As extreme weather intensifies and disinformation spreads, the government’s silence on climate change is undermining public understanding and action.

The US–Israel war on Iran and another oil crisis again highlights Australia’s need to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, electric transport and sustainable industrial processes, and to phase-out the coal and gas exports.

At the same time, anti-renewable-energy and climate change scepticism disinformation campaigns have made inroads in Australia. In the face of this climate disinformation barrage, silence from those who should be countering it constitutes an own goal.

As the Senate Select Committee inquiry on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy approaches its final report, what is the Australian Government’s response. Is it using its unparalleled media power to educate Australians about accelerating climate change? Did it utilise a summer of record-breaking climate extremes as a “teachable moment” to further that community engagement?

A new survey by the National Security College finds that: “Most Australians also believe the nation is underprepared, and that the government shares too little of what it knows about the threats the nation faces.”

Climate disinformation is recognised globally as a key impediment to climate change action. The response is to rebuild a system of accountability for climate information that can be trusted by governments and the broader community. Governments have an indispensable role to play in redeveloping best-practice climate research capacity, and as a public educator. In a complex information network, silence by governments worsens the disinformation landscape.

In January 2026, Australia experienced a series of unprecedented extreme weather events, including record-breaking heatwaves, fires and flooding, part of a global pattern of ever-more extreme weather events driven by global warming. Such events are a climate change “teachable moment”, that is, a critical opportunity to educate people about the connection between a current experience (whether first-hand or in the media) to its bigger-picture cause.

January’s climate extremes included a historic heatwave with records including the South Australian towns of Renmark (49.6°C) and Ceduna (49.5°C), and in Victoria Walpeup and Hopetoun recorded temperatures of 48.9°C. The prolonged extreme heat and a drought in recent years resulted in devastating bushfires, mainly in Victoria, that burned 400,000 hectares of bushland and farmland.

In the middle of the heatwave period, along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, a burst of record-breaking rainfall displaced hundreds of people and swept away cars, caravans, and tents. Images of cars floating out to sea were front page news and led television bulletins. In January, too, there were record-breaking floods in Central Queensland, with significant impacts on towns, infrastructure and agriculture.

These events received saturation news coverage. So did the federal government use these opportunities as “teachable moments”?

A survey was undertaken of the media engagement of four key Cabinet members – the Prime Minister, and the Climate, Assistant Climate and Emergency Services Ministers – in January, comprising 125 media statements and transcripts of media events available on their websites. The purpose was to identify the number of occasions in which a Minister had made any reference to the relationship between the extreme events being experienced and climate change.

Prime Minister: No mention in 16 media releases. One mention in 42 transcripts, at a media conference on 30 January 2026: “Australia has always had natural weather events, so you can’t say any specific event is just because of climate change. What you can do, though, is say that the science told us that there would be more frequent events and they’d be more intense. That’s why my Government as well as the Victorian Government and most state governments are taking action on climate change.” Note the fence-sitting, almost a dog whistle to climate deniers.

Climate Minister: No mention in seven media releases and three media transcripts.

Assistant Climate Minister: No mention in three media releases and two media transcripts.

Emergency Services Minister: No mention in 36 media releases, even though 15 were related to announcements of assistance due to fires and 12 on assistance due to floods. There was one mention in 15 media transcripts, which came at a doorstop at the National Situation Room, Canberra on 28 January, after a direct question from a journalist on the climate change link.

Across 125 media engagements in January 2026 by four relevant Ministers the relationship between record breaking extreme weather events and climate change was mentioned just twice.

It should also be noted that across 62 interviews and media conferences, only on one occasion did a journalist ask about the relationship between these record-breaking events and climate change. That shines a poor light on the state of Australian climate journalism.

The government has a communications strategy of avoiding talking about the science of climate change impacts, the risks and the future threats. Some of this was documented in The Albanese government has created a climate vacuum, and we will pay the price.  It was also on full display in the decision by the Prime Minister not to release Australia’s first-ever climate and security risk assessment, even in a declassified form as our allies do.

The government’s media strategy in January 2026 during extraordinary climate extremes adds to that picture.

This climate vacuum has consequences. Richard Kirkman, the chief executive of Veolia in Australia, said in 2024 that polling results from the Guardian – showing only 60 per cent of Australians accept climate disruption is human-caused – suggested “we need to do more work in telling the stories about the facts… We don’t have the full support of the people and we don’t have the political support.” Another Guardian poll in November 2025 found that number had fallen to just 53 per cent of people.

In a nutshell, silence facilitates disinformation. And the government is complicit.

The full story is available at the _Silence facilitates Disinformation Briefing Paper_. Also just published by Australian Climate Leaders Security Group: _The climate disinformation war: _How to fight back for Australia’s democracy and security__.