Australian election: Where is climate change on the agenda?

After devastating bushfires, horrific floods and bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, most surveys indicate Australians want action on climate, but the issue has barely registered in the election campaign [File: William West/ AFP]

Canberra, Australia – As southern Australia continues to recover from the destruction of the 2019-2020 ‘Black Summer’ bushfires, towns in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) have just experienced devastating floods.

Some towns have even seen ‘once in 100 year’ floods occur twice in several weeks. In Lismore, an NSW town of nearly 30,000 people, the river rose more than 14 metres in late February, breaching the town’s levees and inundating people’s homes and businesses. Thousands of residents were forced to take refuge on their roofs.