I grew up in a family that was the environmentally conscious, living in the Central Highlands near Hillsville, beautiful Mountainnash Forests, which air yeah, some of the most carbon dense forests in the world. As a year sixer, I didn't really know that. I just thought it was a beautiful place to live, and in year six experience the Black Saturday bushfires.
Well, there's simply no way of underestimating the fires threat Victoria is facing over the next twenty four hours.
Or so during Saturday, a gale force north wind will combined with extreme heat, and that's not a good combination in terms of fire potential. February seventh, two thousand and nine was soon to be known as Black Saturday, the day the menacing threat turned into a catastrophic event. The bushfires that toll through Victoria that day destroyed life, property, and changed forever all those who survived the fiercest firestorm
since my records began. Ketter o'donnald wasn't even get a teenager, but she remembers it all too well.
I remember the sky just being dark and deep red really with this smoke, and me and my brother are actually running around trying to catch these huge pieces of bark that were falling from the sky. They were so just smoldering, But it's strange in those moments.
What you actually end up doing.
That event would be huge, but it was the coming weeks and days afterwards where we found out that our friends had lost family members and houses and school didn't return for weeks, and you know a lot of my friends are still grieving, will forever grieve their family that they lost.
You know, that was supposed to be once.
In a lifetime event, but it was only not that long A few years later that experienced another once in a lifetime event.
It's been labeled the worst five season ever recorded, and Apocalypse a nightmare and like looking into the gates of Hell from the New South Wales's Victoria border all the way to the central coast and nine Blazers reached emergency warning level. Today, here's what we're not And.
I don't even know, feel like we stop counting them now. They're just happening all the time. But yeah, it's scary to think that that level of trauma and that level of impact on a community is just going to be so common.
Catta stopped counting these ones in a lifetime events, but they stayed with her. She has dedicated herself to raising collective consciousness on the escalating threat of climate change, first by suing the federal government and now by trying to bring attention to the issue by putting her body on the line. From Schwarts Media, I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM today climate activist catter O'Donnell and why she thinks direct action is our only option. It's Friday, July
twenty sixth, Katitt. What was your first move in trying to have an impact on climate change itself?
I guess I started because I lived in the forest.
I realized a pretty direct threat to the forest was logging that was going on in my area in the Central Highlands.
It's very big issue there.
I joined a few forest protection groups like Forest Conservation Victoria and King like Friends of the Forest, and you know, at the same time as doing activism, I was also just going about my life. I because at school, and then I finished school and I was able to get into like a law degree. And one day we had
a guest lecture in a climate law class. David Bardon came in and he was giving a lecture on the financial risks of the climate crisis, and I it was pretty inspired by him and thought that it was really incredible to see someone, you know, working in the league world that was really strategically trying to focus on how we could respond to the climate. Actually ended up volunteering for him for a few months and in that time we sort of developed the court case against the government.
Tell us about the court case, well, was at the heart of it.
The heart of it was a public interest case, It was a class action and really all it was was really trying to get the government to tell the truth about the risks of the climate crisis and say that it's going to be a risk to the economy.
The heart of it was actually government bonds.
It's a very crucial thing to the way that this country, the government operates, but it's quite unknown to a lot of people.
Our world first case is underway in the Federal Court accusing the Australian government of failing to disclose how climate change will impact the value of government bonds. The claim was filed yesterday and alleges that Australia's economy and the nation's reputation in international financial markets will be significantly affected by the adequacy of the government's response to climate change.
I guess it's just pretty clear that in that time the economy would have suffered a lot from the climate and we were just saying that the government needed to be honest and tell the truth and say that the economy was going to be interpacted and it might impact the value of people's government bonds, and that they had to write a disclosure about that.
If we surprised with the amount of publicity the case generated during the heart of COVID in particular.
I definitely didn't expect it to have so much interest, But yeah, the day we fired it was just as crazy. For a few days, there was just constant media. An Australian law student has taken the government to court over a climate change Twenty three year old Kata Or Donald says the government is deceiving. I was in the New York Times and radio and it was pretty full. And then yeah, for the next few months it just got a little attention and it made me sort of realize
that people are really concerned about this. You know, we're all realizing how much our lives are going to be impacted.
So in terms of the court case, you went to mediation and you won. How did that feel? What was mediation like when you're staring down government lawyers and negotiating with them for an outcome? How did that feel? And how did it feel to win after that?
Yeah, in ways, it felt great. It was there.
He had been three and a half years since we started the court case, so it was a huge relief for it to be over and for the outcome to be successful. But it was really conflicting because I had put so much effort into it, and in the end, it felt like the outcome was just some words on a bit of paper, not even a physical bit of favor, just on the Department of Treasuries website, And it felt like the government could just say those words and then just leave them sitting on the website and not have
to do anything about them. And it just contributed to that feeling of helplessness that you know, you could go to this level of effort, you could sue the government to tell the truth, and then the truth is out there, but we still see no action or change in behavior.
After the break kind of puts it all on the line.
It's not like you're going wanting to break the law it's just like you're going wanting to take action, and unfortunately it's a bit of a side effect that it's.
Breaking the law.
How do you sue? The government won a huge victory by any measure, but I left. You're feeling disillusioned. Can you walk me through the day you really decided to step it up.
I realized that the government wasn't being active in trying to find solutions, they were just continuing with their behavior. So yeah, I looked for groups of people that were trying to be active, like lock A Australia, which I took this action with. It was a very big day. Started off very early. I think I've recover at two thirty.
