Illustration by Sarah Torina Coulthard, local artist.
“We cultivated our land, but in a different way from the white man. We endeavoured to live with the land; they seemed to live off it. I was taught to preserve, never to destroy.” – Tom Dystra, Aboriginal elder.
If you had to guess who came dead last in COP26’s international rankings for climate policy, who would it be? Not just last, but a country that had been given a whopping score of 0 based on the fact that they hadn’t submitted any new climate policies or plans. This champion of fossil fuels isn’t just the world’s second largest exporter of coal, but is also one of only two countries that waged war on birds (and lost). The actions, or rather inaction, of the Australian government in response to climate change isn’t really surprising when you consider their blatant, mask-off approach to the climate crisis.
Up until recently, the atmosphere surrounding Australian climate policy has been saturated with climate change denialism, with parliament virtually inseparable from their relationship with the coal and fossil fuel industry. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Australia has one of the worst environmental/ human rights track records, yet they have largely managed to avoid the condemnation that their Western counterparts have faced. Here, we break down Australia’s climate policy over the past decade, the state of Australia’s rapidly changing climate and the increasing climate anxiety amongst Australians as an example of rebellion against traditional party structures.
To describe Australia’s climate change response as a failure would be a misnomer because it implies that a sincere attempt had been made in the first place. Whilst environmentally-conscious policies have been passed over the years, their frequency is sparse and their offerings minimal. In 2020, a review of the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) found Australia’s environmental laws had been woefully ineffective, leaving the country in poor standing to combat impending climate crises. The report specifically cited the lack of updates to and implementation of the act over the past two decades as one of the key reasons for its failure.
Still, preceding governments have predominantly fought to weaken it, with environment minister Susan Ley’s desire to cut the excessive “green tape” mirroring former PM Scott Morrison’s views that environmental regulation unfairly stifles Australian businesses. A new report by the climate council delivered a scathing summary of Australia’s climate policy under the Liberal-National Coalition government, which is wholly unsurprising when considering the prevalence of climate deniers.
Some personal highlights includes Morisson’s predecessor Tony Abbott’s speech in 2017 where he stated that “climate change itself is probably doing good; or at least, more good than harm”, and when Scott Morrison brought a lump of coal into the House of Representatives, accusing the opposition of having an “ideological, pathological, fear of coal”, or “coal-aphobia”.
Sure enough, their talk is backed by action. The federal government under Abbott cut funding for renewable energy whilst maintaining $10 billion/year subsidies to fossil fuel companies, whilst the Morrison government not only approved new fossil fuel endeavours (aiming to spend over $50 million on gas projects) but threatened to crackdown on the right to protest in response to environmental protestors. When challenged on their lack of support for renewable energy, Coalition members tend to repeat the same mantra which claims the shift will not only cause nationwide power outages but will also severely hurt Australian businesses. Australia is the world’s third largest fossil fuels exporter with an almost entrenched loyalty to the coal industry. Coal makes up 75% of their electricity generation, and as the second largest exporter, made $55 billion in 2020 (with the majority of wealth kept by the mining companies).
Coal is also one of the worst types of fossil fuel and has contributed over 0.3 °C of the 1 °C increase in global temperatures post-industrialisation. To put it simply, the past decade of Australia’s climate policy under the Liberal-National Coalition has been one huge fossil fuel circle jerk. Over 13 years, Australia has seen fossil fuel production increase by 19%, federal government funding approval for new gas projects (whilst providing no new support for renewables), all whilst the country tackles increasingly severe climate change-fuelled natural disasters.
Australia’s poor environmental practices started long before Abbott or Howard, with a connection deeply rooted with their colonial history. For over 60,000 years the lands and waters of Australia were successfully maintained by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. For instance, traditional burning practices were used by Aboriginals to maintain ecosystems and as a tool to prevent large-scale bushfires. Without controlled burning, plains turn into woodlands and fuel loads accumulate to feed mega fires.
