‘The Trumpian model': Richard Roxburgh takes on Australia's most provocative politician
Trawling through reams and reams of archival footage – news clips, interviews, amateur films of political protests in Brisbane during Joh Bjelke-Petersen's near-20-year reign as premier, 'I was finding footage of Brisbane in the '60s and '70s and into the '80s, stuff I vividly remember. I wouldn't call it therapeutic, but it was a strange feeling going back in time and reliving that part of my life.'
Stenders and I were students together at the University of Queensland in the mid-1980s, a time when the cronyism and corruption and coercion of Bjelke-Petersen's National Party-led government seemed immovable. The police force was an instrument of his rule, used to intimidate anyone who didn't fit Bjelke-Petersen's narrow view of what an 'an ordinary, decent citizen' might look like (homosexuals, people of colour, creative types and the Left in general were all fair game). Laws and political boundaries were rewritten to further his dominance and agenda, democracy and civil liberties trampled under jackbooted foot.
On the upside, the Queensland economy boomed, driven by coal mining and clear felling of native forest and migration north from other states (the abolition of death duties was a major drawcard).
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And there were enough who bought into the myth of the maverick peanut farmer from Kingaroy, who left school at 14, as some kind of political and economic savant that a campaign to have him installed as the Coalition's man in Canberra – 'Joh for PM' – had serious traction for long enough to cruel John Howard's tilt in 1987 and hand the Lodge back to Bob Hawke.
Does any of this sound familiar, even if you know nothing about Bjelke-Petersen? Stenders thinks it should.
'The reason I wanted to do this film was the elephant in the room, which is the relevance of the story now, the prescience of it,' he says. 'The playbook that Joh played from is very much the same one Netanyahu is using, that Trump's using, that various populist leaders around the world are drawing from. So it just felt like a really timely documentary, and the right time to go back and look at Joh's legacy and work out what's changed and what hasn't.'
One of the most shocking things about the Bjelke-Petersen era – for those of us who experienced it firsthand, at any rate – is how little the rest of the country knew about what was going on, at least until Chris Masters ' The Moonlight State report for Four Corners and the subsequent Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption blew the lid off it all.
Richard Roxburgh grew up at the same time, in rural NSW, but had little sense of the man he would go on to play in Stenders' film. 'I was a long way away from it, so I guess we were shielded from it,' he says.
Of course, he did come to understand the craziness of that time. But for many others, it has faded, or simply never been spoken of – and given the current state of the world, that's far from ideal.
'You'll speak to a 30-year-old who has never heard of Joh Bjelke-Peterson, and so I think this is really important, because there is so much of the Trumpian model, a kind of pre-echo of many of the conditions that we're seeing now – the ever-revolving door of crackdowns and their growth over time, the way one quietly leads to another, which quietly leads to another,' says Roxburgh. 'And you end up in a state where anybody who felt slightly different either had to be prepared to have their heads staved in with batons, or to just get on the highway and head out of there.'
Roxburgh has become something of a go-to man for portrayals of men from recent Australian history.
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'I've got a theory that he's going to play every famous Australian before he dies,' jokes Stenders, who recently directed him in The Correspondent, his film about journalist Peter Greste, who spent more than a year in an Egyptian prison.
He's played Bob Hawke (twice), crooked copper Roger Rogerson (also twice), Ronald Ryan, the last man hanged in Australia, composer Percy Grainger, Bali bombing investigator Graham Ashton and more. Is there anyone left for you to do?
'I've done it,' he says, unequivocally. 'That's it now.'
You don't fancy playing Tony Abbott, perhaps?
'You know, I wouldn't mind having a crack,' he admits, despite his better judgment. 'I can feel my mum rolling in her grave at the idea that I played Joe Bjelke-Petersen, but I think she would really respond to the documentary.'
His Bjelke-Petersen is not a full-on immersion in character. It's more an impression. He roams the stage of an empty theatre, dressed in an ill-fitting beige suit, ruminating on his life and times and – to his mind – unjust downfall in that halting, stuttering, circumlocutory way of his. He gets the voice spot on.
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'It's all based around the idea of Joh's final hours in office, where he actually barricaded himself in like Hitler in his bunker,' explains Stenders.
