Time to accept the mantle of climate leadership

March 26, 2026

The news from the Senate inquiry on climate change and energy, that four senior government ministers in a position to take a climate lead are declining to present the climate challenge openly, provides confirmation that the Albanese government is reluctant to make clear the threats that we, as a nation, face.

It’s not as if they needed to fear mass resistance to the idea of climate crisis: Spratt cites reports that confirm that the majority think government must do more. It’s as though the government is avoiding any sort of confrontation. We are being swept headlong towards a climate crisis, led by a government that seeks to minimise the public’s view of that crisis, while the opposition – in both government and the media – seek daily to belittle that threat, to undermine the science that explains it, to deny its very existence. So the majority supporting stronger climate action is gradually shrinking as it is starved of leadership from the top.

It is so sad, at this most critical juncture, to see the party once led by Whitlam and Hawke, and in such a strong parliamentary position, so unwilling to accept the mantle of climate leadership that government bestows.