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The Sustainable Hour no. 579 | Transcript | Podcast notes
“Cooperation over chaos. We are all in this together.”
~ António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
What does responsibility look like now? In episode 579 of The Sustainable Hour we connect the dots – from secret national security climate warnings to storm damage on the Bellarine.
Storms growing stronger, and SES volunteers are responding to the more intense storms. Insurance costs are rising.
At the same time, new reports warn of climate-driven instability at national security level. But they are being buried by our governments.
So, we hesitate, and we hesitate, while the “climate emergency” we were warned against is gradually becoming the new normal.
The “climate emergency” was declared in 2016 to prevent disaster. Now the disasters are arriving anyway.
So today we ask: what happens when the emergency is no longer a warning but our lived experience? In this 579th episode of The Sustainable Hour, we connect the global and the local – from secret national security warnings to storm-torn streets on the Bellarine:
• A new report from The Superpower Institute proposes a Polluter Pays Levy targeting Australia’s biggest fossil fuel companies – covering around 140 extraction sites responsible for roughly 80 per cent of national emissions. The modelling suggests it could cut an additional 100 million tonnes of carbon over a decade and raise more than $22 billion a year for households and public investment.
• Mik Aidt reflects on what $35 billion a year – plus reform of the $22 billion capital gains tax discount flowing largely to the wealthiest Australians – could mean for climate action and cost-of-living relief.
• Colin Mockett’s Global Outlook brings troubling news: a leaked UK national security assessment warning of climate-driven instability, food insecurity, migration and even conflict. Australia’s equivalent report remains classified, described by Senator David Pocock as “frankly terrifying.”
• The Productivity Commission again calls for economy-wide carbon pricing, warning that decades of climate wars have made action more expensive and less effective.
From Westminster to Canberra, the pattern is clear: delay deepens danger and drives up cost.
Cleaning up after the storm
Our special guest today is Nicole Shortis, Controller of VICSES Bellarine – a volunteer-led unit on the frontline of extreme weather. Nicole Shortis leads more than 30 volunteers as Unit Controller of the Victorian State Emergency Service’s Bellarine Unit, part of the Western Region, Geelong Cluster. She has served with VICSES for over six years and has been Unit Controller for the past 2.5 years.
What Nicole describes is not abstract. Storm events that once came every few years are now arriving twice a year. Wind intensity has increased dramatically, with entire streets damaged and highways blocked by fallen trees. Flash flooding in places like Lorne and Wye River has displaced families in what meteorologists call “one-in-100-year”-events.
Nicole and her 30-plus volunteers respond to tree falls, roof damage, flash flooding, road rescues and searches. They are all unpaid. They train weekly. They show up when the pager sounds. But what stays with her are not the numbers.
It is about an elderly couple in their 90s with a flooded kitchen on Christmas Eve.
It is the isolated man during COVID who called SES for a minor puddle – and really needed human contact.
It is the hoarder’s house, the vulnerable residents, the quiet loneliness behind emergency call-outs.
Storms expose more than broken roofs. They reveal the fragility – and the resilience – of community.
You can read more about VICSES Bellarine further down on this page.
Is it political to name what is happening?
Mik raises a sensitive question: why do public broadcasters such as the ABC avoid naming climate change even when callers clearly do?
Nicole’s answer is grounded and practical. Talking about the intensity of storms is not political. It is describing the jobs they attend.
Insurance premiums rising are not political. Nor are undersized gutters overwhelmed by sudden downpours. Nor houses built where water naturally flows.
What matters, she says, is awareness and preparation.
• Know your risks.
• Understand water flow around your property.
• Check insurance.
• Look out for neighbours.
“Be kind,” Nicole says at the end of the hour. “Look out for your neighbours and for each other.”
Colin adds: “Be prepared!”
Mik adds: “Be aware!”
. . .
Shifting the power
This episode features the song ‘The Periphery’ – a call to confront the poly-crisis, reject distraction and shift the power. Voices woven through the track warn that the climate time bomb is ticking and that this must be treated with wartime-level seriousness.
The message is this: progress without justice is not progress at all.
And we close with the song ‘In Our Street’ – a reminder that while we cannot control global forces, we can strengthen local bonds: Kindness. Respect. Understanding. Trust.
We are not able to stop every storm. But we can decide how we stand together when it hits.
. . .
“I think the community needs to be a lot more aware of what they can do around their own homes and what they should be looking for. And I think we need to get into our communities more and just explain that there are things you can do to protect yourself and your home. And then what to do if something goes wrong. Who do I call? What sort of help can I expect?”
~ Nicole Shortis, Controller of VICSES Bellarine
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We at The Sustainable Hour would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wadawurrung People. We pay our respects to their elders – past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people.
The traditional custodians lived in harmony with the land for millennia, nurturing it and thriving in often harsh conditions. Their connection to the land was deeply spiritual and sustainable. This land was invaded and stolen from them. It was never ceded. Today, it is increasingly clear that if we are to survive the climate emergency we face, we must learn from their land management practices and cultural wisdom.
True climate justice cannot be achieved until Australia’s First Nations people receive the justice they deserve. When we speak about the future, we must include respect for those yet to be born, the generations to come. As the old saying reminds us: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” It is deeply unfair that decisions to ignore the climate emergency are being made by those who won’t live to face the worst impacts, leaving future generations to bear the burden of their inaction.
“The Indigenous worldview has been marginalised for generations because it was seen as antiquated and unscientific and its ethics of respect for Mother Earth were in conflict with the industrial worldview. But now, in this time of climate change and massive loss of biodiversity, we understand that the Indigenous worldview is neither unscientific nor antiquated, but is, in fact, a source of wisdom that we urgently need.”
