By David Spratt
A shorter version of this article was first published at Pearls and Irritations.
The US–Israel war on Iran and another oil crisis has again highlighted the need for Australia to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and electric transport and sustainable industrial processes, and to phase-out the coal and gas export industries. At the same time, anti-renewable-energy and climate-change-scepticism dis-information campaigns have made inroads in Australia.
In the face of a barrage of climate dis-information, silence from those who should be countering it constitutes an own goal: a boost to the dis-information campaign.
As the Senate Select Committee inquiry on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy approaches its final report, questions must be asked about the Australian Government’s response to climate dis-information. Is it using its unparalleled media power to educate Australians about accelerating climate change and the urgent need for a complete renewable energy transition?
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.”
Did the government utilise a summer of record-breaking climate extremes as a “teachable moment” to further that community engagement on the compelling reasons for accelerating the transition? Or did it sit on its hands in silence?
Climate dis-information is recognized globally as a key impediment to climate change action. In response, the task is to rebuild a system of accountability for climate information that can be trusted by governments and the broader Australian community as we move into a period of accelerating climate-warming impacts. The pathways of action include re-building the public conversation on the climate and energy transition; strengthening credible climate information; and effective control of AI and social media.
Governments have an indispensable role to play in rebuilding the public conversation, including by redeveloping best-practice climate research capacity, and the leading role they can play as a public educator. In a complex information network, silence by governments worsens the dis-information landscape. So does the running down of important research capacity, as continues to happen in Australia, and controlling what researchers can say.
In January 2026, Australia experienced a series of unprecedented extreme weather events, including record-breaking heatwaves, fires and flooding. Such events are 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. These moments can help raise awareness and encourage discussions about the impacts and solutions related to climate change. Researchers explain that mapping first-hand experience of extreme weather conditions helps to target climate education efforts.
January’s climate extremes included a historic heatwave extended from Australia’s north-west across the continent all the way to the south-eastern coasts for several days, with many towns breaking their previous January records. Records included the South Australian towns of Renmark (49.6°C) and Ceduna (49.5°C), while several towns in Victoria, such as Walpeup and Hopetoun, recorded temperatures of 48.9°C, marking the hottest days ever officially recorded in those regions.
The prolonged extreme heat and a drought in recent years over much of south-eastern Australia, combined with strong winds reaching up to 100 km/h resulted in devastating bushfires, mainly in Victoria, that burned 400,000 hectares of bushland and farmland. 1,590 structures were destroyed, including 451 homes.
In the middle of the heatwave period, along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, a burst of record-breaking rainfall exceeding 180 mm in six hours on 15 January caused severe flash flooding at Lorne and Wye River, displacing hundreds of people and sweeping 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. The flooding was (again!) described as a "once in a century" event. Stock losses were estimated at 100,000 head.
These events around the nation received saturation news coverage, especially since they occurred in January when the usual political circuses are on holidays. So how did the federal government use these opportunities as “teachable moments”? After all, the Prime Minister and other Ministers were prominent in the media for most of January on these events, providing updates and announcing relief packages.
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 climate 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” (emphasis added).
Note the fence-sitting, almost a dog whistle to climate deniers. There was another opportunity in Bendigo on 11 January 2026, for the Prime Minister to make the link, but he did not:
JOURNALIST: Is Australia now spending more on weather events?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course we are, because there are more extreme weather events and they're more intense. And the fact that we have at one time floods in one area, fires in another and heat waves that do cause other issues as well, means there is a cost of the changing weather patterns that we are seeing.
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 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:
JOURNALIST: We did record record-breaking heat in Victoria, 48.9 degrees, which is what I've got here. Is this a sign of climate change getting worse?
MCBAIN: Look, I think everyone's aware that climate change is having a significant impact across our country. We are seeing more intense, more frequent natural disasters. Now, not every natural disaster we can put down to climate change, but we are seeing prolonged heatwaves impact a huge part of our country.
In summary, 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. One occasion was by the Emergency Services Minister in response to a direct question from a journalist; the other in somewhat equivocal terms by the Prime Minister. Together, their comments amounted to less than 100 words. Neither the Climate nor Assistant Climate Minister said anything relevant.
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.
There is good evidence that the government has a communications strategy of avoiding talking about the science of climate change: the impacts, the risks, the future threats to the very existence of peoples in Australia and around the world. 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 to not 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% 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% of people.
Also in 2024, Tony Barry of Redbridge warned that support for renewable energy is falling. He told the Clean Energy Council’s annual summit that since the 2022 election, “there’s been a failure to continue prosecuting the case for renewable energy, including providing further definition around the rewards… In politics, if you allow a message vacuum to occur, your opponents will fill it for you. Which is exactly what is happening.” and is still happening.
In a nutshell, silence facilitates dis-information. And the government is complicit.
- Download the full briefing paper: Silence facilitates climate disinformation.