The return of the Martu people to the Western Desert (in the 1980’s) saw the re-introduction of controlled burns leading to improved soil generation and wildlife restoration, and calls had been made to reintroduce these traditional fire practices following the unprecedented bushfires of early 2020. Crucial environmental knowledge passed down through the generations has managed to survive in spite of their genocide.
Truly, the Aboriginal people of Australia have not known peace since invasion by Western and European settlers. Initial contact which saw thousands die from diseases followed by systematic killings during the settlement of the Australian Frontier which together decimated their population from approximately 500,000 to under 50,000. The Black Line of Tasmania, where colonists formed a human chain across the settled districts of Tasmania and over several weeks not only drove Aboriginals from their homes but also methodically slaughtered men, women and children as they pushed through.
The last official sanctioned massacre occured in 1928 (see: Coniston massacre); the cultural genocide of aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders between 1910-1970 saw the abduction of thousands of indigenous children by the federal government in an effort to assimilate them into white society, and to effectively wipe out aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. The Stolen Generations were often neglected and abused by the foster families or missionaries they were forced to live with, and were denied the right to practice their culture or speak their own language.
Inidigenous Australians continue to suffer from the impacts of colonialism. State law enforcement not only perpetuated the massacres following settlement but were responsible for driving Aboriginal people from their land, with the Australian police later enforcing the removal of indigenous children. Evidently, it’s hard to shake old habits. Currently, Aboriginal people are the most imprisoned people on earth making up just 3% of the population but represent more than 25% of the national prison population, with more than half of the children sentenced to juvenile detention being of Aboriginal descent. The disproportionately high incarceration rates we see today is an ode to the Australian police force’s long history of anti-indigenous practices.
Whilst recognition of these atrocities are improving, the Australian government has largely been unable to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. When we consider their deep connection to and reliance on the land and waters, the result of Australia’s historically poor climate/ environment policy ultimately puts indigenous people at a higher risk of climate extremes. A study done in 2020 found that in addition to their prevalent socioeconomic disadvantages, the higher rates of climate-sensitive health conditions experienced by Aboriginal people will impact their climate change response and drive a larger gap between Aborignal and non-Aboriginal quality of life.
Speaking to the Global Citizen, the Chair of the Healing foundation’s Stolen Generations reference group, Ian Hamm, expressed his hope that non-indigenous people would “… think of us as a people of unrealised potential and unleashed possibility. Don’t think of us as a people who take, but rather as a people who can give so much”. The aforementioned review of the EPBC Act specifically notes the necessitant of indigenous involvement to improve climate policy which presently fails to protect indigenous cultural heritage.
Thus, the protection of indigenous land and waters have fallen on the shoulders of the communities and indigenous rights activists in David v Goliath lawsuits against fossil fuel. Just last month, members of the Tiwi islands off the northern coast of Australia successfully halted Santos Limited’s $3.6 billion gas project (estimated to chuck out ~5.4 million tonnes of CO2 per annum in one of Australia’s “dirtiest” gas projects). Programs like Contemporary Caring for Country implements the extraordinary cultural knowledge of indigenous Australians to secure and maintain protected areas whilst restoring ecosystems.
With the election of a new Australian government, there are hopes that environmental policy will not only improve but that the role of indigenous Australians in the advancement of the country’s climate-change response will be recognised. Results from the recent elections showed an unprecedented shift away from the major parties in favour of climate-focused independents. The Teal independents who campaigned strongly on climate policy pulled a large number of votes from traditionally safe Coalition electorates, marketing themselves as the environmentally-conscious version of the Liberal party.
This reflects recent polling which shows that a majority of Australians want to see their government tackle climate change more, with one in four Australians rating the previous government’s climate response poorly. The Albanese government has promised a “new era” of climate action, but only time will tell if they can shirk the bonds of the fossil fuel industry in favour of a swift and effective policy.
“We refuse to be pushed into the background. We have decided to make ourselves heard.” Jack Pattern, Day of Mourning protest 1938.