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, weallcanada.org
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State Emergency Service’s Bellarine unit
– the facts behind the frontline
While most people stay indoors during wild weather, SES volunteers are out in it. Across Victoria in 2024–25:
• Almost 36,000 incidents were attended
• 358 flood and storm incidents
• More than 342,000 hours of operational activity were recorded
• 31 road rescue operations
• 45 assists to other agencies
In just four days – 8–11 January 2026 – VICSES members responded to more than 1,400 requests for assistance statewide, while also supporting fire operations.
On the Bellarine alone, the unit services Leopold, Drysdale, Clifton Springs, Curlewis, Portarlington, Indented Heads, St Leonards, Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale and Ocean Grove. The service area covers 853 square kilometres.
The Bellarine Unit works closely with Country Fire Authority, Fire Rescue Victoria, Ambulance Victoria, Victoria Police, City of Greater Geelong and Borough of Queenscliff.
As at February 2026, the unit supports 32 volunteers aged between 15 and 75 – all living locally.
What emergencies look like on the Bellarine
Typical weather events includ high winds, heavy rainfall and localised flooding.
The common causes of damage are:
• Gutters overflowing with leaves
• Overhanging trees
• Loose outdoor items such as umbrellas, tables and trampolines
• Water flow redirected by new housing developments
Most of the work is storm and tree-related, but the unit is also the primary agency for road rescue when someone is trapped.
And as Nicole emphasises – volunteers do not need to arrive fully trained.
Training happens every week.
Specialist skills – such as chainsaw use or road rescue – are taught.
There are operational and non-operational roles.
There is also a junior program for younger members.
Community preparedness – what you can do
VICSES makes one thing clear: emergency response is shared responsibility.
Preparation gives people clarity and control in stressful moments.
What residents can do:
• Learn what emergencies are likely in your area – at home, work and on holiday
• Conduct a risk assessment of your property
• Maintain gutters, drains and trees at least twice a year
• Secure loose outdoor objects
• Work with your neighbours
• Have a clear plan to leave if required
• Slow to 40 km/h when passing emergency vehicles
Safety first – together.
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Polluters pay – a levy whose time has come
Australia is once again debating a question that has lingered for more than a decade: who should pay for climate pollution?
In early 2026, renewed pressure is mounting on the federal Labor government to adopt a so-called Polluter Pays Levy – a proposal championed by The Superpower Institute, led by former competition chief Rod Sims and renowned economist Ross Garnaut.
At its core, the idea is simple: companies that extract or import fossil fuels should pay for the pollution their products cause.
What is the Polluter Pays Levy?
The proposal would introduce a levy on coal, oil and gas producers and importers, starting at around $17 per tonne of carbon pollution in 2026. Alongside it sits a proposed “Fair Share Levy” aimed particularly at gas exporters whose profits have surged during global energy volatility.
Unlike the former carbon pricing mechanism introduced under Julia Gillard in 2012 and repealed under Tony Abbott in 2014, this model focuses upstream – at the point of extraction or import – rather than directly pricing emissions at the smokestack.
Proponents argue that this makes the system simpler, harder to avoid, and more transparent.
Why is this resurfacing now?
Labor has historically been cautious about returning to anything resembling “carbon pricing”. The political scars from the 2013 election – where climate policy was weaponised as a cost-of-living threat – still shape strategy in Canberra.
But the landscape in 2026 looks different.
• Federal budget deficits are growing
• Australia is struggling to stay on track for its 2030 emissions target
• Fossil fuel exporters continue to post large profits
• Household cost-of-living pressures remain intense
Supporters of the levy argue it offers a rare “three-in-one” solution:
- Cut emissions by putting a price signal back into the system
- Repair the federal budget
- Use revenue to ease household energy bills
Polling reported in February 2026 suggests strong support among Labor voters, with some surveys showing 83% net approval among Labor supporters for a pollution levy targeting the country’s biggest emitters.
If accurate, that level of backing could give political cover that was missing a decade ago.
The economic case
The principle behind the levy is not new. Economists have long argued that pollution is a classic “externality” – a cost imposed on society that is not reflected in market prices. Climate damage, health impacts, infrastructure losses and biodiversity decline are currently borne by the public.
A polluter pays levy attempts to internalise those costs.
According to advocates, revenue from the levy could be recycled in ways that protect low- and middle-income households – through direct rebates, reductions in electricity charges, or investment in renewable infrastructure that lowers long-term energy costs.
The argument is that if designed carefully, the policy would not worsen cost-of-living pressures – it could reduce them.
The political dilemma
For Labor, the decision is delicate.
On one hand, failing to strengthen climate policy risks missing emissions targets and undermining Australia’s credibility in global markets that are rapidly decarbonising. The European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, for example, increasingly penalises carbon-intensive exports.
On the other hand, any move that resembles a “carbon tax” will face fierce opposition from conservative parties and fossil fuel interests.
The government must weigh political risk against fiscal and environmental necessity.
A shift in public mood?
Australia has changed since the carbon pricing battles of the early 2010s. Renewables now provide more than half of electricity in several states. Solar panels are common on suburban rooftops. Climate disasters – from floods to bushfires – are no longer abstract future threats but lived realities.
The question is no longer whether climate change is costly. It is who should pay.
If a majority of voters accept that major fossil fuel companies should contribute more to the damage associated with their products, the political equation may be shifting.
The bigger picture
The Polluter Pays Levy reflects a broader economic transition. As global markets pivot toward clean energy, countries that cling to fossil fuel revenue risk being left with stranded assets and structural deficits. For Australia, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters, the stakes are particularly high.
The debate now confronting Labor is not only about carbon pricing. It is about fiscal responsibility, fairness, and whether the costs of climate damage continue to fall on households – or are shared by the industries that generate the pollution.
The principle is straightforward. However the politics are not.
