The significance of the new Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen inviting NSW Fire and Rescue’s former chief, Greg Mullins, to address his first media conference alongside other members of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action cannot be overstated.

In 2013, the very first act of the Coalition government’s new environment minister, Greg Hunt, was to disband the Climate Commission, which had been created to provide expert advice to government on the climate crisis.

So dismayed were some sacked members of the group at the government’s wilful disengagement that they raised private funds and created the Climate Council from the bones of the old commission.

The council has since become one of the nation’s leading climate advocacy groups and a key source of reliable data and commentary on the issue. One of its projects was to form the Emergency Leaders group to inform the public and the government of the rising physical danger to Australians posed by climate change.

Months before the Black Summer bushfires began in 2019, the group wrote to then prime minister Scott Morrison warning of an impending catastrophe and asking for a meeting. Morrison declined.

Within days of Labor’s victory, Mullins was surprised to receive a call from Bowen’s office, inviting him to a meeting on Thursday. He says the tone was engaged and committed. They discussed key problems across the sector.

At the media conference afterwards, Bowen said he was honoured to have the leaders there and welcomed their advice.

Mullins confirmed that his group believed the government’s 43 per cent carbon emissions reduction target was inadequate, while Bowen restated that it was the goal that Labor had secured a mandate to pursue. Mullins said he was relieved to be working co-operatively with government.