My fellow Australians: you cannot exist, and your grandkids will not exist without a safe, healthy, habitable Earth for us all to dwell upon.

Without it there will be no nation of Australia, no human civilisation, possibly no humans at all and certainly very few other animals. The world will be mostly hot, empty desert and toxic ocean, as it has been during mass extinctions in its past.

This may seem self-evident, given the vast mass of hard scientific data that has accrued in the past half-century on what is really happening. But governments, most politicians, economists and business people still do not get it. Or rather, they prefer to block their ears and eyes because the facts are inconvenient to their narrow self-interest. And to punish their grandchildren.

Without a habitable Earth, it doesn’t matter what policies your politicians advocate; none of them will amount to anything. There will be no civilised society left to benefit from them.

So, the first and foremost requirement of anyone who aspires to govern or pass laws, is a policy in support of human survival on a habitable Earth. Anyone who does not support this is not worthy of your notice, let alone your vote. They are just another Trump. They are out to ruin your children’s future for the sake of a selfish present.

Let’s be clear about what is going wrong. It isn’t just that the planet is overheating, the environment falling apart, poisons spreading globally, the decline of food, fresh water, soil, forests and a dying ocean. It isn’t just overpopulation, weapons of mass destruction, pollution, pandemics, out-of-control technologies, growing inequity and misinformation.

It’s all of the above, coming together at the same time. This is the Human Emergency.

What most people don’t realise is that these problems cannot be fixed one by one, in isolation. Because they are all connected – and trying to fix one threat alone often makes others worse. In any case, we don’t have time to do that. The crisis is already upon us. Here. Now.

The answer — and the central policy for any politicians who aspire to govern wisely on behalf of their citizens — is to develop cross-cutting policies which overcome all the catastrophic threats together. Not just a few of them. Not just the politically easy or expedient ones.

To give you a feel for the policy direction of your new government here are 12 examples of what must be done in order to save a habitable planet for your children and grandchildren:

1. End all use of fossil fuels as fast as possible. (This will also reduce global poisoning and needless deaths by more than half.) That includes Australia.
2. Immediately ban all nuclear and weapons of mass destruction and destroy their infrastructure. Australia should cease its present support for nuclear war, forthwith.
3. Implement a circular national and global economy as fast as possible to end waste and curb pollution.
4. Introduce renewable, climate-proof food.
5. Re-wild half the planet, to save what’s left of its ability to sustain life. In Australia, return 15m ha of arable land and 150m ha of pastoral land to native landscapes and wildlife.
6. Clean up the nation and planet from pollution and toxic waste in air, water, food, homes and workplaces, using the latest technologies.
7. Implement universal voluntary family planning to bring the human population back to a level the Earth can sustain.
8. Implement a global plan to prevent future pandemics, including by limiting travel, bad building design and curbing social behaviours that spread killer diseases.
9. Introduce global regulation of dangerous new technologies to prevent their being used for evil purposes.
10. Establish World and National Truth Commissions, to expose the liars and spreaders of disinformation.

All of these measures can be incorporated in a single expression of the human desire to survive on a habitable planet – the Earth System Treaty. Without such a universal agreement to survive, it is very doubtful whether we will. Without it, Australia will cease to exist as a nation.

On the other hand, the noblest, most inspired, thing Australians can do is to lead the world movement towards human survival, through our example. And it is to advocate, stridently and unceasingly for a future for our children and grandchildren on a habitable Earth.

Look, I know that some of these things are out of people’s comfort zone. But laziness is no excuse for destroying our own future and our children’s. We have to do them because we must: the alternative is to witness the collapse of our global civilisation – and that will not benefit Australia.

If you haven’t seen these proposals in the political promises of previous governments, it is because they are frightened of telling you the truth, as it is understood by science. They prefer re-election by guile to honesty. And they are leading us all to disaster.

So, as your new minister for the environment, I’m levelling with you. Australians have to change how we live. Or, ultimately, cease to live.

All of these policies are technically feasible, completely affordable and totally achievable. All we lack is the political and national will to adopt and implement them.

So, c’mon Aussie, let’s lead the world to a safe future that our children will inherit. Now. before it’s too bloody late.