But in 2026, the idea that polluters should pay is no longer fringe. It is moving closer to the centre of Australia’s economic and climate conversation.
PETITION: Make climate polluters pay for fires and floods
We can stop new fossil fuel projects and make big climate polluters pay for the damage they cause. Join the Greens in calling on the Victorian Labor Government to make coal and gas companies pay for the damage caused by fires and floods. Add your name
→ The Guardian – 29 January 2026:
‘Not radical, it’s fair’: Australian households would receive compensation in proposed ‘polluter pays’ levy scheme
“Superpower Institute report fleshes out 2024 call from Labor heavyweight Ross Garnaut to re-embrace carbon pricing 12 years after Tony Abbott axed it.”
→ Sydney Morning Heral / MSN – 1 February 2026:
It’s time to make fossil fuel polluters pay for their damage
“Coal and gas corporations in Australia pay little tax compared to other countries:”
→ ABC News – 6 February 2026:
Would changes to the capital gains tax discount lower house prices?
“The tax discount will cost the federal budget $21.9 billion in this financial year, and official figures suggest 90 per cent of this flows to the top-fifth wealthiest taxpayers.”
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→ 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.”
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TRANSCRIPT
of The Sustainable Hour no. 579
Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General:
Cooperation over chaos. We are all in this together.
Jingle:
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong: The Sustainable Hour.
Tony Gleeson:
Welcome to The Sustainable Hour. As always, we want to start off by acknowledging the country that we’re on. Mik and Colin are on Wadawurrung country. Me personally, I’m in Lutwita, Tasmania. All of those places always was and always will be First Nations land. Accumulated ancient wisdom over millennia – the millennia before they were invaded by the white colonisers. In that time, they’ve accumulated this ancient wisdom that is going to be very much needed as we navigate the climate crisis.
The Superpower Institute – video on Linkedin.com:
When a company burns fossil fuels and pollutes the atmosphere with carbon emissions, someone always pays. Sometimes it’s farmers who live with longer, more severe droughts. Sometimes it’s households who face higher insurance premiums after a flood or fire. More often than not, the costs of pollution from burning coal, oil or gas fall on everyday people, not the companies that cause the damage.
Putting a price on pollution changes that. It’s a simple idea: put a price on carbon pollution and return the revenue to the public. This does two important things. First, it encourages companies to cut pollution. When pollution costs money, businesses look for cheaper, cleaner ways to operate. Cleaner technologies become more competitive, innovation speeds up. It helps rebalance the economy away from old polluting technologies towards the clean industries of the future. Second, it raises revenue. Some costs may be passed through to consumers.
But with the right policy design, we can more than offset those impacts, while still generating billions for public investment. This money can be used to support households through the energy transition, improve public services and invest in clean industries and jobs.
The Superpower Institute is proposing a way to price pollution that is designed for Australia today. It focuses on the big polluters, protects households from any price impacts and strengthens Australia’s economy.
We call it the Polluter Pays Levy. It targets the source of pollution, covering around 140 sites where coal, oil or gas are extracted. These sites are run by fewer than 60 companies. Yet together with fossil fuel imports, they account for around 80 per cent of Australia’s emissions. Under our plan, they pay for the damage they cause.
Our modelling shows that a polluter pays levy would cut carbon pollution by an additional 100 million tonnes over the next decade, more than twice as much as current policies. And it would raise revenue, over 22 billion on average each year. In the first decade, we propose that roughly half of the polluter pays levy revenue goes to households, including an average of $4 billion per year in energy compensation payments, and an additional $4 billion in general household support to help ease cost of living pressures during the transition.
That still leaves billions each year for strengthening the economy, helping to fund priorities such as health, housing, defence and education. The Polluter Pays levy is simple and fair. It cuts pollution, strengthens the economy and puts money back in people’s pockets, all through one reform.
Mik Aidt: (04:02)
The Superpower Institute has produced an interesting report – and this video we just listened to – about their proposal to make the coal and gas companies pay, actually pay for the damage caused by all these fires and floods that we’re seeing. And this institute has done the maths. It’s 35 billion dollars a year this would add up to [when also scrapping the subsidies to the fossil fuel industry] if the government wanted to actually do something that would both cut the climate pollution and at the same time help
Us, the Australians, with our cost of living crisis. 35 billion dollars every year. I reckon that would come in handy. And then while we’re at it, what about these 22 billion dollars the Labour government currently is handing over every year to the wealthiest 20 per cent of Australians? Namely those who can afford to have two houses and who get a tax discount when they make a profit from selling one of their houses – the so-called capital gains tax discount, which costs us, the taxpayers, the rest of us, $22 billion every year. The official figures show that 90 per cent of that discount flows to the top fifth of the wealthiest Australian. $35 billion plus $22 billion, that’s $57 billion every year, which our government could raise by the stroke of a pen.
Literally, if they had the courage and the responsibility to start paying what it costs to make a difference and to make a green transition in this country
ABC News report from Alice Springs on 12 February 2026:
Flooding wreaking havoc, closing causeways and crossings, leaving the town cut off. Rainfall…
Mik:
Ten years ago in 2016 we launched this climate emergency declaration campaign asking the government and later on also councils to declare a climate emergency and the point of that was to avoid actually getting to the emergency. However as we are going to explore today it increasingly looks like that this emergency has actually arrived.
But before we get there, let’s hear what’s been happening around the world. Colin Mockett OAM has his global outlook news bulletin ready, don’t you, Colin?
COLIN MOCKETT’S GLOBAL OUTLOOK:
I certainly am, Mik. And my roundup this week begins in Britain. Following the release of what was a secret report, after three nations – Britain, the US and Australia – all commissioned forward assessments on the threat from climate change more than three years ago. The British report was released by accident to an environmentalist who’d requested it under the Freedom of Information laws and this one missed being redacted. Insiders in Britain are saying that it’s possible that somebody in the Prime Minister’s office is an environmentalist to let this one get out.
