A former Australian defence official has spoken out about the political pressure she says she faced when analysing climate threats for the Department of Defence. For much of her 30-year military career, Cheryl Durrant's job involved assessing climate risk. But Ms Durrant, who worked for the Department of Defence as director of preparedness and mobilisation until February last year, said she was repeatedly told by the government not to use the term "climate change" in her work because it was "politically unacceptable".
It comes as Chris Barrie, a former Australian Defence Force (ADF) chief, has said what he sees as a "failure of leadership" has left the country ill-prepared for climate-related disasters.
He said the Black Summer bushfires exposed some of those weaknesses.
"When you work in the military, you take your risks very seriously," Retired Admiral Barrie said....MORE
