Several high profile Australians including Emma McKeon, Tim Winton, Grace Tame and Professor Fiona Stanley have signed an open letter urging the government to legislate a climate-related duty of care for future generations.
Written by a group of young women including Anjali Sharma, Jess Travers-Wolf, Hannah Vardy, Daisy Jeffrey, the open letter urges the government to legislate the bill that would compel lawmakers to consider the health and wellbeing of young people when making decisions that could cause climate harm.
The letter was released to coincide with the end of the hottest year on record in 2024 and the first year that surpassed 1.5 degrees of global warming.
Other signatories to the letter include Vanuatu climate envoy Ralph Regenvanu, former Sydney Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull, former Liberal Party leader John Hewson, former Socceroo Craig Foster, immunologist Professor Peter Doherty, several independent MPs and senators, and Liberal MP Bridget Archer.
Speaking to Women’s Agenda, Sharma said the open letter was about proving to the government that the duty of care bill does not come from a “niche activist mechanism”.
“It’s something that’s supported by people from all walks of life,” Sharma said.
“There are people who have signed the letter who have nothing to do with the realm of climate change. We have people like Emma McKeon and Grace Tame who have put their names to the letter solely believing in the concept, without having any involvement in climate advocacy.”
The Climate Change Amendment (Duty of Care and Intergenerational Climate Equity) Bill 2023 has been championed by Sharma, and was introduced to parliament by Senator David Pocock. So far, it has been met with indifference from the Albanese government.
The bill builds on the foundation laid out in the historic court case Sharma and others v. Minister for Environment.
“A lot of people were really, really open and willing to sign the letter,” Sharma says. “Since the letter went live on Saturday morning, we’ve had so many other people including Olympians, musicians and models reach out to us and ask to sign it.”
Sharma says a duty of care is not a “radical concept”, noting that doctors owe duties of care to their patients and teachers to their students.
“If we know that decisions being made in parliament right now will tend to shape the future that is handed to generations to come…it should be made with a duty of care to ensure that our interests are taken into account,” she says.
Sharma says it’s time for the major parties to engage in good faith with young people on climate change.
In its term in power, the Albanese government has continued to approve fossil fuel projects, and the Opposition, led by Peter Dutton, is pursuing a policy of nuclear energy.
As we head into an election year, Sharma says young people are watching closely or completely switching off politics.
“There will be a lot of young people who are watching the policies and the rhetoric by both parties,” she says.
“But then there will also be a lot of young people who won’t want a bar of it, and who won’t want to listen to what they just see as promises that will be broken and lies that are being made straight-faced.”
“Many young people have switched off from politics and don’t know a single thing about Dutton’s nuclear policy, or Albanese’s coal mine expansions, because of the fact that they believe that politics just plays blatant lies, and not something that is for our generation.”
So what’s the path forward? Sharma says her duty of care bill must be considered, alongside genuine engagement with young people.
“We hope that this open letter kind of switches that attitude, shows the government that actually this is a mechanism supported by a broad sector of society. It’s not one that should be ignored,” she says.