The report was compiled by UK national security experts, including MI5, and its look into the future was officially rated as grim. The 14-page document looks at climate change through a security lens, warning of rising migration and global political instability, and even brought in the concept of nuclear conflict as an effect of climate change. Its first paragraph stated that climate impacts are already showing in crop failures, intensified natural disasters, and infectious diseases outbreaks and it warned with high confidence that these threats will increase with degradation and intensity will collapse.
There’s a disturbing warning on food security as the UK doesn’t have enough land to feed its population and it’s heavily reliant on imports of food and fertiliser. If the public is ignorant of the scale of the risk. The government can continue approving the projects that make the problem worse, such as coal and gas, the report says. Some of the outcomes considered unrest and mass migration from people fleeing increasingly hostile climatic or environmental issues, competition for resources and competition for water.
It is grim indeed, and not surprising at all that the Trump administration denies any knowledge of the American version. The Australian report was very quickly shelved and buried in Canberra. It was commissioned from the Office of National Intelligence shortly after Labor took office in 2022 and handed to the government in December of that year.
It was immediately classified and all attempts to use FOI and parliamentary procedures to access the documents have been unsuccessful. Apart from the government, the only people who’ve seen the report are a couple of independent crossbenchers who received a briefing in December 2024 before the government realised just how important it was.
One of these was David Pocock who described the contents as frankly terrifying. Another of the crossbenchers who were shown the report was Zali Stegall, who said the Australian public needed to see the report to generally appreciate all the risks of climate change. “We know traditionally that wars are fought over territory and access to food and water, and that is highly likely to be excavated in a warming world,” she said.
Now when the Saturday paper asked why she thought the government continues to withhold the content of the Australian report, she said: “I suspect because if the public is ignorant of the scale of the risks, the government can continue approving the projects that make the problem worse, such as coal and gas.”
Now staying in Australia, last week the head of the Productivity Commission warned that Australians are paying the price for what she described as second best policies to deal with climate change. Commission Chair Danielle Woods said that decades of policy uncertainty caused by the nation’s political climate wars were continuing to push up the cost of dealing with Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. “Climate change policy has been one of the most contentious political arguments of the past 20 years,” she said.
The Commission has argued for two decades for an economy-wide approach to reducing emissions through either a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme. Speaking in Adelaide, Commissioner Woods said either option now looked pretty damn attractive, that’s her words, compared to the suites of policies that are offered by both sides of politics at the moment. She said there was no apparent appetite by Australia to pursue the best and the cheapest policies to deal with climate change. This meant the commission sought to improve existing policies or acts particularly expensive ones.
The Commission has already recommended phasing out the government subsidies for electric vehicles and fuel tax credits for heavy vehicles that use public roads. It also backed a 75 per cent cut in the amount of greenhouse gases that heavy industries can produce before they fall within the government’s safeguard mechanism system which forces affected businesses to reduce their emissions. She also said the long political debate over climate policy have pushed up the cost of cutting emissions. “Stoking the climate wars, continuing to push the if and not the how is far from brave truth telling,” she said.
“The ongoing policy uncertainty created by decades of these circular arguments has and continues to increase the cost of action,” she said, adding that climate change comes with significant economic, environmental and social costs.
And after all that bad news, it continues a bit with Forest Green Rovers, the world’s only environmentally neutral sports team, who lost 3-1 at home to Carlisle at the weekend. They stay sixth on the ladder, but the gap between them and the top three has grown to eight points.
Meanwhile, the Forest Green Rovers women played Bucklechurch Sport Ladies who they last met in the Gloucester Cup final last year, which Forest Green won narrowly 3-2. So Pucklechurch was out for revenge and they didn’t get it. The result at the weekend was Pucklechurch sport ladies 0, Forest Green rovers 5, leaving the Lady Rovers still joint top of their ladder. And that final little bit of good news ends my round up for the week.
Jingle:
Listen to our Sustainable Hour – for the future.
Tony:
Our guest today is Nicole Shortis. Nicole is the SES Bellarine Controller. Now we’re always talking about extreme weather events, but Nicole is part of a group that does the cleaning up after. So we thought we’d get her on to talk about what that means for her and her loyal bunch of, or group of volunteers. So Nicole, thanks for coming on today. It’s appreciated.
Nicole Shortis:
No worries, thanks for having me, Tony!
Tony:
Okay, so tell us your story, like, what led to you becoming involved in SES and then you’ve kind of stepped up since then to become the controller – what’s that been like for you?
Nicole: (15:17)
So I started off volunteering. I’ve always been a volunteer in some aspect, whether it’s been through RSPCA or different organisations. And I looked at what the SES do. I didn’t really know too much about them. i think probably a lot of people don’t know too much about what the SES really do. And I thought it looks a little bit like Scouts for Adults – with some toys. So I thought this might be a bit of fun. I can do things that I didn’t think I was capable of doing and help the community at the same time. So I decided to join up and it’s been a worthwhile experience. It’s a lot of fun.
Tony:
Yeah, I bet. Have you noticed any changes in the call outs of late, the last few years or since you’ve been involved?
Nicole:
Yeah, look, when I first started was six years ago and we sort of would have a storm event every couple of years really. We’re finding now that we’re getting two pretty big storm events most years in the last few years. The intensity of those storm events has been incredible. We’re finding that the strength in the wind, the damage that’s being caused, really increased over those last few years. Even, you know, cross Lara coming across the bay, Corio Bay, towards us on the Bellarine. We’ve had, you know, trees down like you wouldn’t believe where the whole Bellarine Highway was closed on one of those events. I remember coming up to Mitre 10 where the roundabout is there on the Bellarine and the police had blocked the road.
