Australian federal and state governments have approved a wave of fossil fuel developments over the past six weeks, sparking accusations Anthony Albanese and other leaders are \u201cgaslighting\u201d the public \u2013 claiming they take the climate crisis seriously while pushing up emissions.<\/p>\n
Peter Dunn, a former commissioner of emergency services for the Australian Capital Territory, says the Albanese government is \u201ctrashing its integrity\u201d and has \u201clost their licence to lead, days after the election\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dunn, a member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action who lived through the 2003 Canberra bushfires and the catastrophic 2019 fires at Lake Conjola on the New South Wales south coast, is furious about the government\u2019s decision to greenlight Woodside\u2019s extension of the North West Shelf<\/a> gas processing plant.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m bloody angry, bitterly disappointed, and I see a government that I was really hopeful for doing great things trashing its integrity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the thing that\u2019s really got me worked up at the moment \u2013 because there is no integrity in what I\u2019m seeing [from the government] in the climate space whatsoever \u2026 You lose your integrity, you lose your licence to lead. They just lost their licence to lead, days after the election.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal and state governments and agencies have approved several fossil fuel projects since April, ranging from large developments to smaller extensions.<\/p>\n They include the production operations for Santos\u2019 Barossa offshore gas project<\/a> off the Northern Territory, two coalmine extensions in NSW, Viva Energy\u2019s floating gas terminal in Geelong<\/a>, and nine new areas for gas exploration in Queensland<\/a>. Decisions for other major projects are looming.<\/p>\n On 22 May, Albanese and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, travelled to Maitland to get a better grasp of the scale of the flood disaster extending from the NSW Hunter up to Coffs Harbour.<\/p>\n The prime minister told communities \u201cYou are not alone\u201d<\/a>, acknowledging that due to climate change \u201ctragically, we\u2019re seeing more extreme weather events\u201d.<\/p>\n Six days later, the environment minister, Murray Watt, a former minister for emergency management, announced provisional approval for the extension of Woodside\u2019s project to 2070 with \u201cstrict conditions\u201d. A final decision is due soon.<\/p>\n When asked before the widely anticipated announcement how giving Woodside the green light aligned with Labor\u2019s climate commitments, Albanese said last week<\/a> \u201cIt is net zero, not zero\u201d and \u201cYou don\u2019t change a transition with warm thoughts\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really upset when I heard the prime minister say it\u2019s net zero not actual zero,\u201d says Serena Joyner, the chief executive of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gaslighting, because you have to actually reduce emissions or climate change will just run away.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a cognitive disconnect.\u201d<\/p>\n Joyner lives in the Blue Mountains, another region badly hit by the 2019-20 black summer fires<\/a>. She estimates her family has a few years left in the area before they will have to move due to the difficulty of insuring as bushfire risk grows, driven by the climate disaster.<\/p>\n Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action (BSCA) was formed in 2018 to help ordinary people affected by climate-fuelled disasters engage with leaders. The group has spent years meeting with MPs, repeatedly sharing their stories and trauma to highlight the urgent need for climate policy action, which Joyner says brings a heavy emotional toll.<\/p>\n She says the early weeks of the re-elected Albanese government have led to \u201ca reassessment of how to engage, because what we\u2019ve been doing with Labor in the last couple of years, it\u2019s hard to see how it\u2019s working\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing cooperative and playing nice with Labor isn\u2019t getting us anywhere,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re an organisation that works very hard to be reasonable, sensible: we don\u2019t go to rallies, we don\u2019t go to protests. We have meetings with politicians and tell them our stories.<\/p>\n \u201cThey offer sympathy and then just go and approve massive fossil fuel projects anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Afternoon Update<\/p>\n Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n BSCA member Angela Frimberger says when governments approve new fossil fuel developments and expansions \u201cclimate-affected people want to know what governments are thinking, and do they care about their problems at all\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just want to sit across a table from them and say, \u2018What do you think is going to happen?\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Frimberger lives on the edge of Lake Innes, south of Port Macquarie, on a property she and her family manage for biodiversity conservation.<\/p>\n Their house survived black summer but fire tore through half of the habitat, which they have since worked to regenerate and restore. The fires were followed by floods in 2022 and then the record-breaking event of May this year.<\/p>\n Days before Watt announced his North West Shelf decision, a soaked Frimberger stood in the rain filming a video for BSCA\u2019s social media pages, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s happening again, another unprecedented event\u201d and \u201cMinister Watt, please remember those of us out here\u201d.<\/p>\n She says she was \u201cdevastated that our government would do this while reeling from a current disaster and still struggling to recover from past disasters\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government is approving projects such that regular people like me have to pay the cost,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Georgina Woods is the head of research and investigations for the Lock the Gate Alliance, a national organisation that developed out of community opposition to fracking proposals. She says people feeling the effects of climate change are frightened about what the approval of new fossil fuel projects means for them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe business model of coal and gas companies is based on demand assumptions that are wholly inconsistent with preventing catastrophic levels of global warming,\u201d Woods says.<\/p>\n \u201cBy giving these companies approval to expand their operations, the Australian government is telling all of us it expects this outcome too.\u201d<\/p>\n A government spokesperson said that \u201conly Labor has a concrete, real plan to see our emissions reduce while ensuring our economy continues to grow\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we\u2019ve consistently said \u2013 gas has an important role to play in the transition as the ultimate backstop for renewables,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n