” And we were looking at the time, this is 10 years ago, for “Who will be our Climate Churchill here in Australia?” And we talked to a premier from, a former premier from Western Australia, and she said: ‘Forget it. Unless you educate the population and unless you have like 80-90 per cent of the population wanting this kind of change, you’re not going to go anywhere,’ she told us then. And I think most people in the climate movement, their reaction is: ‘Oh that’ll take too long. We can’t wait for that. This is more urgent!’
Here we are 10 years later. Maybe we should have listened.
Rob Cameron:
Maybe we should have.
Mik Aidt:
We need people. Unless we have really a broad pressure coming from bottom up, from the farmers, from everybody out there who are experiencing what’s going on – on their own bodies, know, on their own bank accounts. Unless we really have a rise of these kind of people saying “We want change!” then we’re probably not going to see that change at all.
Rob Cameron:
Now that leads me to a very interesting next question. I have regularly on this show had a lady by the name of Sue Barrett who first came to my attention probably about 10 years ago, was a regular guest talking about making a change, ethics in business and then she morphed into supporting the March for Justice campaign and then she morphed into a community independent campaign supporting the election of Zoe Daniel who since lost her seat at the last election but the community independent movement is certainly on the rise around Australia.
I think if you count David Pocock in the Senate there’s nine in federal parliament now that have been put forward by the community, not themselves. They haven’t stepped forward and said ‘I am going to be an independent member.’ This is a community movement that has been set up, it has found its candidate and then it’s supported its candidate. And regardless of the criticism that they receive, the work that they’ve been able to do in parliament is really now quite noticeable and they’re making a huge difference. This movement, this Voices-of community movement is happening right on our doorstep now. Tell us about that.
Mik Aidt:
We saw it in Corangamite, Libby Coker’s electorate, you could call it, because she’s been there for a while now, where there was a community independent…
Rob Cameron:
Kate Lockhart…
Mik Aidt:
Kate Lockhart who ran and got more than five per cent…
Rob Cameron:
I’d big fan of Kate because she’s a genuine like you, a genuine community person who wants to make a difference to her community.
Mik Aidt:
And I think that you could say the problem with that campaign was it got started really late, like we’re talking two months before the election, and that is too late. You you need a year to mobilise, you need to have more volunteers and more plans, more money and so on. So I think this time around… – there’s always an election coming, isn’t there? – and two years from now, there will be another federal election, maybe sooner, but at least around two years from now. So the time to mobilise, for instance, if there was to be a similar group in Corio, where Richard Marles has been around for about 20 years, then the time to act is now.
And this is happening. So there’s a little group of people that are beginning to get organised. There’s a website, there’s a newsletter that you can sign up to, www.voicesofcorio.org. Go there and sign yourself up for the newsletter and then you’ll know what’s happening in terms of meetings, in terms of development.
And the first meeting is already scheduled for the 14th, it’s a Saturday, 14th of February, where there will be an inaugural kind of meeting for Voices of Corio. So then we’ll have two groups, Voices of Corangamite, and Voices of Corio. Interesting!
Rob Cameron:
Yeah, it is, and what’s interesting about the seat of Corio: You can sit back and you can look at that as a Geelong person in two ways and I remember at the time thinking about this for other electorates around Australia. We could sit back and say: ‘Isn’t it wonderful that this region has got the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia representing it!’ But of course the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia who is also a major party power broker and is also the Minister for Defence has little time to spend in and on Corio matters. I think that’s really noticeable.
Mik Aidt:
And that is going to be, of course, the core argument for why even create a group like Voices of Corio. And that is that a lot of people in Corio don’t feel represented by Richard Marles. In particular now, when we see what Trump is doing in America, saying he’s going to war to capture countries around Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and so on. You know, we are, and Richard Marles are, in bed with that government – and what’s going to happen the day that he takes Greenland? Trump takes Greenland… Are we still going to be the closest allies to America? For how long?
So I think Richard Marles has a real problem with his AUKUS deal that he keeps talking about as a defense minister, and I think this will be a major issue in two years from now.
Rob Cameron:
Yeah, definitely will and the fact that there’s some real issues in the northern suburbs of Geelong have been for a long, long time. It’s been noted and discussed and the fact that there is little appetite to make a difference and make a change because the person who is representing that area is off doing lots of other stuff and yes it is important stuff. Not denigrating the fact that we do need a Deputy Prime Minister. We do need a Minister of Defence and maybe the Labor Party do need a power broker but…
What’s important to the people of Corio is they need to be represented, they need to have their voices heard, they need to have support on cost of living crisis and socio-economic crisis. It’s all happening in our doorstep. He’s representing it, but he’s not. And the opportunity to put forward a candidate outside of the two major parties that is connected to community, knows community, understands community, is going to give the residents of Corio an opportunity to have another voice.
Mik Aidt:
And the chance to get some new people into parliament who have what I would say proper values. Values such as honesty, integrity. That would be a good start, wouldn’t it? And I think that is very much what the Voices-of community movement has been about. Look at someone like David Pocock. I think he’s a hero because he really speaks out and you can sense what he is talking about, he’s speaking the truth.
Rob Cameron:
Yeah, I think that’s a good point. If people are listening this morning and are somewhat sceptical about the voices of whether it’s going to work, what it can do, I think if you get on and follow the work done of Monique Ryan, Sophie Scamps, Zali Stegall and in particular David Pocock who sits in the Senate and is involved a lot in questioning and challenging government decisions, and the manner in which he does it in a calm, methodical, research-based method. If you see him in action, your attitude towards community representation politics may change quite rapidly.
Mik Aidt:
So I would say Corio and Corangamite needs a Pocock. You know, man or woman. Woman or man. We need people of that caliber.
Rob Cameron:
Yeah, someone with a profile that the community know and understand but someone who definitely knows the community and is wanting to make a difference. Mik, it’s a good thing – I’m quite excited about where this might go in the future but we will hear more about dealing with community anger on your show this afternoon or later this morning, after 11 o’clock
Mik Aidt:
It will be an uplifting talk I feel, where we’re taking all the talk about the misery to somewhere where it’s about building – in a way – something that is better and something that is really, really positive. It’s about moving the focus from bushfires and climate and all these things to talk about life and protecting life, and what that requires.
Rob Cameron:
It’s a very good way of at it. You’ve been going down this particular path over some of your recent shows about taking the focus off the subject matter and looking at a broader community aspect of it.
Mik Aidt:
Yes exactly. In this episode I actually titled it ‘Force of Life’ because I want to change from talking about climate emergency to talk about not the force of nature but the force of life, human life.
Rob Cameron:
Love the work you do, Mik. Thank you very much. Good luck with your show after 11 and going forward.