And we went down, turned down Bellarine towards Queenscliff, and there was just massive tree after massive tree. They were so close to each other that it was almost easier to just walk between trees to try and clear the road as opposed to getting back in the vehicle and driving down to them. And you think something like that’s a one-off, but it’s been happening regularly.
We did a deployment recently to Windembeil where they had those massive storms only recently. Lara has had massive storms and we had the one at Armstrong Creek where it took out that whole street and they are calling them cyclones. And you can see when you look at the map of where all the damages are, where all the roofs have been ripped off.
You can pick the trail that it’s gone. It’s sort of one house backs onto another house, backs onto another house. And they’re just things that people haven’t seen for a long time, for years, know, if at all, really, in our area.
Colin:
That’s certainly the case that happened down in Lorne, where the caravans got washed into the sea with the flooding event. Nicole, were you involved in that?
Nicole:
I went down on deployment to help out down there. I actually grew up in Apollo Bay, I have that local knowledge and I was really surprised by what had happened there and probably more so too that it hadn’t been picked up as to how quickly that was going to happen and the extent of the water coming down. I think because it was sort of right at the top of the catchment.
It’s sort of like a top of a valley, you know, and it sort of just went all on one side as opposed to just evening out over both sides where the rain hit. And it seemed the band of rain just seemed to sit over the top there, you know. But that was incredible. We’re so lucky it didn’t happen in the middle of the night.
Colin:
Too right! You are SES, which is the State Emergency Service, and as such you’re called for everything. You’re called for road accidents, you’re called to assist in, well, every emergency that’s around, but are you finding that climate-related emergencies are now the majority? Or is the majority of your work road accidents or other emergencies?
Nicole:
We’re pretty lucky on the Bellarine. I think we’ve had some major accidents and we do certainly have an accident area at the moment along Swan Bay Road where it crosses over with Banks Road. We’ve had some major accidents in those areas that really probably need to be looked at a lot closer. We’ve been to two there in the last two weeks or last week actually. So that’s been an issue.
But I think not so much that for us because they did reduce the speed zones which helped us on the Bellarine. Where you have dual roads like you’re going down to Queenscliff on the Bellarine. They’ve slowed it down which reduces the impact if there is something that happens which has really helped.
But I think for us, it’s just the intensity of the storms that has increased, which is also roof damage. You’ve got building damage. You’ve got flash flooding caused from those things. And then obviously lots and lots of trees down. But you also have those areas that a lot more people are living in. So probably where there used to be just paddocks, people are now affected because they’ve got homes there now.
Colin:
Yeah. Now, how does it physically work? Let’s say, for example, you get a storm pod over Clifton Springs and there are trees down and there’s minor flooding. They phone your SES headquarters. What do you do? You haven’t got a permanent staff, have you? You’ve got all the volunteers, do you not?
Nicole:
We’re all volunteers. So what happens with SES is you call 132 800 and you go through to a dispatch and then the dispatch dispatches us. We have somebody who answers the phone, a D.O. – Duty Officer – and then we’re sent out to the jobs.
So you’re sitting at home and then you’ve got a radio, have you? Or do they phone you up and say, hey, we’ve got a job? have you got your yellow uniform there at home with you? Or do you have to go to, like, a fire station to get dressed?
Well, we have a unit, so everybody works off a pager system. We get paged to a job. We also have a supplementary system as well, which comes to our phones. And we just put it on there whether we’re attending the job or we’re not. Each person, everybody in the unit, has different skill set. So it does depend on what sort of job it is to maybe who is attending and how many are attending those jobs. Like any volunteer organisation, daytime response is a big problem because we all work full time, we all have other jobs. So when things happen at night, it’s usually probably a lot easier and we get more people available to go out and help and do things. But when you have the major events that run for, in our case, it may be the storms come through in one or two days but it will take us weeks to clean that up. And it often involves calling in other units to come and help and it involves a big cleanup.
Mik:
I noticed when the flash flooding had happened in Lorne there were some interviews on ABC radio and I found it peculiar how it seemed to me that the the radio hosts there were really trying to suppress whenever people were saying this is not an accident or they’re saying this is climate it was like they totally ignored that part and went on to talk about something practical blah blah blah…
ABC Melbourne clip from Instagram:
Listener calling in:
I’ve got friends who have lost their homes, those are tents and caravans getting washed away. We’ve been very lucky. But you know, across the continent this is what summer’s become and it’s not an accident.
ABC radio host:
Pretty extraordinary that’s for sure from having that catastrophic day.
Listener calling in:
We’ve been impacted by the bushfires, our friends have lost homes. It’s just what is going on with climate change.
ABC radio host:
Jeremy, I’m so sorry. So you are a Harcourt resident where you’ve just been through absolute hell and now you’ve got this, who would have thought this situation going on at Wye River with your family?
Mik:
People calling in there to ABC Melbourne and really expressing this is not an accident, this is climate change, but ABC does not want to talk about climate change. They only want to talk about what happened on the day. Nicole, I’m just curious to hear when you talk with people, when you go out and clean up and so on, do you talk together with one another about that this is getting worse and what do we do about this? Or try and describe what you meet out there when you speak with people?
Nicole:
Yeah, often we do like to talk to the people that have called us for assistance and a lot of the time the stories that we’re hearing is just how intense the wind was and how scary it was for people like it. It’s not something that they’ve experienced before or often before. So they really have been the wind that we get now is incredible. The intensity… I know at my place – I’ve lived in the same house in Clifton Springs, it’s on a hill. I’ve lived there for the last 13 years. And the last storm that we had, I honestly thought the roof was going to go and I’ve never felt that before. So things have changed. They really have changed. For what reason? That’s up to the experts to work out. But, you know, I’m just there for the cleanup. So, yeah.