It's one of those sleeps. I wasn't really very asleep anyway, and then arrived in the dark, set it all up to the all the safety measures and yeah, and then as the sun was rising, Yeah, I just found myself in a produced, surreal position with live stream it as a bit of safety for ourselves but also so people can see what's going on. Good morning. My name's Katta, and this morning I am on a traverse which is hanging across this rail line that is blocking coal trains.
Going to the Newcastle Coldport. Wow, it's.
Because's very significant to be up here. It's very beautiful morning.
We'd called the trains and told them that there was an abstraction on the track and.
There's two train lines going in through there, and yeah, the.
Trains come about every ten minutes and they're almost a column a long full of coal. It's just being dug up all around this area. And yet going to the port of Newcastle, which is the largest coal port in the world today. And then the police arrived maybe twenty minutes later, you're arcus. Yeah, they just came and told me that I was committing offense if I didn't leave, and was I going to get down? And then suddenly like the police trying to sort out how to get
you down. So there was a few different ways they tried to get me down. They tried to bring in a terry picker. Okay, I'm just moving along my line so that the picker can't ut me. But I guess part of what I was trying to do was stay out of their way. So I actually just when they brought the terrific, I just moved along the line a little bit. And then they in a different sort of crane on the train tracks, and they ended up retentioning my line so that they could lower me down.
They're putting a lot more attention on the road.
I love a bit cautious about and when I'm moving.
Been quite sad.
When I got to the ground the police told me I was under arrest. I've never had any intervections really that much with the police before. I'd never been, never been arrested for anything. It's a very strange situation to be and here suddenly in the hands of the police, searched, asked if I had any weapons, which of course I didn't put in the back of the police car. You're just not really in control of what happens anymore. And then yet driven to a police station, put in a
little cell. That's awful there, It's awful being confronted with the violence of this system and how people are treated by the police in ways. I think I was treated pretty well, and that sort of made me feel gross because I am, you know, white blonde hair.
But I could see that it could very easily turn.
So can you tell us a little bit more about your case, how that apply it and where is it up to now?
I was charged this to offenses of trespass and obstructing a locomotive so a rail and I played guilty to both of those offenses because that's what I was doing. And yeah, so the magistrate gave me two convictions and a one thousand dollar find for the abstraction and a three hundred dollars fine for the trespass. And from what I know, it's pretty unusual to get convictions on a
first time offense, especially an offense like this. So I'm going to appeal the convictions because that's what stays on your record. And I know that an issue a lot of the time with taking action like this is that you're then stuck with legal.
Consequences for a long time.
And some other people have even been given prison sentence in the days after me for doing a similar thing. And that's really scary to know that it just depends where you are in the timeline of events, that things can change so quickly. It's awful to see that happen to people who you know are just trying to do the same.
Thing as you know a better. The most direct action can be incredibly divisive. Even though supportive of climate change off and rail against the inconvenience it can involve. Does public dedition couple with an often hostile media environment undermine the action you want governments and society as a whole to take to address climate change.
Yeah, it's really chicky idealistically, just wish it wasn't such a divisive issue, because we really all should be united on wanting to respond to the climate crisis. But it's really hard at the moment because it is people that often work in the industry that we're saying is causing so much damage. That's fair enough that people get angry, and I just think that our responsor that shouldn't be
that we start doing our work. I think it should be that we're supporting workers and the industry to transition away from what's currently happening.
Would you be prepared to do it again?
I really don't want to.
It was a big day and the legal consequences just add up and the consequences get worse. But yeah, if I thought that it was going to be productive and make progress for the climate, then I would do it.
Cutter O'Donnell, thank you for your time.
Thank you, it's great to speak.
Also in the news, Minister for Indigenous Australians. Linda Bernie has announced her retirement from politics at the next election. An emotional press conference yesterday, Bernie said it was time for her to pass the baton and while the Voice referendum didn't turn out as hoped, she thinks history will treat it kindly. Bernie became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the House of Representatives in twenty sixteen, and in twenty twenty two became the first Aboriginal woman
to serve as Minister for Indigenous Australians. Skills and Training. Minister Brendan O'Connor also announced he will be resigning at the next election as Prime Minister Albanesi e as a cabinet reshuffle and Rupert Murdoch has secretly been trying to hand control of his media empire to his eldest son, Lachlan. Legal documents seen by The New York Times show that Rupert has mounted a legal case to change the terms of the family trust, which currently splits his children's inheritance
of the companies evenly between the siblings. Lochlan Murdoch became chair of News Corporation and Fox Corporation last November after Rupert announced his retirement. He scene is more ideologically right wing than his siblings, James and Elizabeth, and recently oversaw a restructure of the company's Australian newspaper holdings, which led to mass redundancies. Seven Am as a day show from Schwartz Media on the Saturday paper. If you like what you hear, we will love you to share it with
a friend. Seven Am is hosted by Ruby Jones and me Daniel James. Is produced by Kara Jensen McKinnon, Shane Anderson, Sultan Fetcho and Zaia Altangra. Our senior producer is Chris Dangate. Our technical producer is Adigus Bastow. Sarah mcvee is a head of audio. Eric Jensen is our editor in chief. Mixing by Travis Evans, Attigus Bastow and Zultan Fetcho. Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio. I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM. See you next week.