Book launch speech - ‘Right here, right now: How women can lead the way in the climate emergency’

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I want to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet tonight – the Gadigal people of the Eora nation – and pay my respects to their elders past and present. 

First Nations Australians have managed this land for 65,000 years. 

They are the world’s oldest continuous culture, and the most successful environmental custodians on earth. 

And to Natalie, on the day of your launch: my deepest congratulations. 

It’s a great achievement – and you should be very proud.  

This book is a tribute to the movement you and your team have built, with all its joy and optimism. 

I was there when you launched the group, thirteen years ago, back when I was Minister for the Status of Women.

No one could accuse you of dreaming small. 

You could have gone with one thousand women. 

You could have settled for a very respectable ten thousand women. 

But no, it had to be one million women, because that’s what the problem demanded. 

It was a daunting goal, but one thing you quickly learn with Natalie is that it doesn’t pay to doubt or underestimate her.

By 2014, the organisation had signed up 100,000 members. 

By 2019, you were holding international festivals for climate action – with sets by Midnight Oil and speeches by Jacinda Ardern. 

At the 2020 festival, you had Paul Kelly performing his new song about climate change, Sleep Australia Sleep – but he could have just as easily played an older classic, From Little Things Big Things Grow. 

Because now, after a generation of organising, of community campaigns and education programs, of conferences and rallies and mutual support, you’ve broken through the magic number. 

One million women, across your platforms, across the world, working with each other, teaching each other, motivating each other … 

… And fighting, inch by inch, conversation by conversation, to build lasting support for climate action. 

A lot of organisations begin with big plans, in a burst of energy and excitement.

But not many survive long enough to live out their mission.  

One Million Women has survived and flourished because it was founded on an essential truth. 

That women have untapped power – with our votes, with our wallets, with our ideas, with our passions, with our deep connections in the community.

And that if we could unleash this power, we could change the climate debate for good. 

This all began in May 2009. 

To put that in context:

Rove Live was the biggest show on Australian television. 

Malcolm Turnbull was going around in his first shift as leader of the Liberal Party. 

Tony Abbott was a disgruntled shadow minister. 

And Kevin Rudd’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was slowly making its way through negotiations in the federal Parliament. 

For a moment there – a brief and hopeful moment – it felt like we were about to reach a mature, bipartisan consensus around climate action in this country. 

Unfortunately, a majority in the Liberal Party room disagreed. 

And we’ve been living with the senseless wreckage of the climate wars ever since. 

I say senseless – because the climate wars don’t reflect modern Australia. 

The Australians I meet care deeply about the environment. 

It doesn’t matter if you find yourself in the city or the country; in a Northcote café or a North Queensland pub …  

 … Most Australians are sensitive to the threat of climate change. 

They want to recycle more effectively. 

They want to minimise their environmental footprint wherever they can. 

And they want governments to stop bickering – and to act sensibly in the national interest. 

After a wasted decade, Australians are tired of the climate wars.

They’re ready for a long and productive climate peace.

A period where we build Australia up into a clean energy superpower; and where we act as a global environmental leader. 

If you read this book, or spend five minutes talking with its author, you’ll know that One Million Women grew out of Natalie’s deep optimism. 

Perhaps that’s why I was drawn to the movement in the first place. 

Because I’m an optimist too. 

In public life, you either maintain your hope or you become a cynic pretty quickly. 

And in my time as a Member of Parliament, I haven’t seen a single problem solved by despair or pessimism, by cynicism or obstruction. 

There’s a beautiful quote in this book, by Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat and the driving force behind the Paris Agreement:  

Christiana says that: ‘Optimism is not soft, it’s gritty. Every day brings dark news and no end of people telling us that the world is going to hell. To take the low road is to succumb. To take the high road is to remain constant in the face of uncertainty’.

Natalie calls this ‘active optimism’. 

I love that phrase. And in my experience, it’s true. 

Action and optimism feed each other; they nourish each other. 

When we act in the world – when we gain a sense of our own power and potential – we start to feel hope. 

And when we feel hope, our ambition for future action grows too. 

And if we’re lucky enough to share this journey with others – if our actions are joined together as a movement – we discover a special alchemy. 

It’s called solidarity – and it can change the world. 

Wherever I go in this country, I see the power of active optimism.

I see it in One Million Women. 

Or should I say: I see it in 1,012,068 women, at the latest count. 

I see it in community Landcare groups – who get together to restore their local environment, with a well earned cup of tea as their only reward. 

I see it in the Indigenous Rangers – who employ their science and cultural expertise to protect and manage our land and sea.   

I see it in the Farmers for Climate Action – who use their intimacy with the Australian soil to fight for a better future.  

I see it in the millions of Australians who’ve installed solar power panels on their roof – doing their bit to reduce emissions, while pocketing a welcome saving at the same time.

These people have always been out there, caring for the landscape, loving nature, arguing for climate action.

They’ve just needed a government who has their back.

We’ve just finished the first sitting of the 47th federal parliament. 

Wasn’t it refreshing?

It’s no coincidence that this parliament, already more constructive than the last, realises many of the dreams One Million Women set down back in 2009. 

For the first time, we have a government, a Labor government, that is 52% female. 

We have a government with more diversity than ever before. 

And we have a government, after a decade of obstruction, that is determined to finally act on climate change. 

I think it’s a great shame that the Liberals and Nationals chose to deal themselves into irrelevance by voting against the climate bill. 

But the rest of the parliament came to the table in good faith – and showed what a collaborative government can achieve. 

We know that the climate bill isn’t the end of our fight. 

But I promise you: we’re here for the long haul. 

We don’t want to legislate ambition today, to only see it extinguished tomorrow. 

We want to establish the roots of climate action deep in our politics – so they’re solid and unshakeable. 

As Natalie argues in this book, this is not something to be afraid of. 

Australia can be a renewable energy superpower, with good secure jobs, while protecting our precious environment – here in the most beautiful country on earth. 

So congratulations again to Natalie – on the book you’re launching today, and on your many years of activism. 

When women work together, when we combine our energy and talent, there’s no problem so big, no challenge so daunting, that we can’t solve it together.  

Thank you. 

Book launch speech, ‘Right Here, Right Now: How women can lead the way in the climate emergency’, by Natalie Isaacs.