Mik:
The reason I’m asking is because of course this is very politicised also. We hear debates in parliament all the time. Should we do something net zero? Should we not do anything? And so on. And it’s as if it’s become a bit of a taboo. Do you sense that too?
Nicole:
Definitely. I mean, even saying that I’m going to do a podcast [interview], all of a sudden people are like, “Well, you can’t be political.” And it’s like, “Well, I’m not being political! We’re talking about facts of storms!” So we’re talking about the jobs that we attend and the type of jobs that we attend. So how is that anything to do with political?
Mik:
And I assume that, you know, insurance companies wouldn’t see themselves as political agents either and they need to put, you know, the prices for insurance are going up, aren’t they? All the time. That’s not political.
Nicole:
No, I think to like just in my experience, you know, some of the areas that you get flash flooding in is, you years ago, those areas didn’t have the housing net. And it just seems like when they throw these houses into new estates, can be, you know, they’re made, they might have been a valley before and all of a sudden they’ve got houses on them and I don’t think they take into account a lot of the time the natural water flow or where the natural water should be going and like we know water’s only got one way to go and it’ll find a way and it’s you know if you’ve suddenly put a house there or it doesn’t have appropriate guttering and that that’s an issue you you have steep driveways that run into people’s houses and you’ve seen a lot of houses like Kerr Lewis and all that, it’s quite steep. And then you’ve got this little gutter at the bottom that most of the water is just going to run straight over the top of it if it’s anything more than just a few, you know, just your normal rain. And I don’t think people see that until it happens. They don’t realise that these things are an issue. Even the box guttering that you see on a house. The little gutters now are a lot smaller than what they used to be years ago. The volume of water that can be held in a gutter is a lot smaller. They’re a lot flimsier. And I don’t think the houses aren’t made like they used to be. They’re sort of like that volume build type thing now in these estates. Yeah.
Mik:
So Nicole, what do we do? How do we move from here? What are your thoughts on this?
Nicole:
I think the community just needs to be a lot more aware of what they can do around their own homes and what they should be looking for. And I think we need to get into our communities more and just explain that there are things you can do to protect yourself and your home. And then what to do if something goes wrong. Who do I call? What sort of help can I expect?
Looking at your insurance, things like that. But it does come down to being prepared. And I think a lot of the time we’re not prepared for these really strong events. expect, I don’t think people understand that the weather that we have now is a lot different to what we had even five years ago. Yeah, so awareness really.
ABC News reporter: (29:48)
After a deluge of rain, more than 170 millimetres fell in less than seven hours. The meteorologists are describing it as a one in 100 year event that swept through. This storm has displaced about 200 people and the most impacted areas being Lorne and Wye River.
SONG:
THE PERIPHERY
Verse 1:
The system runs on surplus
So you can leave the land and place
No one feels the disconnection
You just got to keep up pace
The hegemony keeps shouting
‘Growth is good! – Buy more!’
But the truth is breaking open
Crops are failing, pressure climbs
Pre-Chorus:
We’re in a poly-crisis now
The walls are coming down
Our leaders have betrayed us
not to turn this ship around
Chorus:
That’s when we shift the power
Verse 2:
The tricks of branding
claiming ‘gas is good for us’
Making trade-offs just for comfort
Hold us captured in the past
But we can use that language too
We can amplify what’s right
Using insight from the margins
Rising up to win this fight
Pre-Chorus:
We’ve got the scaffolding
ready for when it ends
so we won’t break, we will bend
Gaining strength, we gather numbers
Mobilising to defend
Drawing a line in the sand
Chorus:
That’s when we shift the power
- (No more heroes, no illusions)
That’s when we shift the power - (No more doubt – no more confusion)
That’s when we shift the power
Bridge:
From the edges
Let the citizens assemble
Reverse the old dominion
We speak for those to come
We can fight, or we can share
within the boundary of our globe
One leads into ruin
The other is our hope
Final chorus:
That’s when we shift the power
No more heroes, no illusions
That’s when we shift the power
No more doubt – no more confusion
That’s when we shift the power
. . .
Audio clips heard in the song:
Antonio Guterres:
Time is short. The clock is ticking.
Zack Polansky:
We are not here to be disappointed by you. We are not here to be concerned by you. We are here to replace you.
Ian Dunlop:
We’ve got to treat this like a wartime situation.
Narrator:
Disconnection. Alienation. Separation. Loss of trust. The escalation of crises. Poly-crisis… meta-crisis!
ABC News reader:
The Philippines has declared a state of emergency…
Narrator:
We entered this field to protect life. We act because we care. We care because we know that what’s at stake here is not just the future — it’s our shared sense of what it means to be human.
Narrator:
To heal what’s broken. To make things better. And change is still possible — if we’re willing to live by the truth we already know. Doing “no harm” in a world already in overshoot is simply not enough.
ABC News reporter:
Stunned survivors who had made it to safety could only look on in disbelief.
Barnaby Joice:
You can either believe in the Paris Agreement or you can believe in the pensioners (you can’t have both).
Narrator:
Confront the contradictions. Not to feel shame, but to rediscover integrity.
A new path — one grounded in science, fairness, and possibility.
Antonio Guterres:
The climate time bomb is ticking.
BBC London in 1940s:
The army of volunteers is ready.
Narrator:
Progress without justice isn’t progress at all.
. . .
Tony:
Nicole, you said there’s something like 30 volunteers associated with your unit. What are some of the roles that they’re doing? There may be people that would like to get involved with it, not sure how to, but so maybe if we can paint a picture of what the roles that they’d be getting involved in would look like.
