The 2026 budget is a continuation of the Labor Government’s denial of the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions before the climate reaches a tipping point.

The 2026 budget speech was titled ‘Resilience and reform’. ‘Resilience’ – a very fluid term favoured by political communicators these days – was deployed 13 times, but the word ‘climate’ failed to appear even once.

This glaring omission reaffirms the government’s reluctance – seemingly intentional – to discuss climate change risks, as I have previously discussed in P&I.

The budget continued the tax-friendly treatment of the fossil fuel industry and failed to reform tax loopholes and subsidies. The diesel Fuel Tax Credit scheme at a cost of $13 billion a year in 2026–27 was left untouched, and the broadly-supported proposal for a 25 per cent gas exports levy that would have delivered $17 billion annually was ignored. $2.2 billion over the next 14 years of the climate department funding was redirected.

How can we understand the government’s energy – and what’s left of its climate – policy? There are clear actions to support the transition from expensive gas and ageing coal plants to now cheaper and more reliable renewables and storage. But this has not so far significantly dented Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions because other sectors’ emissions continue to rise.

And the government is still giving licenses and tax advantages to new coal and gas exports, keeping Australia ranked in the top three in the world for gas and coal exports. Wherever possible, it promotes its ‘good-news’ domestic renewable energy policy, while avoiding discussion of future climate impacts.

Thus, Australia’s first climate and security risk assessment delivered in December 2022 by the Office of National Intelligence remains under lock and key. Even the Parliament, charged with making policy on the subject, is left in the dark. And the domestically focused National Climate Risk Assessment was proscribed from considering climate mitigation. It ended up low-balling on crucial issues.

This leaves Australians ill-prepared for what is to come. In his book, Upheaval, geographer and anthropologist Jarod Diamond concluded that the........

© Pearls and Irritations