A group of retired security and national disaster chiefs is redoubling its campaign to strengthen federal planning for climate risks. Former Defence Chief Chris Barrie from the Australian security leaders climate group has spoken with afternoon briefing's Greg Jennett and he's calling for more public reporting on what the government is preparing for as average temperatures rise.
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00:00The ONI delivered its report in December of 2022.
00:07We participated in putting together of that report in the Security Leaders Climate Group.
00:14So we were privy to some of the early thinking that might be in it.
00:19But the report has been kept secret by the government.
00:23And I recognise that it's a classified report.
00:28We think that the government should allow either a statement in the House or some report
00:34in the public space for the findings.
00:36And you know, it's really interesting because I've got here the annual threat assessment
00:40from the Director of National Intelligence in the United States, which spends a little
00:46bit of time, five pages, on climate change and consequences and threats to the United
00:51States security.
00:53Why can't we?
00:54Why can't MPs in this House?
00:56Why can't people running select committees here have access to the information?
01:00All right.
01:01So by comparison, there was a short reference to climate in the defence strategy.
01:08And I think that addressed defence's bases having to adapt and have energy resilience.
01:15Is that a start?
01:17Well, it's a kind of start, but it's very limited.
01:20In our report issued today on is it too hot to handle, we point to the issues of the northern
01:27bases in which the government's planning to invest significantly.
01:32We point to the impact of heat conditions, particularly heat in which is not liveable
01:40and not operable.
01:42And that will have some impact on those defence bases.
01:45But it sort of raises the question in your mind, well, what about a city like Darwin?
01:50What does that mean in terms of climate change consequences for the people who live in Darwin?
01:54Are we going to put them underground like we do in Cooperpedia or are they not going
01:58to live there or what?
02:00Another reason why we think we're not taking it seriously.
02:03I think we've discussed before, and again, we're addressing it today.
02:06If the government had advice on something like climate migration from Pacific islands,
02:13just imagine that it did some work on a scenario where 200,000 people had to be relocated to
02:21Australia.
02:23What is the general benefit for the population here knowing about that?
02:29I think the most important part of it, Greg, is you can certainly prepare people for what's
02:34going to happen.
02:36You know, I think, unfortunately, in Australia, we often have a bit of a record of waiting
02:40for it to happen and then figuring out what we're going to do.
02:44I would much prefer that we get on the front foot and we start to think about these consequences
02:48and say to ourselves, what can we actually do?
02:52Now, our region is very open to Australia taking leadership on some of these kinds of
02:59roles.
03:00That's one of them.
03:01OK, so what's outstanding or what further demands would you and your group put on the
03:07government in the near term, in the next six months or so?
03:11Look, we think that the government is trying to walk away from the idea that climate change
03:18consequences are an existential threat, potentially.
03:22If we're talking two and a half degrees Celsius of warming up to three and a half degrees
03:26Celsius of warming.
03:27We've embarked on a national adaptation plan, which began last month.
03:32We're all invited to put in comments on what it might look like.
03:36Its objective, we're told, is to educate public servants about climate change at local,
03:42state and territory and federal government levels.
03:47The major thing that's missing from all of that is the involvement of the communities.
03:53And it's not the first time I've said this, but if we persist in doing risk assessments
03:57and doing assessments on adaptation without taking the community into account, we're
04:02going to be missing a big part of the jigsaw puzzle.
04:06And then we operate as though mitigation or fossil fuels and all those things are separated
04:12from the idea of a national adaptation plan.
04:14I mean, if you look at the record of project approvals for fossil fuel industry, there
04:19hasn't been much change from the previous government.
04:21So who is best placed in the federal bureaucracy to pull all this thinking together?
04:27Obviously, it's not, in each and every case, defence, nor the climate or energy agencies.
04:35Who?
04:35Well, I think there are several parts to how we see it.
04:39First of all, in our view, there ought to be an ongoing threat assessment from climate
04:44change cell inside the Office of National Intelligence.
04:49It ought to be looking at the weak signals leading up to potential change.
04:54I think from a whole of government perspective, we need a climate change SAR.
05:00We need someone to bring it together.
05:02And I would argue, answerable to the Prime Minister and the government, but not necessarily
05:09ministers.
05:10I mean, I think what we're seeing at the moment is a siloed response to a lot of this
05:15stuff and it's not being brought together in a comprehensive way.
05:19That is whole of government or whole of community.