Nicole:
So we do a variety of things and like probably 80 per cent of our jobs are related to tree downs. It doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be a chainsaw operator, although if you want to be, we’ll put you through a course, make sure you train properly and know how to run that safely. But we also need people that are going to be there, do some traffic management, you know, trees and branches off the road.
When we go to houses, it’s talking to the household owners about what’s happening at their place, what we can do. We’re only there to make things safe and we’re not there to fix their houses or fix their homes or clean up their yards. We’re just there to make it safe so that then they can get a contractor to come in.
We do have, obviously, road rescue jobs that we attend. We are the primary unit for road rescue. So if somebody is trapped, we will get called. We don’t go to all the road rescues that the fire crews will get called to. They’ll get called regardless because there’s always the threat of fire. We’ll get called if somebody is trapped in that vehicle because we have the specialised equipment to be able to get them out.
People don’t have to go to that if they don’t want to. So it’s your choice. A job will come up on the page. It will explain what that job is. And you choose whether you’re going or not. Not everybody does that sort of major rescue stuff. We do have assist ambulance jobs where the ambulance can’t lift people and we have specialised equipment like a mule where it’s one of those one wheel-things with the stretcher that goes on top so we can get up and down the stairs at Ocean Grove off the beach, things like that. We do searches, people go missing, we’ll go out looking for them, liaise with the family, liaise with the police. We do, what else do we do?
Colin:
This is Nicole Shortis who heads up the SES on the Bellarine Peninsula. Now Nicole, I wasn’t aware that you lived in Clifton Springs when I gave it as an example. I didn’t want to put the mockers on you, but you did mention that you’re called out sometimes for fires on the highway. Do you get involved in bushfires? Because bushfires too along with flooding and wind are much more prevalent these days.
Nicole: (37:29)
We don’t get called out to fires. We’re not trained in fires or anything like that. We do go on deployment. So the fires at Corio River, places like that, we’ll get called to assist, but we may take the role where we’re just making lunches and delivering food and might even be delivering toilet paper and just taking on those roles that need to be done to help the firees do their job, and what they need to do to control those fires. So we don’t go out to the fire grounds and we’re just not trained in that.
Colin:
But you’re there as a support?
Nicole:
Just a support agency to help them out. And they actually come and help us out in storms as well. So we’ve had Queenscliff come and help us with chainsaws and help us on jobs like that. So we do work with other agencies very closely. We do have training sessions with them at times so that we know each other’s names when we get out onto jobs. And they’ll assist us when we have road crashes as well. So we all sort of work together on those things.
Tony:
And Nicole, with his collaboration, is there a criteria on who’s in charge, like which unit is in charge or which service provider is in charge at those events?
Nicole: (38:54)
Definitely. with every event there is, there’s always a controlling agency. So the SES are the control agency for floods, for storms, for earthquakes, for landslides. Thankfully we don’t get landslides very often. We do get the odd sinkhole. We don’t get earthquakes, thankfully. So it’s not a big thing.
But obviously the police, anything to do with the roads, Vic Pol are the controlling agency for that. So basically we’re just there to assist. They’ll control it. They’re in charge. And then we do what we need to do. So everyone plays a part. So the fire is a road crash. The fire is to be there making sure there’s nothing else can happen with the vehicle, no other fires, nothing else will go wrong. You’ve got your AMBOs there who are there doing their job. We then take their lead as far as patient care comes in. We’ll say, what do you need from us? And then this is what we can do to help. And we let them lead that. Police will control the scene, make sure no one else is involved in an accident on scene.
Mik:
I’m curious how you feel, Nicole, about being part of such a team. I mean, you’re giving your time for free. What do you get back? What does that give you?
Nicole:
Well, I think just helping people and everybody who volunteers in any organisation, think it’s… To give up your time when we know we’re also time poor, to give up your time to help others, I think volunteers are wonderful and Australia has amazing volunteers. There’s no way we could cover the whole area of Australia like we do without our volunteers. And anybody who volunteers, even at a church, wherever they are, it’s amazing what volunteers do in Australia.
Mik:
Does that bring sort of a connection between you and the team? I mean, it must feel nice to be with some people where you have that sense of we’re doing something good here and we’re actually playing an important role when things are bad out there. I’m just imagining your feelings about this instead of just being practical. Let’s hear something about how you feel!
Nicole:
Well, I’ll let you in on a bit of a story, I suppose. When it comes to how I feel, I’ve been to some major accidents and, you know, they affect you to a certain degree, which is natural. I think the thing that affects me the most is always when I come across vulnerable people. And it’s, when I say vulnerable, it’s often people that are
It could be an elderly couple who live on their own and one of them has dementia and the other one’s a carer. it, you know, you just see how hard life is every single day for them and what they’re going through. And, you know, we come across a couple, it was a day before Christmas, and their washing machine had overflowed. You know, no big deal, but the hose had sort of come out of the washing machine. And of course,
The lady was frantic and she’s in her 90s, her husband’s in her 90s and the house is spotted. And it’s just our job to go in there and make it safe just by cleaning up the excess water, taking out rugs and things so they can dry outside and seeing if they can get hold of their insurance and helping them sometimes with getting onto insurance companies. But it is hard, you know, the day before Christmas, you know, the next day these couples on their own with the same battle. And I find that really hard. And there’s been houses that we’ve gone into, someone needs assistance and it’s a hoarder’s house. And they’ve got a goat’s track through their house. And they’re living in this on their own. And you wonder who knows about this or who’s there to help or… And those things are really sad.
