Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers budget speech on May 12 conspicuously omitted the word “climate” and plans to tackle the climate emergency.
This is despite the global energy crisis, brought on by the United States and Israel’s illegal war on Iran and its restrictions on oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz.
Chalmers mentions “renewable energy” just twice — once to celebrate a “robust” business “outlook” and the other in the context of progressing towards “net zero”.
This is typical of Labor’s climate policy: Make a song and dance about the domestic transition towards renewable energy (and some policies make a modest push in that direction) while actively supporting the expansion of climate destroying fossil fuel exports.
The Climate Council described Labor’s budget as a “free kick” for the fossil fuel industry. It said more than $19 billion in annual fossil fuel subsidies and foregone gas tax revenue are “maintained” and it “ignores” major opportunities to expand clean energy solutions.
The Labor government has responded to the oil shock and related agricultural issues by focusing on shoring up fuel and fertiliser supplies so that petrol prices do not rise too much. It is also giving “targeted support” to the electric vehicle industry.
While fossil fuels remain the primary source of energy across the entire economy, governments do need to protect fuel supplies.
However, as The Climate Council pointed out, the government’s emergency measures to manage fuel supplies and price spikes does not fix the “core problem”. “As long as Australia relies on fossil fuels, households will stay exposed to supply shortages and soaring prices.”
The council said switching to renewable power is “our best chance to ensure energy security” as well as sheltering people from “volatile global fossil fuel markets”. “Fossil fuels leave our energy security at risk, while renewables protect us.”
The only way to solve the bigger climate problem is to actually reduce emissions.
Another indication of Labor’s lack of serious climate policy was the May 21 announcement — less than two weeks after the budget — that the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial and Research Organisation (CSIRO) is firing climate scientists.
The ABC reported that of the 60 climate modellers and analysts employed by CSIRO, 11 were told their jobs were going. These redundancies were part of the 92 announced that day and add to the more than 800 job cuts over the last two years.
The Guardian Australia reported that the cuts mean that the CSIRO would “no longer be able to submit climate projections to form part of global reports and will have significantly reduced ability to forecast future damage to the country”. The national climate team provides projections “relied on by governments, councils, industry and farmers as they plan for the future”.
While these job cuts stem from previous budget cuts and rising costs, they make a mockery of Labor’s boast in this budget that it will be boosting CSIRO funding by $387 million over four years.
Labor’s real climate policy revolves around a refusal to fund climate research and to assist the fossil fuel industry's expansion.
Unsurprisingly, the Coalition and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party are even worse.
Angus Taylor promised in his budget reply to abolish Labor’s inadequate 2023 climate “safeguard mechanism”, rewrite environment laws to “speed up approvals” and allocate more support to fossil fuel projects, alongside nuclear.
Taylor described the safeguard mechanism as “Labor’s hidden carbon tax”, even thought it was originally a Coalition policy. The 2016 policy was designed to not reduce emissions and Labor has only very marginally improved it.
Taylor’s promise to abolish the safeguard mechanism signals that a future Coalition government would go to war against any policies directed towards reducing emissions. This is in line with US President Donald Trump’s “drill baby drill” approach.
The one bright spark is the rapid growth of renewable energy — particularly solar and wind supplies.
In April, wind and solar sources produced more energy than gas for the first time ever. Electrek reported that analysis from independent energy think tank Ember shows that “wind and solar produced 22% of the world’s electricity in April 2026, compared to 20% from gas”.
“Together, the two renewable sources generated a record 531 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity during the month, 54 TWh more than gas plants generated globally, at 477 Twh.”
In addition, new renewable energy projects produced more electricity than the rising demand, meaning that fossil fuel use reduced for the first time ever outside of a global economic crisis. The biggest source of new capacity — by a long margin — is China.
Such developments undercut Labor’s commitment to the fossil fuel industry and helps those battling for a serious climate emergency policy — something they thought Labor stood for.