The Climate Doesn’t Care About The Albanese Government's Secrecy

It doesn’t matter how much you try to keep a lid on bad news, the climate doesn’t care. It doesn’t do deals. It doesn’t wait for politically convenient moments. It acts according to the unbreakable laws of physics.

Last week, James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who warned the US Congress about global warming back in 1988, dropped another bombshell. His latest analysis shows global warming is accelerating, with the Earth’s reflectivity shrinking much faster than expected. That means less sunlight is being bounced back into space, more heat is being absorbed, and temperatures are accelerating at a pace that puts us on track for two degrees of warming as early as the 2030s. Not by the end of the century. Not in some distant future. Within the lifetimes of politicians who are now sitting in Parliament House now.

But Anthony Albanese's government is busy playing a different kind of game, one that involves keeping the public in the dark. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has completed a detailed National Climate Risk Assessment. It includes suburb-level maps of coastal inundation, projections of heat-related deaths, and dire scenarios for agriculture and fisheries. Sources who have seen it call it “diabolical” and “extremely confronting.” But, instead of publishing it so we can call start planning and adapting, the government is sitting on it. Just as it did with a national security climate risk report three years ago.

Why? Because the truth has political and budgetary consequences. Adapting to what’s coming will cost money - a lot of it. And that means political pain. Especially when Albo's government keeps approving massive coal and gas projects. Better, apparently, to delay, distract, and manage the optics.

But here’s the thing: the climate isn’t bound by the Official Secrets Act or Cabinet confidentiality. Sea levels won’t hold off rising until Chris Bowen finalises his talking points or Anthony Albanese approves them. Heatwaves won’t politely wait until after the next election. Physics doesn’t respond to press strategies and political spin.

The government is due to set Australia’s 2035 emissions target. And it will take that number to the UN climate summit in Brazil in November, alongside a bid to host COP31 in Adelaide with Pacific Island nations whose very survival depends on urgent action. But it refuses to release the very document that should be guiding that decision. How can we have an honest conversation about our future if the most important facts are locked away?

This isn’t just an ethics and transparency issue - it’s about our survival. Adaptation planning can’t be done in the dark. Communities at risk need to know now what’s coming so they can prepare, protect, and adapt. Investors need credible data to allocate trillions in capital. Farmers, councils, insurers, and households all need to plan. Secrecy doesn’t protect us; it disables us.

If Hansen is right, and history suggests he usually is, we are already in the danger zone. Two degrees of warming in the 2030s means more catastrophic floods, longer droughts, deadlier heatwaves and bushfires, and accelerating ecosystem and agricultural collapse. Every year we delay adaptation measures, the costs escalate and the human toll grows.

Geez I wish the Albanese Government would treat climate change as a physical reality rather than a public relations challenge! The climate doesn't care about politics and spin. And it certainly doesn’t care about secrecy.

Call Anthony Albanese on (02) 9564 3588 and tell him to:

• Release the report;

• Tell Australians the truth;

• Get to work for a safe future for our kids and Country.