It is difficult to characterise in a single phrase the devastation that the plausible evidence presented in this proceeding forecasts for the Children. As Australian adults know their country, Australia will be lost and the World as we know it gone as well. The physical environment will be harsher, far more extreme and devastatingly brutal when angry. As for the human experience – quality of life, opportunities to partake in nature’s treasures, the capacity to grow and prosper – all will be greatly diminished. Lives will be cut short. Trauma will be far more common and good health harder to hold and maintain. None of this will be the fault of nature itself. It will largely be inflicted by the inaction of this generation of adults, in what might fairly be described as the greatest inter-generational injustice ever inflicted by one generation of humans upon the next. [Sharma v Minister for the Environment]

Justice Mordecai Bromberg

"I'm going to be reinstated as president and become Speaker of the House" is all the proof you need that the family of raccoons living inside Donald Trump's head have completely chewed through the wires.

Jeff Tiedrich

Scott Morrison couldn't lead a dog on a leash. He's a follower. He waits for someone else to do and say something, and if it looks like it might be a goer, he rides on their coat tails; then he calls press conferences to big note himself and take the credit.

G. Dixon

An ex-conservative friend of mine told me a story about a conversation she had with someone who remained much more active in the conservative movement. The active conservative had raged about “liberal elites” until finally my friend could stand it no longer: “You went to law school. Why aren’t you an elite?” The active conservative paused, reflected, and then answered, “Well, what do you want me to call the people I hate?”

David Frum

Australia is being left behind by the rest of the world on this, you know, all of the other major markets, Europe, the UK, the US, we’re seeing transitions in India and China, everyone is starting to move towards a renewable future because that’s where the jobs are, that’s where the money is, and it makes market sense. Every single big company or investor who has pulled out of fossil fuel hasn’t done it out of the goodness of their heart, they’ve done it because there’s no money in it any more. We know that, but in Australia, we’re just stuck in this quagmire of having the same argument we were having ten years ago, where we just live in this imaginary world where fossil fuels are going to continue forever and it doesn’t matter what we do because, you know, we’re not going to have that much impact on what’s happening in terms of the temperature rising across the world. And it’s just absolute balderdash, it’s not a reality we can afford to live in any more, but neither of our political parties, our major ones, are brave enough to tell people that.

Amy Remeikis

There is little doubt that if this Coalition Government had been in power when it was discovered that the Earth was a sphere, it would have held on to the flat Earth theory, fervently ridiculing all evidence to the contrary. This is because, in all likelihood, it would already have invested in exorbitantly priced tours to find the ends of the planet and then provided tax breaks for the shonky tour operators. [The Independent Australia, May 20, 2021]

Michelle Pini

The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world.

Jimmy Carter

When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals.

Edward Snowden

When Morrison says "social media is undermining society", what he really means is social media is undermining him. It exposes his lies. It fact checks him in real time. It highlights his myriad of deficiencies. It's not "misuse". It's a public service.

Aaron Dodd

Australia’s current state of climate action falls within two categories. The first is thimbles of cash poured into whichever technology has a zero percent probability of impacting the revenue streams of fossil fuel operations, at least not prior to the retirement age of current executives and politicians. That’s fossil hydrogen and CCS [Carbon Capture and Storage]. The second category is also a dense bush of confusion and misdirection. It involves twisting the numbers tracking and targeting climate action to artificially manufacture emissions reductions where there are none.

Ketan Joshi