Blog

I write about climate, human rights, biodiversity, and uncomfortable truths. From the wisdom of First Nations caring for Country to the global action needed to protect ecosystems and ensure intergenerational equity, these stories are personal, political, and urgent. They aim to inspire hope.

Explore my Yeah But... series for sharp takes on deflection, denial, and double standards. And scroll through Climate Conscious Man's reflections on what it means to live responsibly on a heating planet.

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Herzog, ASIO, and the Truth Gap

Remember when Anthony Albanese framed Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit as “healing”. That mattered because it asked us to read a highly charged diplomatic moment through the language of grief, solidarity, and community reassurance. It subtly positioned scrutiny as unkind - even suspect. It made Australians lower our guard. It said: “don’t ask questions - this is about comfort, not politics.” But now we’ve learned that Herzog had a private meeting with ASIO. And it wasn’

Gregory Andrews

Mar 42 min read

We Support It, We’re Not Involved, Don’t Us Ask About The Law

There's a particular kind of political sentence that should set off alarm bells: we support the action, but we are not participating. It's the sentence politicians reach for when they want the benefits of a war without accepting the moral and legal responsibility that comes with it. Over the past few days, the Albanese Government has adopted exactly that posture towards the US and Israel’s war against Iran. Prime Minister Albanese’s language has been blunt: support for US act

Gregory Andrews

Mar 23 min read

Bombs Don’t Build Lasting Peace Or Democracy

We keep being sold the same fairy tale: drop enough bombs, topple the “bad regime”, and somehow a better society will bloom from the rubble. It’s an easy story to buy because it promises moral clarity without the hard work of diplomacy, compromise, and long-term engagement. It also flatters leaders like Trump who want to look decisive. But as a strategy for achieving peaceful, lasting regime change and real human rights improvements, aerial bombardment has a very poor record.

Gregory Andrews

Mar 13 min read

Australia's Wild Heart: The Dingo

#FloraAndFaunaFriday: A national icon with a real ecological job to do If you’ve never met a Dingo, you need to. The Australian Dingo Foundation introduced me to these two back in 2016, and the memory has never left me. Not because they were “wild” in the movie sense, but because they felt Australian in a way that’s almost impossible to explain: alert, intelligent, confident, self-possessed. There was warmth there too, but not submission. Dingoes don’t do “obedient” the way

Gregory Andrews

Feb 274 min read

This Is Me While My Car Charges Itself

My EV is charging right now. I'm sitting in my garden, about to hit 'publish' on this blog. I'm not waiting at a charging station. I'm not surrounded by cement under fluorescent lights next to a fridge full of energy drinks. I’m listening to the birds with a cup of tea, and the car is quietly topping itself up. And that’s my key point. We need to stop thinking about EV charging as if it's another version of refuelling. As an EV driver for four years, I've noticed this is one

Gregory Andrews

Feb 263 min read

We’re all “Ordinary Australians”

I’m sure you’ve heard it. Pauline Hanson reckons there’s “no such thing as a good Muslim” and she’s said “ordinary Australians” aren’t welcome in suburban centres with big Muslim communities. So I today I went down to my local shops. Southlands at Mawson - where I’m in and out three or four times a week. It also happens to be the Muslim community’s place to go in Canberra. I know the rhythm of the place because it’s my rhythm too. Grab ingredients for dinner. Get fresh bread.

Gregory Andrews

Feb 232 min read

Trump and Iran: Watch This Space

If you’re wondering like me what the Trump Regime’s next move will be on Iran, it’s worth looking at the logistics. This infographic isn’t official. It’s a best-effort snapshot stitched together from open sources. But the broad picture is hard to dismiss. The US is sending serious naval and air power into the Middle East, and it’s doing so with a tempo and density that looks far more like preparation for war than anything routine. Trump also just tightened the timeline at his

Gregory Andrews

Feb 224 min read

Life Support in the Wild

#FloraAndFaunaFriday and the uncomfortable truth about Australia's Orange-bellied-parrot I first met the Orange-bellied Parrot when I was Australia’s Threatened Species Commissioner. Impossibly small. A small green and blue bird, with an almost defiant splash of orange on its belly. I could feel how close it was to the edge - not just as an individual, but as a species. Back in 2015, there were only about 50 left in the wild. I remember doing the maths back then. If you added

Gregory Andrews

Feb 203 min read

Australia's Government Spends 26 Times More Harming Nature Than Protecting It

Every now and then a number lands like a slap. Less than $1 billion a year to protect biodiversity - and over $26 billion a year to harm it. That is not a policy quirk. That's what a deep dive into Australia's federal government budget numbers shows. This week, former CEO of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust , Paul Elton, released new research through the Australian National University that assessed federal budget numbers and incentives. It showed that our federal gover

Gregory Andrews

Feb 172 min read

AUKUS: An Expensive Way To Make Australia Less Safe

Has anyone else noticed how Anthony Albanese spruiks AUKUS through the gloss of “jobs”. Yes, shipbuilding jobs are real jobs. They matter. But if a $368 billion strategic security investment has to rely on jobs ads, it's already confessing its weakness. Because AUKUS isn't a jobs programme with a side-order of submarines. It is a multi-decade, multi-hundred-billion-dollar commitment to a very narrow capability pathway, underwritten by the US political system which is increasi