The monologues were written by novelist Matthew Condon, using a mix of Hansard transcripts, television interviews, and news reports. 'They're not verbatim,' says Stenders. 'They're a fusion of a number of sources.'
There are interviews, too, many with critics of Bjelke-Petersen, who died in 2005 aged 94, and the deeply entrenched corruption that flourished under his reign (though he faced court, he was not convicted, after his trial ended in a hung jury). But there are also those who speak in his defence – former Brisbane Lord Mayor Sally-Anne Atkinson, Nationals leader David Littleproud, independent MP Bob Katter – and who all insist, to paraphrase Bjelke-Petersen, 'there's nothing to see here' when it comes to those pesky claims of wrongdoing.
Though there's balance, Stenders feels the film is 'pretty unequivocal' in terms of being a cautionary tale.
'Joh did some pretty provocative and divisive things that are undeniable,' he says. 'He was complicit in a corrupt government, I think that's undeniable. But at the same time, I didn't want to paint him – as I think a lot of people did back then, and I did myself – as a fool, as a clown, as an idiot. Joh used that country bumpkin thing very much as a mask, as a facade. And he hid behind that, he used it to his advantage.'
People like Bjelke-Petersen may not have much by way of schooling, says Stenders, 'but these guys are actually super smart. They've got a ferocious kind of intelligence and a rat cunning and a strategic mind. And I realised that Joh wasn't the clown I thought he was, that he was actually a very skillful, albeit deceitful, leader.
'The film is trying to unpack and look at his legacy, look at the way he operated, look at the way he constructed himself as a politician. To change power, you first need to understand it.'
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News.com.au
18 hours ago
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‘English speakers excluded': Chinese agents hit back at divisive real estate video
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The Australian
a day ago
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He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. 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The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable." The day has arrived for the Trump administration to blow the whistle on a new tariff regime that will do no less than upend and reshape the current global economic order. The Australian government was cock-a-hope last week after the US president left the nation sitting on his minimum whack in a 10 per cent global benchmark, saying it franked its low-key negotiating tactics that were condemned by the Coalition. However, as is often the case, President Trump's silk glove announcement contained a sledgehammer after he revealed this week that a 250pc levy could be slapped on Australian pharmaceutical exports, leaving Labor leaders with a fight to talk the nation out of the heavy impost. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will have a few hours above the Tasman to mull the human hurricane that is Donald J. Trump on his way to the Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting being held in the Shaky Isles this weekend. Meanwhile, a few hours the White House announced that federal law enforcement officers representing the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the Park Police would be sent to patrol the streets of the nation's capital for the next week in reaction to an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency worker. "Washington DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long. President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbour for violent criminals in DC," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Speaking of President Trump, if you had a 2025 bingo card that predicted he would somehow disrupt global weather forecasts, you're likely holding a winner. In continuing on his mission of upending Biden-era emissions reduction policies and global climate targets, the president has revealed in a fresh budget request that he wants to savagely cut funding to US science and climate agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both play a key role in formulating domestic weather forecasting data that is then fed into the work of agencies around the globe, including Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, to formulate both short and long-term modelling relied on by a range of economic sectors, including agriculture. It follows the cutting of more than 1000 NOAA jobs as part of Elon Musk's DOGE mass federal layoffs and President Trump's slashing of a significant slab of science-related research and development grants. The incoming director-general of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, one of the world's leading forecasting services, Florian Pappenberger, admitted that the combination of those moves would have global ramifications and "without a doubt" lead to a diminished reliability in forecasts for agencies around the world. "The forecast will not be as good," he said. "There's no question about that. We will lose forecast skill." The president said he wants the NASA funding to be diverted into programs to beat China back to the moon and put the first human on Mars. While far from waving the white flag in its long fight to have the idea scrapped entirely, Self Managed Super Fund Association chief executive Peter Burgess said this week that the lobby group was also urging Treasurer Jim Chalmers to defer implementing his super tax changes should the measures pass through the Senate and into law. The contentious plans include doubling the tax on the proportion of fund balances over $3 million from 15 per cent to 30pc. The two most divisive aspects of the plans, as they stand, are that the changes would apply to unrealised capital gains and, to a