Labor Senator Says Australia Has 3rd Highest Rate of ‘Climate Denialism’ in the World

A Labor senator says Australians are “drowning” in counter-narratives against climate change ideology and has asked the media watchdog to track the root cause.

Labor Senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah, the deputy chair of the Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy, is part of a government effort to tackle misinformation and disinformation online.

“It’s also interesting that in one of the submissions, I think from one of the universities, Australia has the third highest rate in the world of climate denialism,” the senator said during an inquiry.

“[The] number one is the United States. We’re number three. So we are drowning in counter-narratives that are pushing our population in the wrong direction.”

Ananda-Rajah extrapolated her conclusion from a 2022 research study (pdf) into media consumption habits by the University of Canberra. It showed that 8 percent of Australian respondents in 2020 did not take climate change “serious at all.”

In 2022, the survey found this increased to 9 percent of respondents, with another 10 percent saying climate change was “not very serious”—the next tier down.

In its 2020 results, the portion of Australian climate change “deniers” was more than double the global average of 3 percent.

Among the 40 countries surveyed, only the United States (12 percent) and Sweden (9 percent) were ahead in terms of the proportion of deniers.

In comparison, the 2020 survey also found 58 percent of Australian respondents (those that considered climate change a ‘very serious’ or ‘extremely serious’) sat below the global average of 69 percent.

The senator asked representatives from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) what online trends were driving climate counter-narratives.

In response, Rochelle Zurnamer, an ACMA executive manager, said the agency did not monitor narratives online.

“The ACMA’s focus is very much on processes and procedures that platforms engage in order to identify and address mis- and disinformation,” she said.

“So we don’t generally monitor narratives about particular topics, for example, climate misinformation.

“The code [of practice on disinformation and misinformation] would cover climate misinformation, but we don’t monitor those individual narratives.”

Senator Wants Platforms to Track and Map Counter-Narrative Sources

As the inquiry progressed, Ananda-Rajah asked the ACMA whether it was aware that social media platforms had the ability to trace the origins of counter-narratives.

Zurnamer responded that she did not have that information, and that the agency had not asked social media companies whether able to do so.

The Labor senator then requested ACMA cooperate with social media platforms to look into the issue.

“If you could ask them that would be useful, if you could take that on notice and produce a response to us from the platforms, with respect to have they traced back, with respect to these counter narratives, to the source, and can they give us a map of the source,” she said.

“The sources, with respect to these counter narratives, there won’t be a single source. It may be multiple, and it may be interconnected.

“We need some transparency on this, beyond the reports that they’re producing to you.”

Zurnamer stated that she would take the request on notice.

Labor’s Attempt to Crack Down on Misinformation

Ananda-Rajah’s request comes as the Labor government pushes for stronger action against misinformation and disinformation online.

In September 2024, Labor introduced legislation to combat misinformation, which would grant ACMA the power to hold social media companies to account for content on their platforms.

If passed, the bill would allow the agency to make rules and standards, issue remedial directions, impose fines, and hand out formal warnings.

It later drew significant public concern, with politicians, media experts, and technology companies voicing concerns about its impact on free speech.

Eventually, the legislation was blocked in the Senate by the Liberal-National Coalition and the Greens, leaving Labor with no choice but to withdraw it.