And I remember through COVID, and I often tell this story when people ask me when they’re joining the unit, you know, what are some of the stories? What can I expect? And I tell this story that through COVID, we got this phone call to go down to a house. And when we got there, we got a call to say there was a flood in the house. It hadn’t been raining or anything. So when we got there, it had one of those.. There was an old, beautiful old house with the kitchen table that takes up the whole kitchen, you know, like Nana’s old house. And there was this tiny puddle of water just in under the table. And we looked around. I had a new crew with me. They were all just brand new, some of the people that had just joined up. And I said, let’s just check, you know, under the cupboards, see if anything’s leaking, any plumbing issues, check the walls to see if there’s any water running down them. Nothing.
So anyway, the man that was living here, there, he said to me, would you like to see the garden? I said, yeah, that’d be great. This is the middle of night. So off we go with the torch out the back, have a look at his garden, pick some flowers for us, come back in. He said, would you like to meet my mum? He said, she’s 94.
And he goes and gets his mum up and brings her out to meet us all and gets a photo with us. And we stayed there for a couple of hours because I realised pretty quickly that we’re in lockdown. He’s vulnerable and he just needed someone to be there. And that’s really sad, really sad that he felt he, for whatever reason, he had to call someone to come to the house that day, that night. That’s really hard. You find those, they’re the ones that stay with me because, yeah, and there’s a lot of vulnerable people in our communities.
Tony:
And it’s the fact that you’re able to help them in that instance.
Nicole:
Yeah, just sometimes spending more time there, you know. You have people that fight for their independence who want to stay in their homes because they’ve been in their homes for 50, 60 years and they might have already lost their partner of many years and they don’t want to give up their independence but they’re finding little struggles along the way. And to go in there and to be able to just help in any way you can even if it might be a really minor thing that you’ll call for, usually a flood, a broken appliance or something like that in the house. But to then be able to move a piece of furniture for them or, you know, just help. And you think it’s really hard not to want to go back, you know, and it’s like you can’t help everybody. And I think that’s where it’s hard. But I think that’s why we do what we do.
Tony:
And at the end is the debriefing around that so people can get to talk the way you’ve just been speaking?
Do we do that? We do. We debrief after every, just every job that we turn out to because there’s always something that we want to know how our crews interpret different things or is there something we could do better or something we need to train for that maybe we, you know, we went to a job yesterday and we got the Acroprops out. A car had gone into a house and we got the Acroprops out and we were like… how do these work again? You know, it’s been a little while and we felt a bit clunky and a bit, you know, like, we probably look like idiots. But, you know, it’s sort of like then we go back and go, think we need to get them out again. And, you know, just little things like that. our training is really important. We train every Monday night for a couple of hours and we really vary what we do and just try and make the most of those couple of hours. But I think the SES is all about how we spend a lot more time together as a crew than we do on actual jobs. So that’s a really important thing for us is the friendship that we make within the unit and training together is what makes it really special for us.
Tony:
Yeah, and that builds trust, which is really important when the pressure’s on.
Nicole:
Yeah, it’s knowing what we’re going to do when we’re out on jobs. So you’ve got that base of training that we know that this person’s going to do, we’re going to do it like this or we’re going to do it like that, which creates that real safe environment too. But on ladders, nobody over 50 should get up a ladder. That includes me.
Mik: (48:34)
Now, that’s all we could fit into one very emergency-focused Sustainable Hour. Nicole, if people want to have been inspired by your talk and want to join you, where do people find you?
Nicole:
We have lots of, we even have support roles for people as well. People who maybe don’t want to be operational, but we are teaching them like, you know, how to work in a control centre for when we do have events and do other things, paperwork and things like that. So there’s lots of roles for everyone. We have a really good junior program, which is something that we love. Not many units do have that, but we have a lot of, a couple of juniors that are really enjoying it. So if anyone wants to join, just jump onto SES website and you’ll find a link for joining and it’ll just send you to the nearest unit that you would like to go to.
Colin:
Thank you.
Mik: (49:36)
We usually end the call with saying be something. What would you be?
Nicole:
Be kind and look out for your neighbours and for each other.
Colin:
Be prepared.
Mik: (49:49)
And be aware.
Nicole:
Be aware.
SONG (49:59.554)
‘In Our Street’
Verse 1:
In our little street, we gather what we can
We can’t change the whole world, but we can lend a hand
There are neighbours who are struggling, others standing strong
When we mix together, we connect, we belong
Pre-Chorus:
A table on a naturestrip, just bring your own chair
We’ve got plenty of drinks and food to share
Chorus:
Kindness, respect, understanding and trust
That’s all we can offer, and it’s often enough
We can’t turn the seasons, or storms that will come
But we can open our door when the day is done
In kindness, in respect, in understanding – and trust
Verse 2:
In a schoolyard conversation, or the local pub
Someone’s passing the plates, someone’s fetching the cups
We welcome you here for a meal at our table
Just come as you are — we only hold what we’re able
Pre-Chorus:
Small acts in small places, a friendly gesture, a smile
We stitch what we can, we adjust, we align
Chorus:
Kindness, respect, understanding and trust
It’s the quiet achievement when we do what we must
We can never change things beyond our control
But we can show one another that ‘we got your back’
In kindness, in respect, in understanding – and trust
Instrumental intermission (soft)
Bridge: (soft, intimate)
One meal shared, we are no longer strangers
New stories drift in, the energy uplifts us
With clarity, direction,
there’s a healing
and a new feeling of hope setting in
Final Chorus:
Kindness, respect, understanding and trust
Street by street, that’s how we rise up
We can’t fix the whole world, but here is where we can start
With a chair and a voice that confirms: “You are welcome!”
In kindness, in respect, in understanding – and trust.
In kindness, in respect, in understanding – and trust.
Spoken words:
Kate Shelton:
We can’t control what’s beyond us, but we can control our local, our family, our neighbours and our little community and that’s where we should reach out for kindness, respect, understanding and trust because that’s all we can do really.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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