lesser degree, that they will not be indexed. However, while Dr Chalmers still must reintroduce the legislation, the process technically started on July 1 with Labor planning to make the bill retrospective. Addressing the contentious Division 296 legislation during his opening address at the SMSF Association's 2025 technical summit, Mr Burgess said that while the government would argue that the measure was announced two years ago, "it is completely unreasonable to expect individuals to respond to legislation before it becomes law". "The Government has previously acknowledged the need for a long lead time to allow impacted members to consider the impact and make the necessary changes to their superannuation arrangements," he said. Mr Burgess is also preparing proposed amendments to put in front of the Coalition, which remains totally against the measures. "Those amendments would seek to take unrealised capital gains off the table, which would be great for farmers and small business owners," he told ACM. "The Coalition can dig in their heels and say they don't agree with any amendments, or try and do the right thing by their heartland." Questions around consumer law are being pondered after on-road testing has revealed that some of Australia's best-selling electric vehicles failed to meet their advertised range on a single charge and consumed significantly more power than manufacturers had promised. The Australian Automobile Association released the results on Thursday after road-testing five EVs under its federally funded, $14 million Real-World Testing Program. The Chinese-manufactured BYD Atto 3 SUV performed the worst in running out of juice a stunning 111km short of its spruiked range, as well as using 21pc more power than advertised, prompting industry stakeholders to call the result "not good enough". The energy consumption tests were performed on a 93km circuit around Geelong in Victoria in damp and dry conditions. In other results, Elon Musk's Tesla's entry-level electric car, the Model 3, fell 14pc below the advertised range, or 72km, and used 6pc more power than lab testing. Next were the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6 SUVs with both falling 8pc short of promised ranges, or just over 40km, while the Smart EV 3 was 5pc below the advertised distance. The results should be a concern for a Labor government and regional Australians looking down the road at an EV-dominated future. Charging stations have been as rare as hen's teeth outside the peri-urban fringes for years and, while installations are increasing and more are being placed along major highways, their placement has been predicated on those manufacturer lab tests. It appears yet another regional and remote connectivity "blackspot" needs to be addressed. The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a $2.8 million federal funding announcement to strengthen bird flu biosecurity across captive-breeding threatened species programs - calling it a vital step in national preparedness for H5 avian influenza. The funding - delivered through the Zoo and Aquarium Association - is part of Labor's broader $100m investment to prepare and protect the nation against H5. It will be sprinkled around 23 facilities, from the Currumbin Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast to Adelaide Zoo, in a bid to protect over 20 threatened species from the virus. ISC policy director Carol Booth said the measure should be the "proactive, collaborative and science-led" blueprint for future wildlife preparedness exercises. "It's exactly the kind of forward-looking action Australia needs to prepare for wildlife emergencies before they hit,' Dr Booth said. In a major win for the nation's biosecurity efforts, it was announced last month that Australia has been officially declared free from high-pathogenicity avian influenza in poultry. The government has also confirmed that Australia remains free of the H5N1 strain, a subtype of avian influenza that remains on its doorstep and has created havoc across entire continents. The highly contagious strain has infected more than 500 wild bird species and 90 mammalian species overseas and, while these were mainly marine mammals and bird-eating scavengers, "spillover" cases have been detected in dairy cattle, cats, goats, alpacas, and pigs. A sheep was also infected after being exposed to a highly contaminated environment in the UK. Asia has been significantly impacted by the H5N1 strain with cases being reported in several countries, including multiple human fatalities linked to the virus in Cambodia notwithstanding that human infections are rare. Dr Booth added that while the funding announced by Environment Minister Murray Watt and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Friday would safeguard animals in captivity, "we now need the same level of urgency and coordination for protecting wildlife in the wild", including in high-risk areas like wetlands, seabird colonies and coastal haul-out sites for seals. In an opinion article published by ACM this week, Australia's Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar said that the clean energy transition was a big, complex, fast-moving train that has well and truly departed the station. He warned that if regional communities continue to be left on the platform as the train disappears down the track, they would also be standing in the rubble of a "disastrous trail of lost trust, unfairness, and missed economic opportunity". "Too many rural and regional communities feel like this transition is being done to them, not with them," he said. "Projects are being announced, good people are being approached by charlatans and salespeople looking for a quick sale and signature under a veil of non-disclosure secrecy. "Timelines are being set and decisions made, while locals are left feeling like bystanders in their own backyards. That's not just unfair, it's unsustainable."
