Australia’s long-lasting climate wars offer three painful lessons we shouldn’t ignore this time around.

We’ve known about the risk of floods to the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley for a long time. Yet successive state governments have failed to properly mitigate its impact. Indeed, recent urban development policies by the current NSW government will multiply the risk.

SECRET documents reveal the NSW Water Minister has ignored the warnings of department staff about proposed changes to the state's floodplain harvesting rules, which may not be compliant with the state government's own Water Management Act.

Scientists are urging major dam projects in NSW and Queensland be abandoned, warning of significant environmental and agricultural consequences.

Working with regional communities could help avoid conflicts and make current woes ‘the last energy crisis Australia ever has to face’

In the first major study of its kind, we travelled to where renewable energy is expanding in NSW to ask communities how they feel about the changes. While their outlook was generally positive, governments can do more to ensure community support for the transition.