Robert MacNeil

This paper examines the portrayal of veganism in Australia’s conservative media, focusing on The Australian, The Daily Telegraph , and The Herald Sun in the 15-year period between 2009 and 2024. Through a qualitative content analysis, it identifies three key phases in media narratives: early dismissal and mockery (2009–2016), intense cultural and political polarization (2017–2020), and simultaneous mainstreaming and persistent backlash (2021–2024). Across these phases, recurring frames shaped public perceptions of veganism, portraying it as an existential challenge to Australian cultural identity and economic stability. The analysis reveals how conservative media strategically aligned veganism with broader “culture war” narratives, reinforcing social divisions and mobilizing political allegiances. In so doing, this study contributes to understanding the political and cultural work of media framing in environmental and ethical debates, offering insights into how dietary choices can become symbolic battlegrounds in contemporary public discourse.

Australia is moving ahead with plans to develop more than 100 new coal, oil and gas projects. If completed, these developments would produce around 1.4 billion tonnes of new carbon emissions each y...

This study explored the emerging issue of eco-anxiety in climate education, focussing on how teachers in New South Wales address students’ emotional responses to learning about climate change. Through interviews with 30 primary and secondary school teachers across the state, the study investigated the range of challenges and obstacles teachers faced in managing this complex emotional terrain. Upon outlining those challenges, the article argues for a more integrated approach to climate education, proposing policies aimed at enhancing teacher training, expanding mental health resources, and revising curricula to address both scientific knowledge and emotional resilience.

After nearly a decade of policy inaction by the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Coalition governments, the election of Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has ushered in expectations of a sea-change in Australian climate policy, one that might allow the country to finally emerge as a global leader on the issue. Yet while years of inaction have left some relatively easy victories for the new government to rack up, the change of leadership and rhetoric obscures some key continuities in the Albanese government’s approach that need to be foregrounded and critiqued by domestic and international audiences alike. In this brief commentary, we consider what the new Labor government might mean for Australian climate action over the coming years. We focus, in particular, on the role that fossil fuel exports will continue to play in overwhelming any emissions cuts achieved domestically, and underscore the need for a much broader and more ambitious national climate strategy designed to wean the country off its reliance on coal and gas revenues.

This brief study investigates the subtle ways that language can be used to subconsciously shape a reader’s opinions about climate science within conservative news texts. To do so, our study employed techniques from critical discourse analysis to highlight the role of ‘journalistic voice’ and consider the granular linguistic techniques these outlets may use to subliminally validate sceptical viewpoints, while casting doubt on those espousing the consensus position. We found that certain semantic structures used in conservative climate reporting can take an otherwise apolitical analysis of climate issues, and potentially guide readers to a reactionary conclusion. Our analysis arrived at this position after undertaking a critical discourse analysis of the ways in which sceptical and non-sceptical climate ‘experts’ have been framed by Australia’s largest conservative broadsheet newspaper, News Corp’s The Australian, in the period after it changed its official position on climate to one of accepting the consensus view.