Gregory Andrews

Feb 165 min read

Earth’s Energy Imbalance: The Lid on the Pot

Most people talk “temperature” when discussing climate change. It’s the headline statistic because it is easy to understand. But there is another number that matters just as much, and in some ways more. It is called Earth’s Energy Imbalance, or EEI. If you have never heard of EEI, don’t worry, you’re not alone. But read on because it’s one of the cleanest ways to explain why the last couple of years have felt like the climate system has shifted up a gear. What EEI actually me

Gregory Andrews

Feb 153 min read

Apex, But Not Above The Law

Power, perspective and the wedge-tailed eagle - #FloraAndFaunaFriday There are few, if any, birds in Australia that command the sky like the Wedge-tailed Eagle. With a wingspan stretching close to three metres. Eyes that can read a paddock from kilometres away. And a presence that doesn’t flap and fuss - wedgies soar, steady and sovereign. And here’s something I’ve always loved: the female is larger than the male. As with most raptors, female wedgies outweigh and outspan thei

Gregory Andrews

Feb 132 min read

Renewables Dig Once, Fossil Fuels Dig Forever

We've all heard the “renewables require more mining” mantra from climate change denialists. It see a lot of it on my social media accounts - usually delivered with a smirk, as if the energy transition somehow collapses the moment someone mentions the need to mine lithium, copper or rare earths. Yes, renewables do require mining. But here’s the truth that the denialists never say out loud: a fossil fuel economy requires vastly more mining, every single year, and forever. Foss

Gregory Andrews

Feb 123 min read

NSW Police Violence: Call to Action

I've watched video from the Sydney Town Hall protest on 9 February 2026 opposing the visit of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. I've heard directly from friends who were there. And I feel the same thing many Australians are feeling right now: shock, anger, and a sour, creeping fear about what our democracy is becoming. NSW Police say the situation escalated, that officers were assaulted, that pepper spray was deployed, and that people were arrested. But, footage circulating w

Gregory Andrews

Feb 103 min read

If Epstein is Trending, Why Isn’t +1.7°C?

The news cycle has become a hall of mirrors: Epstein, Trumpism, war, outrage, retribution. A thousand scandals designed to keep us anxious, tribal, and tired. We have to hold multiple truths at once: unfolding human atrocities, and something deeper accelerating quietly in the background - the rapid destabilisation of Earth’s climate system, the life-support system on which we all depend. Eminent climate scientist James Hansen and colleagues have just published a paper from C

Gregory Andrews

Feb 83 min read

Why I’ll Be Protesting Herzog

I will be at protests next week against the visit of Isaac Herzog, the President of Israel. I have never been a member of a political party. I am not part of any activist groups. I’ve never worn a keffiyeh. I’m not doing this as an activist. I am doing it as an Aussie who believes, deeply, in human rights and dignity for all, in justice and the rule of law, and in social cohesion. For most of my adult life, I worked inside government and diplomacy. I understand how important

Gregory Andrews

Feb 52 min read

What Building Aboriginal Relationships Really Looks Like

Everything every now and again something we do at Lyrebird Dreaming really stands out. Not just for what we learned or contributed, but for the lives and Country that are genuinely improved. Last year, one of those highlights was collaborating with the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure to develop and publish the Caring for Country Aboriginal Relationships Framework and Toolkit. Over almost a year, we facilitated more than 40 yarning sessions with Traditi

Gregory Andrews

Feb 52 min read

Foreign policy should not be exempt from democracy

I spent enough years inside the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to recognise the reflex: the minute the general public’s critique of foreign policy comes up, the room tightens. The tone shifts. The language gets colder. And an unspoken rule kicks in: foreign policy is “serious”, therefore it must be insulated from the messiness of the masses. If you challenged a domestic policy in Australia and the public got loud, no one in the system would say: “Sorry, the citizens

Gregory Andrews

Feb 24 min read

Call to Action: Write to your MP to Cancel Israeli President Visit

From 8-12 February, our government is planning to host Isaac Herzog, the President of Israel, as an act of so-called 'solidarity' after the horrific antisemitic attack at Bondi. Standing with Jewish Australians is essential. But it doesn't require extending official state hospitality to the most senior representative of a government that is under the gravest legal and moral scrutiny in the world. This is the man who has personally signed bombs dropped on Gaza. The Internation

Gregory Andrews

Jan 312 min read

Australia’s “Ice-Age” Eucalypt

I first met this rather innocuous looking tree on Yuin and Walbunja Country near Mongarlowe when I was Threatened Species Commissioner. I’d listed it as one of 30 endangered plants for urgent recovery. Why? Because it was alive before the pyramids were built! And I’m not talking about the species, I’m talking about this actual tree! There are only about six wild Mongarlowe Mallee trees left in the wild, each a multi-stemmed mallee growing out of a giant and ancient undergroun

Gregory Andrews

Jan 302 min read